Placeholder Master

Question

Hi ,

we have created a master with many layouts and are facing problems which I cannot resolve.

I have created various layouts in my master using different placeholders. Each slide starts on the top left side with a number e.g. 1 followed by a second text placeholder for the title/heading. Under that I have added for instance text or content placholders.

When I try to apply my master to a blank presentation (but with text in the blank presentation) on some slides the content has been moved into the right placeholders and on some it hasn´t. I see for instance my bullet points in the small number placeholder I have created on the top left corner instead of the placeholder below that. I noticed that it makes a difference in the outline view how my placeholders are numbered. So you see for instance:

The number 1 than the icon of a slide followed by the title.

In the line below that, I see little boxes with number 1, 2 or 3 for each of the placeholders I have inserted. On some slides my numbering for the top left hand corner is in the little box 2 and on others in box 1. I believe that here is my problem. I need to get the order of these placeholders in a special way, so that PowerPoint can put the content in the right placeholders when the layout changes.

If I compare two slides, considering that both slides start with the number on the top left side followed by the second text placeholder but once with a text placeholder and another with a content placeholder underneath I see the following order in the outline view:

1 - Slide icon - Heading 1

[1] 01

[2] Text

2 - Slide icon - Heading 2

[2] Text

[2] 01

I need to move on slide 1 the placeholder [1] 01 to the second position like on Slide 2. I have created both slides in the same order, yet, PowerPoint creates its own order. But I want to have a proper master set-up in order to avoid the problems I have mentioned above.

Any ideas? By the way, is there a "best practice" how to set-up a master in order to have as less problems as possible when users mix slides from other presentations? I know how to set-up a master and don´t need instructions how to do that but more tips and tricks how to set-up a master so that we do not run into other technical problems when working with other masters.

Be grateful for any information on that.

Kind regards,

Nicole

Answer 1

Since this doesn't appear to be documented anywhere else that I could find, I have done some testing and thought I would pass along my findings.

1. The Basics
   • When using a Content Placeholder, depending on which icon the user clicks, the slide will store each Placeholder as a Text PH (shape), Picture PH, Media PH, etc., which I confirmed by looking in the XML file.
   • As you noted, Rich, PowerPoint does seem to fill Text PHs with Text, Picture PHs with Pictures, etc.  If I have a slide based on a layout with 3 Picture and 3 Text [P1, P2, P3, T1, T2, T3] and change to a Layout with 3 Text and 3 Pictures, they fill as I'd hoped [T1, T2, T3, P1, P2, P3].
2. Where It Gets Interesting
   • Based on my testing, PowerPoint fills the Content PHs in the idx order of theprevious Layout. So if I have a layout with index order P1, P2, P3, T1, T2, T3, and I change to a layout with 6 Content PHs, it will keep everything in the same order. If I start with a slide with index order T1, P1, T2, P2, T3, P3, then that's what will show up in the 6 Content PH Layout.
   • However, if one takes this same slide [P1, P2, P3, T1, T2, T3] and changes to a layout with only 2 Picture PHs and 2 Text PHs, it fills in those 4 as expected and the other two become "floaters" somewhat haphazardly placed on the slide. **These floaters ALL get the idx="4294967295" and in the XML they get rearranged to list the Text entities first,**no matter what the order was on the previous Layout's XML. This also happens if one changes to a blank Layout; they all become "floaters" and get that same idx.
   • If I take the original slide [P1, P2, P3, T1, T2, T3] which has been changed to a "blank" Layout (with 6 floaters) and now choose a layout with TTTPPP or PPPTTT, they all fill as expected--Text to Text and Pictures to Pictures in the idx order of the previous layout. And if I change the now-"blank" slide to 6 Content PHs, it gives the same result.

EXCEPT:

A) [P1, P2, P3, T1, T2, T3] -> Blank Layout -> PPPTTT Layout = [P1, P2, P3, T1, T2, T3]

B) [P1, P2, P3, T1, T2, T3] -> Blank -> PPPTTT-> Undo (back to Blank) -> PPPTTT = [P3, P2, P1, T3, T2, T1]

If an Undo takes you back to a situation where PHs become "floaters" then if a different Layout is selected, PowerPoint fills the "floater" PHs in reverse order!

As you might guess, it took me a long time to finally figure out what was triggering the inconsistencies.

I hope somebody finds this helpful.

Answer 2

Hi Kurtis

That's a nice summary of what has been presented in earlier posts to this thread,  except that you missed this important point:

"Not only do you have to ensure that the idx of each placeholder is in the order that you want them to be populated (i.e. idx=1 will be populated first, idx=2 second, etc.), but you also have to make sure they are all "Content Placeholders"

Otherwise the order of filling can be partially dictated by the type of place holder and the content (beit text or images, etc.).

Cheers

Rich

Answer 3

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your reply.

Sure I can share (see: http://sdrv.ms/ZeRgaT). I have removed logo etc.

See slide two and three in the outline view. I have already entered information. As you can see on slide two, the number 1 is on the first place while on slide 3 the number shows on the second place. That wouldn´t bother me only that when we mix with other presentations (e.g. a presentation without a master only text using the standard layouts see:http://sdrv.ms/ZeRgaT ) you will see that the text will be placed in the little placeholder on the left hand corner (see: http://sdrv.ms/UJVJiK slide 2).

This drives me mad as I see future complains when users are using our master.

Any ideas?

Regards,

Nicole

Answer 4

1. If you could share that file, we'd be able to figure out the exact issue.
2. See these vids -

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-a-powerpoint-slide-master.html 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeARCgoWcocwww.youtube.com/watch?v=S5j2zdeLS-A