Summary slide feature not working

[Guest]

I have a presentation with a number of custom shows. ppt help says I can
create an index efficiently using the Summary slide option. I have found the
icon but it remains greyed out when i select the initial slide for each
custom show.

What do I do?

 

[Kathy Jacobs]

Things to check:
1) Each slide you want in the summary must have a title placeholder with
text in it. IF you don't want the title to show, drag it off the slide after
you put the text in it.
2) The titles shouldn't contain commas. Other punctuation can cause problems
too.
3) At least one slide must be selected in either the slide miniature or the
outline.

Let us know if that works better.
--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint and OneNote information at www.onppt.com

I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[Guest]

I have slides with text boxes with text in them. I don't have a clue whether
I have title placeholders or not, so I can't rule this out as the possible
problem. Can you take me through what I need to do to check that, and maybe
how I should set up the next presentation more carefully.

Thanks,

 

[john wilson]

When you create a new slide does it say somewhere "Click to add title"?
Thats a title placeholder! If not go FORMAT > SLIDE LAYOUT and select the
title and text layout (looks like greyed out title with grey bullets beneath
it)

 

[Guest]

Thanks both Kathy and John.
I've experimented and I now understand better. Early on I struggled to use
the default layouts in ppt, so I've got into the habit of choosing completely
blank slides and adding my own layout. I can now get the Slide summary to
work (sort of!) and will no doubt get better as I practice - cheers!