Organizing Presentations

We assume at this point that you've created a presentation file using the information starting on page 638, and now want to modify the slide order, and insert new ones.

To get your slides and headings in the right order, Impress provides you with several tools. Each one has a different set of capabilities, though there are some overlaps.

• Right-clicking the slide tab in Drawing view

• The Presentation menu, shown in Figure 26-2 (choose View > Toolbars > Presentation, or click the Presentation Box On/Off icon on the right of the object bar)

  Figure 26-2. Presentation menu

  

• Outline master view

• Slide master view

• Navigator

• Insert menu (lets you insert a presentation in your current one)

You can also use the summary slide generator to document the slide order once you're done (see Creating a Summary Slide on page 678).

Renaming a Slide

In Drawing view, use either method:

• Right-click the slide tab, choose Rename Slide, then type the new name .

• In the Presentation menu, click Modify Slide Layout, then enter a new name in the Modify Slide window.

Deleting a Slide

Use either of the following methods :

• In Drawing view, right-click the slide tab and choose Delete Slide.

• In Slide view, right-click the slide tab and choose Delete Slide.

Rearranging Slides

When you rearrange the order of slides in a presentation you'll be presenting on a computer, you'll need to reassign the transition effects between slides. Refer to Applying Slide Transition Effects on page 720 for more information.

Slide View

In Slide view, you can quickly rearrange slide order. If you want to move subpoints from one slide to another, refer to the following section, which describes the process in Outline view. However, moving slides in Slide view is simpler and less error-prone .

Refer to Using Master Views on page 653 if you want more information about Slide view.

1. Switch to Slide view.

2. Select the slide you want to move.

3. Drag the slide to where you want the slide to be; a thick black bar will appear where the slide will be positioned when you release the mouse. Figure 26-3 illustrates this.

   Figure 26-3. Moving a slide in Slide view

   

Outline View

You can move a part of your presentation to a new location by dragging its heading to a different place in the outline, or by using the Move Up and Move Down icons in the object bar .

The advantage of using Outline view is, among other factors, that you can view just the text of each heading, as well as viewing or hiding subpoints (the text within each slide).

See Using Master Views on page 653 if you want more information about Outline view.

If you're repositioning a slide heading, its subpoints will be moved, as well. (It's possible to insert a heading in the middle of a slide, though, separating heading and bulletsthough this might not be what you want.) Graphics remain with the original slide heading.

Dragging

1. Switch to Outline view.

2. Choose to show all text within the presentation, or only level 1 (slide headings), using the icons on the toolbar.

   

3. Select the slide icon for the a slide heading, or select a subpoint.

   The pointer won't change to a positioning pointer; it will still look like an insertion pointer, like one you'd use to type text.

   

4. Drag the item to its new location.

   A thin gray line indicates where the item will be repositioned when you release the mouse (below the line it will appear after).

Note

If you're showing all levels of the presentation, be careful not to accidentally reposition a slide heading in the middle of another slide. You'll get illogical, if amusing, topic mixes .

Using the Object Bar

1. Switch to Outline view.

2. Choose to show all text within the presentation, or only level 1 (slide headings), using the icons on the toolbar.

   

3. Select the slide heading or subpoint you want to move.

4. Click Move Up or Move Down until the item is in the desired location.

   

Inserting a New Empty Slide

You can add a slide at a specific spot in your presentation in several ways; we'll cover two here.

When you add a slide, it is added with a specific layout . The layout is the structure of the slide: this can include features such as default area for a heading and text, a blank chart with text bullets above it, etc. Depending on how you add the slide, a default will be used, or you can select the one you want.

Note

Impress uses the term "layout" frequently and inconsistently. A layout, or slide layout, is the structure of one slide. A presentation layout (see Presentation Backgrounds on page 700) is the background for an entire presentation.

Quickly Adding a Slide

1. Select the slide that you want the new slide to appear immediately after.

   

2. Click the blank area to the right of the last slide.

   

   The new slide will be added after the selected slide, and will have the same slide layout and background.

