[Solved] Master slide not applying to all slides?

[TrickNick]

Hey guys,

I just exported a Writer doc to Impress. It created separate slides as I wanted, but each slide has the text running off the top of the page (the header box is positioned at the top, not in the center.)

I tried to change the master slide so that the header text area is in the center of the slide, but when I applied it to all the slides, nothing changed.

Could you help me to center my slides (I can't do it manually, because there's 350 of them in this document!)

[acknak]

I just exported a Writer doc to Impress.

Just so we're all talking about the same thing, what steps did you use to do that?

Edit: PS:

Using File > Send > Outline to Presentation maps "Heading 1" paragaphs to slide titles, and moving the title layout area on the master slide applies automatically to all slides except the first--that is, all slides that use the "Title, Content" slide layout. The first slide uses the "Title Slide" layout, which is not affected by changes to the master layout, for some reason.

[TrickNick]

I just exported a Writer doc to Impress.

Just so we're all talking about the same thing, what steps did you use to do that?

OK, like this:

1. I turned all my text into header 1 format (so it exports each paragraph into a separate slide)
2. File > Send > Autoabstract to Presentation

I tried the different send to options, but this seems to be the only one that produces the separate slides as intended.

Thanks!

Nick

[acknak]

Ok, so all the slides except the first should follow the text placement configured on the master slide.

Is that not what you're seeing?

Do you really want every paragraph on a separate slide? If so, it's going to be messy because the title layout area always centers the text, so your paragraph-long "titles" are likely to grow off the top. You could re-arrange the title area on the master to take up the whole slide... oh, wait, I see. Now that I tried that, the master only seems to apply to the first slide. I can work around that by selecting all the slides, applying a different layout, then switching back to the "Title, Content" slide layout. Then all the slides have the layout I set on the master.

[TrickNick]

Ok, so all the slides except the first should follow the text placement configured on the master slide.

Is that not what you're seeing?

Do you really want every paragraph on a separate slide? If so, it's going to be messy because the title layout area always centers the text, so your paragraph-long "titles" are likely to grow off the top. You could re-arrange the title area on the master to take up the whole slide... oh, wait, I see. Now that I tried that, the master only seems to apply to the first slide. I can work around that by selecting all the slides, applying a different layout, then switching back to the "Title, Content" slide layout. Then all the slides have the layout I set on the master.

Hmm, not sure I understand.

When I select all the slides, how do I apply a new layout to them all? Do you right click > slide layout? If so, when I click slide layout, it doens't do anything. All I can do is select slide design, then when I select the master (with the centered Header title box required) it doesn't apply to the slides.

I can't work out where I'm going wrong?!

[acknak]

Make sure you have the task panel open: View > Task Pane: YES (checked)

Select the "Layouts" tab on the Task Pane.

You can change the layout used for the current slide by clicking on any layout sample shown in the Task Pane > Layouts tab.

You can change the layout for any number of slides by first selecting the slides in the Slide Pane, then clicking on a layout sample. You can select all slides by first clicking on a slide in the Slide Pane, then Ctrl+A.

It seems that a modifed layout in the master slide only takes effect when a layout is applied, so you have to select all the slides and change their layout to get the master layout to take effect on all slides.

Here's what the whole process looks like (as I see it):

1) Select all text in the Writer document; apply "Heading 1" style
2) File > Send > Outline to Presentation
3) View > Normal (slide edit view)
4) View > Master > Slide Master
5) Modify the master layout: drag the bottom center handle of the title layout area down, so that the title area covers the whole slide.
6) Close master view
7) Click on a slide in the Slide Pane (left side panel); Ctrl+A to select all slides
8) Apply a slide layout by clicking a layout sample in the Task Pane > Layout tab (right side panel). Any layout seems to work--they all use the title element--but "Title Only" seems like a logical choice.

[TrickNick]

BINGO!

The problem was I had the Task Pane hidden, and even when turned on, it was slid across to the right hand side (the window was minimized to the right, so it wasn't showing up.)

Then what I did, was I selected the TITLE ONLY layout from the presets, and used the same Master layout with the centered Title box. Then right clicking, applied the layout design to all slides after I had selected all the slides in Normal view.

So basically, the problem was that the previous layout was trying to make space for paragraph/body text below the header box, which was causing my header text to get pushed off the top of the page.

So simple, yet so hard to find that out alone! Thanks so much for your help, I was lost without ya!

Regards,

Nick