Dropping master slides onto content slides causes strange lock

I'm having a Keynote problem that I haven't encountered before. Basically, after creating a new master slide and trying to drop it onto a content slide, Keynote locks my ability to work with the content slides at all.
Odd thing of this is, editing masters still works fine. But the scroll bar for the content slides becomes a decoration, and clicking on the content slides does nothing. The keynote still 'plays', and I can get to content slides this way but can't change them.
This is a very sudden behaviour that I've never seen before. I'd appreciate any ideas on whats happening with this. This is a new Keynote install due to a machine rebuild, so a preference setting may be the cause, or something less obvious.
Feedback very much appreciated - I'm under the time gun, as it were.
Jim

Turns out that this was an update issue. I should have spotted that one right away.
Problem solved, and thanks!

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Master Slide will Not unlock

Master Slide will Not unlock, I need to edit a bullet point style and I cant seem to edit it.
I can see the master slide and when I goto arrange unlock, it is all greyed out.
I tried to select different pages in the master select and it still does not work.
any suggestions?
What am I doing wrong?

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. The Master Slides are not locked, per se, although certain elements within the Master might be. The Arrange and Format menus are context sensitive.
Try this:
Open the Master Navigator (slide the navigator view down with the handle at the top (looks like two parallel lines) to expose the Master Slides.
Select the Master Slide you wish to modify and select a line of bulleted text then Text Inspector > Bullets > select the bullet style you want.
Return to normal editing (close the Master Slide navigator) and create a new slide and then select the modified bulleted master from the toolbar pull down menu.
I think you will find that the bullet has changed to your new style. It works for me.
Good Luck.

Master slide "light box"

So my search continues...I need an app that will go through my HD and put all of my 1000's of Keynote slides individually (from ALL of my presentations) in one catalog or "light box." In this way, I can organize them and put together new talks quickly by simply selecting slides and dragging them to a new presentation. Any ideas?
Thanks!

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. The Master Slides are not locked, per se, although certain elements within the Master might be. The Arrange and Format menus are context sensitive.
Try this:
Open the Master Navigator (slide the navigator view down with the handle at the top (looks like two parallel lines) to expose the Master Slides.
Select the Master Slide you wish to modify and select a line of bulleted text then Text Inspector > Bullets > select the bullet style you want.
Return to normal editing (close the Master Slide navigator) and create a new slide and then select the modified bulleted master from the toolbar pull down menu.
I think you will find that the bullet has changed to your new style. It works for me.
Good Luck.

Master Slide issue - drag and drop alt slide over theme slide

Keynote on my MacPro: Where before on the previous version I could in Master Slides drag and drop an alternative look over a theme slide to change that slide only and no affecting the entire presentation which was most useful, now that seems no longer an option unless there's something I can't find to do that. When viewing Master Slides now you cannot see the presentation you're working on. Previously I would set up several slides with different looks and where needed drop that look over a slide and it would override the theme slide without all slides being affected. Qny thought guys? Barry

Although I have been answering quite a lot of questions about Drag&Drop functionality (not a widget), you are the first to mention such problems. Personally I never had problems, only when not respecting the design of the interaction or doing something stupid. If you are the only user to have such experience (at least for what I hear in these forums and on social media), I don't see why an upgrade should be expected? Did you log the problem? Are you sure that the project is not corrupted?
The jigsaw learning interaction is pretty simple, also limited, don't know what are your problems there?
Are you sure that all objects used in the D&D (drag sources and drop targets) are visible in output. It is a bit confusing in CP8 because the eye icon is used both for visible in output for objects in Properties panel, and for showing the links in D&D in the D&D panel. Can you see the links? Did you avoid overlapping of objects? Did you not rename an object after creating the D&D interaction, because that will break the link from/to that object? I mentioned this in my last article: Drag&Drop tips - Captivate blog
I am just trying to find out what is going wrong, bit curious about this rare case.

Is it possible to float Master Slide objects above all slide content?