Adding a Slide and Selecting the Layout

1. Move to Drawing view.

2. Select the slide that you want the new slide to appear immediately after.

3. Do one of the following:

   • Click the Insert Slide option in the Presentation menu.

   • Right-click the tab of the current slide and choose Insert.

   • Click the Insert icon on the toolbar and display the Insert tearoff menu, then click the Insert Slide icon.

4. Enter the slide name and select the slide layout you want, and click OK (Figure 26-4 on page 672). The slide will have the same background as the slide right before it.

   Figure 26-4. Setting new slide attributes

   

Note

We strongly recommend that you select the layout in Figure 26-4 that most closely matches the content you're going to add. A lot of default formatting, which makes it easier to add text, comes with the preset layouts. Unless you're just going to import an object and have no text, there isn't much reason to use the completely unformatted layout in the upper left corner.

For instance, if you're a PowerPoint user , you're used to being able to press the Tab key to indent a bulleted item to the next line. This won't happen unless you choose a layout that contains bulleted items.

Selecting a Slide Layout for a New or Existing Slide

This is very similar to adding a new slide. Review the precautions at the beginning of Inserting a New Empty Slide , then follow these steps.

1. Move to Drawing view.

2. Select the tab of the slide whose layout you want to change.

3. Click the Modify Slide Layout option in the Presentation menu.

4. Select the slide layout you want, then click OK.

Specifying Slide Orientation and Margins

Selecting the slide layout takes care of most of the slide options. However, you can use the Page Setup window to specify other aspects, including slide orientation (portrait or landscape). The options you set here are not slide-specific; they affect the entire file.

For more information on page setup, see Figure 7-42 on page 234.

1. Choose Format > Page.

2. Set page margins and orientation as shown in Figure 26-5, then click OK.

   Figure 26-5. Setting slide margins and orientation

   

3. Slide layouts are designed for portrait orientation, so if necessary, switch to Background view and adjust the text frames of the heading and body to fit the new dimensions.

Inserting Existing Slides from Impress or Draw

Draw and Impress are both based on slides as the basic component of the file, so adding a slide from another presentation or a graphic in an existing Draw file creates a new slide in your presentation. The slides will keep the background and styles from the documents where they are now; they won't get the background and styles of the presentation you insert them in.

Inserting Slides Using the Navigator

You can insert a Draw graphic or a Impress slide from any open presentation or drawing document.

1. Move to Drawing view.

2. Be sure the document you want to copy from (source) and the one you want to copy to (target) are open.

3. Choose Edit > Navigator (Figure 26-6).

   Figure 26-6. Inserting a slide using the Navigator

   

4. The slides in the current presentation are displayed. Double-click to move to the one you want in front of the slide you'll insert.

5. If you want to copy from another document, select it from the list at the bottom of the Navigator.

6. Select the slide you want to insert.

7. Click the Drag Mode icon and be sure the Insert as copy option is selected.

8. Drag the selected slide to the work area of the current slide.

9. Enter a new name if you're prompted to.

Inserting Slides Using the Insert File Feature

You can insert Draw and Impress files, which will be created as separate slides to the right of the current slide.

For information on inserting HTML and text files into a selected slide, see Adding Charts, Pictures, and Objects on page 695.

1. Click the Insert icon on the toolbar at the left of the work area, and display the Insert tearoff menu. Click the Insert File icon.

2. Select the file you want.

3. The file will be listed in the Insert Slides/Objects window (Figure 26-7).

   Figure 26-7. Inserting slides from Draw or Impress files

   

   If the file has more than one slide, select the whole file, or click the + icon and select only the slide or slides you want. Click OK.

Inserting All the Slides in Another Presentation

1. Move to Drawing view.

2. Move to the slide that's right before where you want the presentation to be inserted.

3. Choose Insert > File.

4. Select the presentation you want, then click OK.

Copying and Duplicating Slides

The goals achieved by copying and duplicating are, of course, the same. Impress provides several ways to do this.

Copying a Slide From Any Presentation in Slide View

You can copy a slide from the current presentation or another one, and paste it into the location you select.

