Slide background photos in v3.3.3

[newforestal]

I have to regularly create presentations with 60 odd slides in. I use photos as the backgrounds to the slides. I would have a number of slides with the same photo background and then change to a new photo.

In previous versions of OO Impress this all worked fine. When I upgraded to v3.3.3 it all went wrong. I could set up the whole presentation and use the photos as before but when I saved, closed and reopened the presentation all the photos in the slide backgrounds would be replaced by one of the photos. It did not seem to matter in what order I set up the slides or what photos I used. It became so difficult to use I went back to the previous version. This works fine for the photos but I have now lost the use of the Presenter Console add on as the version I have does not work with the previous OO version.

Can anyone suggest what I may be doing wrong with the slide backgrounds or how I can get the Presenter Console for the previous version.

I am running OO on top of Vista (not sure which flavour) and previous versions have worked fine.

[Zizi64]

Hi,

Is there 3.3.3 stable version?

[acknak]

It's hard to say much without knowing details of how you're adding the backgrounds or a sample presentation to test.

[RoryOF]

I think you might need to use Master Pages, each Master using a different slide as background.

[newforestal]

To set a photo in the background I use the right mouse click and then Slide>Set Background Picture For Slide. This opens a selection dialogue box where I can locate the required photo. Upon selecting the photo I get a dialogue asking if this should be set as the background setting for all slides to which I always answer no.

I was not aware you could have more than 1 master slide. If I can work out how to do that I might try that.

I cannot attach a sample presentation as they are bigger than 2MB.

If anyone needs any more information or has any other ideas I could sure use some help. I would prefer to go to v3.3.3 as it has many useful features that 3.2 does not have.

[acknak]

Ok; thanks. I've not noticed a problem using that method, but Impress does seem to have more than it's fair share of glitches.

I'd still like to see a sample, if possible. You can chop opne of yours down to just a few slides and see if it still shows the same problem; if it does, either attach it here, or use one of the free file-sharing sites (mediafire, rapidshare, etc.). You can use the "Upload Attachment" link (below the message entry area after you click "POST REPLY"). [Forum] How to attach a document here

Edit: PS:

Hmm, I think I see what you mean: even though I answer "no" to the "Change background for all slides", the background image changes for all slides.

Is that the problem you're seeing?

[newforestal]

Well after some experimenting I managed to get the slide master way of working to set the background for each set of slides. This worked very well although I have a few requests for future improvements. After saving the file and exiting Impress when I reopen the presentation all the masters have been reset to the picture on the first slide master. This happens every time.

I finally returned to inserting a photo on each slide individually. Not the best way to do it but at least it worked and allows me to use the v3.3.3 features I do like such as the change case feature.

I tried to get a slide show which would load but even with only 1 slide it seemed to be too big so cannot sort out what to do. I tried zipping it as well but did not seem to get much improvement.

Improvements to master slide setting (apart from making it work reliably) would be to make it possible to add a slide design to a number of selected slides at the same time. At present this only sets the first slide. In fact there are a number of features which would be improved by making it applicable to a selected set of slides.

[acknak]

Yeah, I would have to agree. After playing around for a few minutes, the master slide handling in 3.3 is nearly unusable. I had more than one situation where selecting a different master slide instantly applied to all slides, not only the selected slide.

I don't remember having so much trouble with it in previous versions, but I don't do a lot of presentations.

[B Marcelly]

Hi,
First there is no version 3.3.3 of OpenOffice.org and there never will be. The latest official version is 3.3.0, this is displayed by menu Help > About.

Impress user interface is probably the worst designed and the most complex user interface of OpenOffice.org. You should read the Wiki Guide pages explaining the Slide Masters and how to use them.

I made some tests, with a simple presentation of 4 slides and it works.
Basically you have to :

1. Display the Slide Master view : menu View > Master > Slide Master
2. Insert the Slide Masters in your presentation and if needed, adapt them, rename them.
3. Close the Master View toolbar to return to normal slide editing mode
4. Select some slides, then apply one Slide Master to them. This is done by a right-click on this Slide Master in the Task pane and choose Apply to Selected Slides.
5. Select other slides, apply another Slide Master

[acknak]

Select some slides, then apply one Slide Master to them. This is done by a right-click on this Slide Master in the Task pane and choose Apply to Selected Slides.

Hmm... I was applying masters from the Master Pages panel by just a left click. Maybe the right-click operation is more dependable?

It should be easy enough to work up a recipe to reproduce it--it happened several times just as I was playing around.

I also found a situation where changing the background for one master slide (in the master view) changed the background for all masters. There seems to be some problem with restricting operations to only the selected slide.

[acknak]

Ohh--Oops.

I see now: left-click on a master slide always applies the master to all slides; you have to use right-click, "Apply to selected slides" to restrict it.

Good grief what an awful interface. Copied directly from Powerpoint, no doubt

Sorry for any confusion due to my blundering.

[intltrvlr]

I too have had this problem since the most recent upgrade. For me, it doesn't matter which "new" image I select as my background, the program seems to "remember" an image I used in a different presentation, and uses that image.

[dominicb]

I have exactly the same problem and I invested some time to find a workaround. Unfortunately wit OOo 3.3.0 using different backgrounds in master slides is not possible. The only solution I finally found is switching to Libre Office 3.5.2..