Forum Discussion
How to locate where a Master slide layout is used in a course.
I have a course that contains nearly 300 slides. I am trying to consolidate or delete some of the Master Slide Layouts. When I am in the “View Master Slide” menu and roll over some of the layouts, the pop-up text shows me how many slides use that particular Layout. From the thumbnail in Story View is was easy to locate most of the slides using a given layout. However, one layout still says that it is used on one slide in the course. I don't want to delete that layout for fear that one of my slides will suddenly loose that content but I won't know where. Is there any way to determine where in the course each layout is used? It is exhausting to go into Story View and right click each of the 300 slides to learn which layout is applied to that slide.
Save you searching:
I had the same problem Solution was to put a big red blob on the master slide (as suggested by others) and then export your story to MS Word. You can then quickly scroll though your slides in Word and identify the culprit slide(s) quite quickly, by slide number as well.
Hi Brian
Check my solution (5 years ago) in this response chain. It is not the tidiest solution but does work!
In the slide master view, it would be nice to know which layout is use on which slides. When a SL file has been touched by many designers over the life of a course, there could be large number of different slide masters and feedback masters.
Add different coloured shapes to the master slide layouts then view the file in StoryView and you will see what uses what.
Alternatively right click on a slide and select 'apply layout' and you'll see what master it is using
Thanks, Jen & Francois! 2 years later, your solution saved me a ton of time!
Thanks very much for the solution you offered, Jen!
When I did a search again for this issue today, I came upon your post, as well as the one below laying out the same method. This problem has vexed me for a couple of years! What a relief to know how to correct it.
https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/removing-unwanted-slide-masters-in-storyline-360-draw-from-question-bank-default-format-issuelink not working
Hello Diane!
It looks like that discussion was deleted. Can you share more specifically what you're running into, and we can point you to an updated resource?
I was having this issue today, where I could not locate 3 slides used by a second Master slide set (which I wanted to delete). I figured out what Jen is saying about the Draw slide. In Storyline 360, from the Story View, select a "Draw from" slide. From the Home menu, select Apply Layout and it will show you which Master slide is currently selected. Sure enough, my 3 "Draw from" slides where making use of that second Master. Once re-assigned, I am now able to finally delete that second Master slide set. Thanks Jen.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - Francois!!
Hi Jen
I was looking in Storyline 360, and I don't see where a draw from question bank slide has a layout option. I took a quick screenshot of that here. The individual question slides within the question bank can all have their own slide master layout.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're running into, but I'd love to take a look at your .story file to see how it's working.
Chris: Agree, it would be a logical extension (but not provided in SL3). Trace Precedents / Dependents throughout the application would be great. Another example, check dependents before deleting a slide.
I had the same problem Solution was to put a big red blob on the master slide (as suggested by others) and then export your story to MS Word. You can then quickly scroll though your slides in Word and identify the culprit slide(s) quite quickly, by slide number as well.
It's still a workaround though. I'm assuming that Storyline 3 builds on the codebase of Storyline 2 (and that 360 shares a lot of code too). Since v2 can tell the number of slides that are using a master, I'd have thought that it would be a logical extension to be able to retrieve their ID too.
My S360 trial has long expired and I'm reluctant to install the S3 trial until I've a few questions banked. I'm hoping that somebody who has the software can enlighten me.
Doug, that is a great suggestion. It really is a shame that one has to go through such contortions just to find where your masters are being used but this is the best suggestion I've seen so far for dealing with it. Thanks for contributing.
Do Storyline 3 or 360 provide better tools for locating where slide masters are used?
