"Locking" Slide Master Items in PowerPoint 2007

[undisclosed]

In the GOOD powerpoint (I mean, 2003) when you put a footer or othe
item on a slide master, you could not then edit it from the individua
slides. If I insert a picture on a slide master, when I go back to th
slides I cannot accidentally move or delete it. However, I have a date
slide number, and footer, and I am constantly accidentally selecting i
when I'm trying to select other text or objects on the slides

Is there any way to "lock" these items so they cannot be accidentall
moved when not in slide master????

 

[LVTravel]

in message

In the GOOD powerpoint (I mean, 2003) when you put a footer or other
item on a slide master, you could not then edit it from the individual
slides. If I insert a picture on a slide master, when I go back to the
slides I cannot accidentally move or delete it. However, I have a date,
slide number, and footer, and I am constantly accidentally selecting it
when I'm trying to select other text or objects on the slides.

Is there any way to "lock" these items so they cannot be accidentally
moved when not in slide master?????

If you are in fact putting items on the slide master and then going back to
normal view, creating a slide using that master and then can move items or
modify items on the individual slide that is coming from the master slide
something is definitely wrong with your PowerPoint 2007 installation. I
just spend 15 minutes trying to duplicate your issue but could not.
Anything I placed on any of the multiple slide masters and then created
blank slides using those masters showed the information on the created
slides but I could not move or modify them.

I suspect that you are not, in fact, using slide masters but creating what
you think is a Master slide using the default slide that shows when first
starting the program and duplicating the slide. To get to Master Slides you
need to click View then on the left side of the ribbon, Slide Master.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

in message


If you are in fact putting items on the slide master and then going back to
normal view, creating a slide using that master and then can move items or
modify items on the individual slide that is coming from the master slide
something is definitely wrong with your PowerPoint 2007 installation.

Yep. It's called "Bad design". MS did naughty things to the poor puppy.

I
just spend 15 minutes trying to duplicate your issue but could not.
Anything I placed on any of the multiple slide masters and then created
blank slides using those masters showed the information on the created
slides but I could not move or modify them.

This problem only occurs with headers/footers. Other objects/shapes inserted
on the masters work as you'd expect.

Make sure headers and footers are enabled on the master then in normal view,
INSERT tab, TEXT group, choose Header & Footer. Put check marks next to some
of them then click Apply to All.

Now you can click and select/edit/delete/move the headers/footers on your
individual slides.

 

[undisclosed]

Thank you both for responding... allow me to offer some clarification...

If you are in fact putting items on the slide master and then going back to
normal view, creating a slide using that master and then can move items or
modify items on the individual slide that is coming from the master slide
something is definitely wrong with your PowerPoint 2007 installation.

Yep. It's called "Bad design". MS did naughty things to the poor puppy.

Hossdaddy says... Yep. I am creating slides using a slide master and
can then move/modify/delete items on the individual slides - very
annoying - but as is clarified below, this only happens with footer
items (footer, date/time, slide number). If I, for instance, paste a
picture on the slide master then go to normal view, I cannot select, let
alone move or edit the picture from the slide master. I have always been
a huge fan of the slide master and one of the few people I know who
actually uses it to simplify slide creation, which is why this "feature"
is so annoying.

I
just spend 15 minutes trying to duplicate your issue but could not.
Anything I placed on any of the multiple slide masters and then created
blank slides using those masters showed the information on the created
slides but I could not move or modify them.

This problem only occurs with headers/footers. Other objects/shapes
inserted
on the masters work as you'd expect.

Hossdaddy says... yes, this is true for me it's the footer elements. I
should have clarified that in the original post. I want to basically
make those footer elements a "background image"...

AHA! Epiphany!! If I enter the footer on the Slide Master, then Cut and
Paste the footer as a "Microsoft Office Graphic Object" I can still edit
the text in the Slide Master, but when I go back to Normal view, I can
no longer select it (i.e., it works like all other graphics). Not the
optimal solution, but certainly a manageable workaround...