I would like to have text on my master slide to always show above content on each individual slides?
I just started using Keynote, so I'm kind of a beginner, although I've know how to do this in something like inDesign. Obviously Keynote is not a design layout app, but it should at least have some of these basic features, especially since it seems it would be easy to implement.
Thanks in advance to all the Keynote pros out there.

Ah! I didn't see when you originally posted, but, no, there's no way to have Master slide object in "front" of the other stuff. I even tried it with a media placeholder and still, no-go. Be sure to send your feature request to Apple by way of this page.
Apple - Keynote - Feedback

Adobe Captivate 6 Content master slide order changes when used

Hi,
I'm using Captivate 6 to create a template. I made a content master slide with a specific order.
But when i insert this content master slide, the object order changes.
Is this normal? And is there a (simple) way to fix this?
Thanks in advance

Thanks for your repy,
the exact version is captivate 6.0.1.240
This is the content master slide i made:
This is what happens when i insert the slide:
I'm experiencing the same problem when i insert the slide on a blank project.

Can I create slides automatically using a master slide with text placeholders if I have a database of the content?

I'm using Keynote, and I have a presentation that is over 100 slides all identical to the master slide. There are several placeholder text elements, and I have a database of all the text elements.
Is there any way to do a "merge" to create the slides automatically using the master slide template?

Sure, you can build in and out as many text boxes as you like -- just add a new text box, put in the text, and set the build for it. Do be aware, however, that the timing you get will not be very precise.
If you specifically want to present song lyrics synched to audio, you might find that there are better alternatives than Keynote. Brian Peat, who contributes here regularly, has a comprehensive list of song presentation software. This list may have a better option for you.

Master Slides - Need alternate solution.

I am an Apple Keynote/Aperture user who desires to create multi-image slides using a grid in which individual photos are deposited into cells like picture frames - sort of like a school yearbook layout. I have experimented with creating master slides using "Tables" and "Shapes" within Keynote, but find that they have limitations:
1. Using shapes in Master Slides, it is extremely difficult to get equal-sized borders between images using the "align" and "distribute" functions, particularly so if the cells are different sizes. As you are aware, these functions only operate on a horizontal or vertical basis. Is there a function that would automatically align all the cells on a slide in both dimensions?
2. With Tables, I cannot zoom or re-orient the image other than "fit" or "fill".
I would like to have a variety of various "grids" stored and available for use again and again. I am guessing that some software manufacturer makes a variety of template type grids - like the type graphic artists must use - that can be employed within the Apple system. If these do exist it would make my job a lot simpler. So my question is: On what computer user's forum should I raise this question?
Thanks for your time and I would appreciate any thoughts you might have.
Kent Loudon
Message was edited by: Old Photog

Old Photog wrote:
1. If I click "create a new master slide", Keynote duplicates the nearest master in the list. Is there a way to start out with a blank master?
No. As you say, creating a new master slide always just duplicates the currently selected master
2. I dragged some images from Finder into media
placeholders in a new slide. Later when I came back to Keynote I found the images had been replaced with a grey background, outline "X" and question mark. What happened?
Keynote doesn't treat images the way it treats audio and video i.e. images are always copied into the presentation, whereas with audio and video you have a choice to simply link to them. You wouldn't see the 'broken' image holders if you, say, dropped some images into a presentation and then moved/deleted the original images in the Finder. Keynote would be using the local copies it made of the images, and would have no dependency on the originals.
The only way I could duplicate this was to actually view the package contents of the presentation and manually delete the local copies of images that Keynote had stored. When I did that to a presentation and then opened it, I did indeed see the grey boxes with question marks that you describe.
Can you describe in more detail what you did between placing the images and then "coming back to Keynote" to find that the images had broken. Was it really just a case of closing the file, and then opening it again?
3. What is the proper way to select a master slide when creating a new slideshow slide?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. Are you talking about the best way to choose which master slide is applied to a new slide that you create in a presentation?
Similar to creating a new master slide, you don't really have much control over which master is used. Keynote will use the master of whichever slide you have selected when you add the new slide.
After that you can do one of 3 things to choose which master is applied to the slide:
1. Choose one from the Masters button on the toolbar
2. Drag a master from *Master Slide* area in the slide viewer onto the newly created slide in the Slides area
3. In the Slide tab of the inspector, under Appearance choose a master from the list of thumbnails
Message was edited by: maddoguk69

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Hi,
Would anyone be able to tell me if there is a way to replace master slides with different shapes, such as a rectangle with rounded corners? I'm using Captivate 7.
Thanks in advance,
Darrell.

