I’m a huge fan of development tools that save time, increase productivity, and help my projects look great. (Really, who isn’t a fan of that?) During our hands-on Articulate 360 training, we explore how slide masters check all those efficiency boxes! A question that’s often asked is: “How can I quickly see which slides use a particular layout?” Great question! Let’s take a closer look!
Slide masters allow you to create layout templates that can be quickly applied to multiple slides at once. They’re not just convenient, but by integrating consistency in design across the course, slide masters also enhance the professional look of your e-Learning.
When it comes to organizing slide masters, you can navigate to View | Slide Master and hover your mouse over the masters to determine how many slides are using that layout. But this feature doesn’t identify the specific slides that are using it. So, let’s take things a step further to quickly determine which slide masters are being used on which slide.
This is a quick and easy technique we share with students that works like a charm!
1. In Storyline, select View | Slide Master and navigate to a slide master layout.
2. Next, select Insert | Shape and draw a large shape that covers the whole slide. Under the Drawing Tools | Format | Shape Fill tab, change the fill color of the shape.
Tip: Select a color not otherwise used within your course for easy locating.
3. Select Close Master View in the Slide Master toolbar.
Now back in Story View, when you scroll through the slides in your project, it’s apparent which ones are using the layout in question. These slides are now easily identifiable by the large, bright shape you drew over the associated master slide! Pretty nifty, huh?
Additional Tips
It’s important to note that layers, including question feedback layers, have a separate Feedback Master. Select View | Feedback Master to access these layouts.
Also, consider deleting duplicate and unused slide masters. Extra master slides can be a by-product of importing slides from other projects that may no longer be in use. These can contribute to increasing the size of your project.
Continue mastering slide masters over at “The Rapid E-Learning Blog” by Tom Kuhlmann: In a new blog post, Tom teaches you the ways of the Content Library 360 template creators with a technique for taking charge of the theme colors in your course.
We hope these tips help you organize your projects and work more efficiently, giving you more time to focus on development and making your courses the best they can be!
~Tara
This was truly helpful! THANK YOU!
Glad to hear it, Sylvia, thanks! We love these little tricks.
Very thorough & clear!
Thanks!
Thank you, Anita! We’re so happy to hear that!
Hi, I’m a presentation designer and I can’t figure out why the master slides have stopped showing me if they are in use or not.
The hover won’t bring up the info and I don’t know how else to get it. Or to fix that.
Hi, Tiffany! Thanks for reaching out! Since it sounds like you may be experiencing a technical issue with the software, we’ll recommend speaking directly with our partners over at Articulate. You can reach Articulate’s software support team at articulate.com/support/contact
Nice work around. Thank you!
Sure thing!!!
Lifesaver! Thank you!
We’re so glad! Happy developing, Mindy!
Yup, one used to be able to just hover over the slide layout in Theme Builder but now that’s gone. This is a great solution.
Really glad you found it helpful! Happy Articulating, Aaron!
THIS IS BRILLIANT!
April/May 2024, and Microsoft managed to once again break PowerPoint for Mac by not showing which slides use a certain layout when hovering over it in the Slide Master sidebar. It became impossible to figure out what to clean up in order to delete a layout or theme. This trick works like a charm!!!
We think YOU are brilliant! So glad this was helpful and thanks for letting us know because now we are smiling ear to ear! 🙂