1. Move to Slide view.

2. Select the slide you want to copy.

3. Choose Edit > Copy.

4. Move to the location where you want to paste it.

   The slide will be inserted to the right of the selected slide.

5. Choose Edit > Paste.

Duplicating a Slide in the Same Presentation in Drawing View

The new slide will be added immediately after the duplicated slide, and named "Slide n +1." (if you select the fifth slide and duplicate it, the duplicated one will be named "Slide 6").

1. Move to Drawing view.

2. Select the tab of the slide to duplicate.

3. Display the Presentation menu.

4. Click Duplicate Slide.

Promoting and Demoting Subpoints

Promoting subpoints (the bulleted items in each slide) is similar to the expand function on the Presentation menu, which lets you automatically create a new slide for each subpoint in a slide. Refer to Expanding: Creating a Slide for Each Subpoint on page 677 if you'd rather use that feature.

Demoting a slide heading to a subpoint will delete all the items in the slide and any objects. Promote subpoints before you demote the slide heading they're under. Also, note that corresponding graphics are not preserved or moved when you delete a slide.

1. Switch to Outline view.

2. Choose to show all text within the presentation, or only level 1 (slide headings), using the icons on the toolbar.

   

3. Select the slide heading or subpoint you want to change.

4. Click the Promote or Demote icon until the item is at the desired level.

   If you're demoting a slide heading to a subpoint, click Yes to delete the slide and its contents.

Expanding: Creating a Slide for Each Subpoint

You can generate new slides based on the topics, or subpoints , in an existing one. This is useful if you find you're trying to cover too much in one slide. For instance, you might have a slide titled "Tourist Destinations of North Dakota" with five bulleted subpoints, then realize that this is far too big a topic to cover in one slide. Expanding the Tourist Destinations slide would delete it and create five new slides, one for each subpoint.

When you expand a slide, the expanded slide is deleted, and one new slide is created for every paragraph you've applied Outline 1 style to. Outline 1 is a presentation style, listed in the Stylist (Format > Stylist) and defined in the Style Catalog (Format > Styles > Catalog). The slides must contain two or more Outline 1 elements to activate the Expand option.

If you want to keep the main slide and expand it into multiple slides, duplicate it first. Also, note that graphics in the expanded slide are not preserved or moved with the subpoints.

1. Move to Drawing view, Outline view, or Slide view.

2. Select the slide to expand.

3. Duplicate it, if you don't want to delete it.

4. Click Expand Slide.

5. Click Yes to delete the expanded slide, when prompted.

The new slides will appear after (to the right of) where the expanded slide was.

Showing and Hiding Slides

You can temporarily hide a slide, without deleting it.

Note

If you often need to hide and show slides to customize presentations for different audiences, refer to Creating Custom Presentations on page 722.

1. Move to Slide view.

2. Right-click the slide and choose Show/Hide Slide.

   You also can click the Show/Hide icon on the object bar.

   

3. A hidden slide is indicated by a shadow behind its name (Figure 26-8).

   Figure 26-8. Hidden slide

   

Showing and Hiding Subpoints

You can hide all bulleted items, or subpoints, at or below a particular level, using outline view. The subpoints will always be printed; there's no way to control printing hidden subpoints.

1. Click the Outline icon to go to outline view, or choose View > Master View > Outline View. Outline view is shown in Figure 26-9 on page 679.

   Figure 26-9. Hiding subpoints

   

2. To hide all subpoints, click the First Level icon on the left side of the window.

3. To hide specified levels of subpoints, put your cursor at the lowest hierarchical level you want displayed . Click the Hide Subpoints icon. There must be bullet points below the selected level, or the Hide Subpoints icon won't be active.

Creating a Summary Slide

A summary slide functions as a table of contents of your slide titles. It's inserted at the end of your presentation.

You can't update a summary slide if you rearrange slides; you can only delete the existing one and create a new one.

1. Move to Drawing view.

2. Select the tab of the first slide in your presentation that you want included in the summary slide.

3. Choose Insert > Summary Slide.