Custom Shows


Content within a single presentation often needs to be presented to a number of different audiences. Think about Jane's final message table. She has some messages everyone involved in the project needs to hear, so it makes sense to put them in a single file. There are also some messages only certain audiences need. The slides for these messages should be in the same file as the main presentation, but Jane only wants to show them to some of the audiences.

Jane's solution is to create one file with all of the content, but several Custom Shows. A custom show is a subset of the slides in the file, which can be re-ordered and re-used as desired for multiple purposes.

Let's look at an actual example from Jane's main presentation. She has created a series of slides to cover the message "Where are the volunteers coming from?". The following slides have been created:

  • Title Slide

  • 3 content slides discussing organizations helping to acquire volunteers

  • 3 content slides discussing a media campaign to find volunteers from the general community

  • 3 content slides discussing a campaign with the school district to target high school students who need community service hours

Jane isn't going to show all 10 slides in all presentations, but she wants the information to be available if questions are raised. Jane could put the slides in the middle of the presentation as hidden slides.

However, she found out there is an easier way: Place the slides at the end of the presentation, create a custom show containing only these slides, and link to the custom show.

Create A Custom Show

Custom shows are created using Slide Show Custom Show. Accessing this menu brings up a blank Custom Shows window. Click the New button to bring up the Define Custom Show window (Figure 3-39).

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Figure 3-39: Define Custom Show Window

The default name for any custom show is Custom Show followed by a number. Since this is not a very descriptive way to identify the shows, it is always a good idea to change this name . In this case, Jane changes it to "Finding Volunteers."

Down the left side of the window, there is a list of the titles for each slide in the presentation. For a slide to be in the custom show, its title must show in the right side of the window. To add it to the show, either double-click on the name or highlight the name and click the Add >> button. You can multi-select slides by using the shift key or the control key while clicking on slides.

If a slide is accidentally moved to the custom show list, it can be removed by highlighting the title in the right column and clicking the Remove button.

Now that Jane's basic list for a custom show has been created, click OK to save the show. This returns focus to the Custom Shows window, but now the created custom show appears in the list.

Notice there are now two active buttons at the bottom of the window instead of one. In addition to the Close button, there is now a Show button. This new button allows the user to run the custom show. This is a useful feature when testing out more complex custom shows.

Accessing The Custom Show

Custom shows can be run in many ways. The file containing the show can run directly from the Custom Show window. It can be set up to run when the main file is running by setting the Set Up Show options. Finally, the custom show can be accessed via a link from within either the file that contains it or another file.

The simplest way to run a custom show is to open the file, go to Slide Show Custom Show, select the show and click the Show button. The show runs and returns to the normal view when complete.

If this custom show is always used when the file is run, it is better to set up the show to always run this custom show. To do this, go to Slide Show Custom Show. Click the radio button for Custom show. The first custom show created appears as the default show. If this is not the desired show, use the dropdown to find the correct one.

Most often, custom shows are set up to be accessed thru a hyperlink or action setting from within the file or from another file. The basic process for creating a hyperlink to a custom show is to select the item to be clicked and link it to the show. The details for creating hyperlinks are covered in Chapter 9.

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Tip 19: Access Custom custom shows seamlessly

To access your custom show smoothly, set up a hyperlink or action setting to the show. When you select the custom show for hyperlinking, be sure to check the box Show and return. This closes the custom show when it is complete and returns focus automatically to the main presentation.

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Other Uses For Custom Shows

There are many other uses for custom shows. Three you will find yourself using most frequently are:

  • Use a custom show to hide detail slides when presenting summary information. The information is still available for access via the right-click menu, but can be easily skipped if not required.

  • Insert the same slide into the show multiple times. Because custom shows do not actually move slides around, but instead link to copies of the slide, the same slide can be shown multiple times. This is especially useful if you need to refer back to information during a presentation.

  • To make accessing hidden slides easier, create custom shows with the hidden content and link to the custom show instead of to the first hidden slide.




Kathy Jacobs On PowerPoint
Kathy Jacobs On PowerPoint
ISBN: 972425861
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 166

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