Slide Styles / Caption Styles integration

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Slide Styles / Caption Styles integration

Postby jonP » Thu Oct 28, 2010 1:01 pm

I'm trying to make standardized title slides across multiple shows in a project and I've run into an issue which is very likely my lack of understanding between the features of slide and caption styles.

My primary goal is to have all of my title slides contain a common image used as a greyscale intensity mask on all of them with 2 different captions on each using a different font-size for each which so far I'm close to doing. The secondary goal which is troubling me is to be able to apply this easily to a few shows that are already created with non-standardized captions for a cleanup of these shows.

I created a slide that contains exactly what I want them to look like with keyframing used to display everything as desired. Next I saved this (with the fixed image marked non-replaceable) as a slide style. When I apply this style to an existing 2-caption slide the image and formatting of everything is correct however the caption text is always overwritten by the captions contained in the style. I know I can use a caption style to change an existing title slide's captions to look and keyframe correcly however then I would need to apply the mask image separately.

So the basic question is... Is there some easy way I've missed to combine all of these features into one style so the slide style's captions are simply empty containers to use whatever captions are already in the slide? I tried erasing the text from the master image used to create the slide style but that just clears all the caption text when I apply the style. It would really speed things up if can figure out a way to to leave the existing text and just apply the style data and not the embedded caption text, eliminating the need to retype all my captions.

Thanks in advance to all
Jon

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Re: Slide Styles / Caption Styles integration

Postby cherub » Thu Oct 28, 2010 7:27 pm

Hi Jon,

There is a difference between Slide Styles and Caption Styles.
From your description above, I can see that what you are actually doing is simply trying to apply two SLIDE styles, one after the other. This cannot be done.
All the styles that you see in your styles list are slide styles, and not caption styles, even if they contain captions.
The fact that a slide style has captions in it does not make it a caption style.

The caption styles are something else: They are located in the Captions Setting menu > Styles. (look for the button !)
But these captions styles include only the basic features of a caption (appearance and positioning) and do not include keyframes. However, they can do a bit of what you want: applying a certain style to an already existing text.

From what you wrote, I understand that the caption that you want to use includes keyframes, and a background and that you created a slide style for this.
What you can do now is to COMBINE your already existing slide with another slide that contains the slide style with the caption. In other words, don't apply one slide style after the other to the same slide, but rather combine two slides.

Here is how:
Insert an empty slide BEFORE your normal slide. Apply the slide style that you created to this empty slide.
In the timeline, select your two slides and right click. This will open a new menu. From this menu choose "Combine Slides".
This will create one single slide, that has everything in it.
Now, you can replace the text that is already there, with the one that you want.

If you already have some captions in your original slide, then simply copy and paste that text to the formatted text that comes from the style, and then delete the old caption.

Hope this helps.

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Re: Slide Styles / Caption Styles integration

Postby jonP » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:51 pm

Mona,

Thanks so much for this solution. Using your steps of applying the slide to a new blank slide and then merging the two slides together followed by a cut and paste of the titles worked well. This will easily triple my pace of doing the remaining conversions of the other shows. It may not be as simple as if there was a flag to treat the captions within a style as placeholders (conceptually similar to the image layer placeholders vs. fixed images in the style) but it sure beats retyping and potentially misspelling the text on numerous slides.

Of course the other big lesson I've learned from this project is that time spent up front designing the master image for the titles before actually putting any in the show is time well spent.

I can't thank you enough for this idea as I doubt I would ever have thought of doing it this way. As I've come across numerous other helpful procedures you've posted here it is obious your experience always shines through. Now I need to spend some time perusing your blog site to see what other pearls are there.

Best wishes for now
Jon

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Re: Slide Styles / Caption Styles integration

Postby cherub » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:07 am

Jon,
I'm glad that you found my solution useful.

What I forgot to mention in my post above, is the subject of timing.

When we combine two or more slides, the time of the newly created slide, will always be the time of the first slide that appears in the chain.
So, before you combine your slides, make sure that both have the same times. If they don't, then place the longer one first. After the merging, you can move the layer that servers as caption background, to the top, so that it covers everything else during the caption.

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Re: Slide Styles / Caption Styles integration

Postby Oldguy » Fri Oct 29, 2010 4:47 am

If it can be done Mona will know how or figure it out!
And she is nice enough to share it with us.

Forrest

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