This is not on a Master slide, but you can create rounded corners on the borders of your project. Go to Project > Table of Contents or Skin Editor > click the square icon underneath the Skin - that will take you to the borders. Then you can check the Show Borders > Style, click the drop down and select Rounded corners. You'd probably want to make sure you have all four edges selected.

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Hello Keynote Geeks!
I am counting on your expertise to help me with this challenge.
This is what happened:
1) I had a design company to create a personalized presentation template for my production company.
2) Whenever I try to use this template Keynote keeps insisting on only allowing me to edit master slides. Even after I added them to the presentation. This creates a dumb workflow in which I have to be duplicating master slides, editing them in the edit master slide menu and then adding them back to my presentation.
I recorded a 2 minutes screen flow video demonstrating the issue. Please watch it on this Vimeo link:
https://vimeo.com/124934712
I will be incredibly thankful to anyone that gives me a smart solution to optimize our presentation edit workflow.
Cheers from Brazil,
JP Jacobsen

A "geek" means a clumsy fool, I would never call anyone this.
You are not using the correct method to edit items on a slide. Double clicking an object on a slide that is on the slide master allows editing the master object, it does not allow editing the object on the slide.
The correct procedure is:
add a new silide based on a slide master of your choise
to add a photo to the slide;   use a Finder window to drag and drop a file onto the image place holder
to add new text to a slide; click on the text placeholder once, then type in the new text
This assumes the master slide was created correctly by using media and text Placeholders.
To add a text placeholder to a master slide: add a text box to the master then change the font, size and colour
select the text box then:     Format > Advanced > Define as text placeholder
To add a Media Placeholder to a master slide: drag and drop any image file of the correct format (vertical or horizontal) on to the master
select the photo then:     Format > Advanced > Define as Media placeholder
close the master slide by clicking the blue Done button bottom right

Smart Builds on master slides?

I'm trying to build a "portfolio" template where i can create case studies out of a master slide template. Some of these case studies have many images in them, and Smart Builds are the PERFECT tool for cycling through them on a single slide.
However, when i place a Smart Build on a master slide, its contents are not accessible in the slide show itself.
This seems like a really odd oversight to me, since one of the most useful ways to use Smart Builds is on master slides. Unless, of course, i'm missing something and it is actually possible to use Smart Builds in this way.

Just took a peek at Smart Builds and now I'm wondering how editable they are (ie are they based on .qtz files). Anyway, you can workaround masking on smart build objects by masking them first, copying, pasting into Pages, copying from there, then pasting back into the Drop Zone (click to highlight it, then paste). It should work directly in Keynote, but, hey, that's why we love Keynote!
I posted about the problem here.
http://www.keynoteuser.com/news/?p=240

What good are Master Slides if...

I can not edit them on the main timeline? I create a captivate template and use master slides with place holders. Then create a new project from the template and I can not edit the master slide with place holders. Right now all I can see using a master slide for is my background objects that are the same on every slide.
I was hoping that I was goign to be able to use master slides with my subject matter expert. That way all he had to do was pick a Master for a slide then type the info in the place holder. But that does not work. So I am back to using regular slides with place holders.
The whole concept of being able to add place holders to a masterslide seems strange to me if you can not edit them on the main timeline.