Thanks for inspiring a workable solution!


Make sure headers and footers are enabled on the master then in normal
view,
INSERT tab, TEXT group, choose Header & Footer. Put check marks next to
some
of them then click Apply to All.

Now you can click and select/edit/delete/move the headers/footers on
your
individual slides.

Hossdaddy says... unfortunately, the ability to select/edit/delete/move
the headers/footers is the problem I was trying to solve, because I keep
accidentally selecting them when working with other text boxes and
graphics in normal view (but I think my epiphany above gives me a
workable solution). Thanks!

 

[LVTravel]

in message

Thank you both for responding... allow me to offer some clarification...


Yep. It's called "Bad design". MS did naughty things to the poor puppy.

Hossdaddy says... Yep. I am creating slides using a slide master and
can then move/modify/delete items on the individual slides - very
annoying - but as is clarified below, this only happens with footer
items (footer, date/time, slide number). If I, for instance, paste a
picture on the slide master then go to normal view, I cannot select, let
alone move or edit the picture from the slide master. I have always been
a huge fan of the slide master and one of the few people I know who
actually uses it to simplify slide creation, which is why this "feature"
is so annoying.


This problem only occurs with headers/footers. Other objects/shapes
inserted
on the masters work as you'd expect.

Hossdaddy says... yes, this is true for me it's the footer elements. I
should have clarified that in the original post. I want to basically
make those footer elements a "background image"...

AHA! Epiphany!! If I enter the footer on the Slide Master, then Cut and
Paste the footer as a "Microsoft Office Graphic Object" I can still edit
the text in the Slide Master, but when I go back to Normal view, I can
no longer select it (i.e., it works like all other graphics). Not the
optimal solution, but certainly a manageable workaround...

Thanks for inspiring a workable solution!


Make sure headers and footers are enabled on the master then in normal
view,
INSERT tab, TEXT group, choose Header & Footer. Put check marks next to
some
of them then click Apply to All.

Now you can click and select/edit/delete/move the headers/footers on
your
individual slides.

Hossdaddy says... unfortunately, the ability to select/edit/delete/move
the headers/footers is the problem I was trying to solve, because I keep
accidentally selecting them when working with other text boxes and
graphics in normal view (but I think my epiphany above gives me a
workable solution). Thanks!

How about putting the "moveable" items on the slide master after all the
slides have been created! Seems like an easy workaround.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

How about putting the "moveable" items on the slide master after all the
slides have been created! Seems like an easy workaround.

When I was creating slides instead of code for clients, "after all the
slides have been created" was often concurrent with "the time the meeting's
scheduled to begin". Sometimes after ...

IOW, in some situations, you never quite know when you're done editing and
it's safe to let the footers out of their cage.

It's a nuisance having to worry about accidentally selecting/moving footers.
The tighter the deadline, the heavier the dread. ;-)

The Epiphany Solution leaves one less thing to worry about.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hossdaddy says... yes, this is true for me it's the footer elements. I
should have clarified that in the original post. I want to basically
make those footer elements a "background image"...

AHA! Epiphany!! If I enter the footer on the Slide Master, then Cut and
Paste the footer as a "Microsoft Office Graphic Object" I can still edit
the text in the Slide Master, but when I go back to Normal view, I can
no longer select it (i.e., it works like all other graphics). Not the
optimal solution, but certainly a manageable workaround...

Bingo. You could also simply add a text box to the master and put your
footer text in that rather than using the supplied footer placeholder.

And 2007 does give you some added flexibility here ... you can put the
master items on the main master slide, in which case they'll appear on all
the slide layouts and on any slides based on those layouts, OR you can put
the items on just some of the slide layouts; in that case the items will
appear only on slides based on those specific designs.

Pretty neat, really.

Thanks for inspiring a workable solution!

My pleasure.