Hi folks
Indeed things get a bit muddy with the Master Slides concept and placeholders. I think this is further exacerbated with the whole concept of the panels.
In Captivate 4, when you created a Project Template and it had placeholders, you double-clicked the placeholder and a dialog popped up that you interacted with to configure the content. In Captivate 5 it appears that double-clicking the placeholder just tends to focus the properties panel for the objkect. And because the panels are so similar, it's quite often difficult to discern that anything changed. As a result, you may not think the template is working.
I agree that it seems counterintuitive to have an ability to insert a placeholder into a Master Slide, then apparently prevent access to edit the placeholder unless you are editing the Master Slide. What would seem more intuitive to me is that if placeholders were used in a Master Slide, they would be transferred to any new slides created using Insert > New Slide. I stand to be corrected on this, but I believe that's how PowerPoint works. So it would make sense if Captivate worked in a similar fashion as folks are generally already accustomed to working the way PowerPoint does.
For anyone reading this thread that would like to see changes made, please consider submitting a Wish Form and advise Adobe as to how you would like to see the behavior change. Don't be fooled into thinking that submitting a Wish Form is just a way to make you feel you have had your say. Adobe does see these. And if they see enough asking for the same feature or reporting the same issue, the Feature or Issue gains much higher priority.
Link to the Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form is in my sig.
Cheers... Rick
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Master Slide Builds Bug? Fix?

USing Keynote 3.0.1 on 10.4.5
When I create a new Theme by creating new master slides with builds built into them I encounter a problem.
On one of my Master Slides (Title & Bullets) I have a title box, an object (Line) and a bullet text box.
I have set the Title to build automatically after transition, then I have set the Object (Line) to build automatically after the first build (Title).
I have then set the bullet box to build the first bnullet automatically after the Object and each bullet on click after that.
This has all been set at the Master Slide level.
When I apply that master slide to a slide within my presentation, the build order changes. The Object builds first instead of the Title. To get the correct order I have to re-apply the master to the particular slide.
This causes much confusion when I distribute the theme to my colleagues who are not as computer litererate as myself.
Is this a known bug? Is there a fix for it?
Thanks in advance

it won't keep the new format when pasting the text box on other slides.
Why are are you pasting the page number on to other slides when the master slide will place the slide number on all slides correctly formatted? There is no reason to do that.

Master slide for MCQ not taking

I modified the Master Slide for "MCQ, T/F, FIB, Sequence" but when I insert a Multiple Choice question, the slide does not include any of the modifications I made to the Master Slide. Am I missing something or is this a bug? Thanks for any insight into this.

Hi, thanks for replying so quickly. I only modified positioning, fonts, and colors. Did not delete anything. One strange thing I noticed is that the mobile slide is perfectly fine. The desktop and tablet views are the ones not accepting the changes to the Master. It's making the font and color changes but the positioning is not working correctly.
Here are screenshots of the Master and Filmstrip of the desktop view. Thanks for any insight.
MASTER SLIDE
FILMSTRIP (I highlighted the slide selector on the right to show that I'm using Sequence, not Sequence2)

Master Slide Body

Is there any way of placing two body boxes in a master slide?

I'm not sure this is the solution. By making a second text box (assuming the first one present it because the "body" item is checked in the Master Slide inspector), you're not making a duplicate "body" style text box with the same attributes (font, size, bullet style, etc.). Yes, you can customize the second, added text box to look like the "body" text box, declare it as a text placeholder as you mention, and return to the regular slide. Now you have the dummy text in the second text box ALWAYS present while the first, "body" text box has the "click to change" text and would be hidden if the slide where placed in slideshow mode with no user text added. At the same time, however, the second text box you created in the master would show the default text you entered in the master, that is, it would NOT be hidden in the slideshow. So, if this second (or more) manually added text boxes, declared as text placeholders, are added to the master slide, be sure you truly use them in your original slides based on that master or your dummy text will appear in your slideshow.
Wow, long comment...but I too am trying to learn why I can't add many "body" style text boxes to the master slide. Unfortunately, PowerPoint 2008 for Mac has Keynote beat with its multi-content style layout element. I'd love to leave PP behind and go all Apple, but I can't without this feature equally and easily available in Keynote. Maybe v.5.0.3? Or at the very latest, the version is iWork `10.

Dropping master slides onto content slides causes strange lock

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