Section 12.4. Building Themes | iWork 05: The Missing Manual

12.4. Building Themes

If you're going to be making your own theme, consisting of several coordinated master slides, begin by creating a master slide that contains the common elements you want on the other master slidesa master master slide, if you will. If you're building a theme from scratch, begin with just one blank master slide.

Figure 12-2. When you select a master slide, the Slide Inspector becomes the Master Slide Inspector. Include the various layout elements on the master by turning on the associated checkboxes. Use the Background pop-up menu to choose whether to include a background fill, and if so, what kind. If you want to add a transitionso that every slide you create from this master slide has a built-in transition click the Transition button and set it up just as you would for a single slide.

In the master slide organizer, select the master slide you want to modify, and change its background .

Click the Master Slide Inspector's Appearance, and use the Background pop-up menu to select a color , gradient, or image fill.
Add any other background elements that you want to appear on every slide for example, your company logo, a photograph, or a shape (or several of each) .

Choose View Show Rulers and drag alignment guides from the rulers to the slide so you can keep everything aligned as you build the slide. You can add any object to a master slide that you want to see on slides you create from the master, including charts , tables, movies, and sounds.
If you want to assign a standard transition style, click the Master Slide Inspector's Transition tab and set the transition style with the Effect pop-up menu. If you want each slide created from the master to have a consistent automatic slide timing, change the Start Transition pop-up menu to Automatically, and, in the Delay box, enter the time to display each slide .

Tip: You can monitor the changes you make as you create your master slides. Apply the master to a sample slide to which you can add text and images. Then, as you make changes to the master, periodically switch to your sample slide to see the results.
Turn on the checkbox for Object Placeholder if you want to include one of these Pages-style image placeholders in your slide layout, and then adjust its size and position .
Duplicate this master slide as many times as you need to, to create the set of master slides in your theme. Then modify each of those duplicates to create your set of slide masters .

Since you based each of these master slides on your "master master," the background and text formatting is consistent throughout your theme.

12.4.1. Defining Standard Object Styles

Now that you've set all the master slide elements using the Master Slide Inspector, you can move on to defining the standard styles for other objects: free text boxes, shapes , images, tables, and charts. Keynote memorizes standardor default styles for each of these types of objects for the entire theme, or for an individual slide master.

Thus, any time you insert a free text box, table, shape, or image, they appear exactly the way you want them towith the font, background color, outline, and so on, that you've defined.

First you need to set up an object so it appears the way you'd like it to look in its standard form, and then you define the object with this collection of properties as the default for the current slide master for the whole theme.

Create a new slide from the master slide on which you're working .
Insert and modify each type of object to create its standard appearance (see Section 10.3). You can modify each object, define it, and then delete it before you move on to the next type of object .

Free text box . Enter some text in the box, and then select and format the text. Set the background fill, the outline stroke, shadow, and opacity for the text box.

Shape . Insert a shape, enter some text in it, and then select and format the text. Then set the background fill, the outline stroke, shadow, and opacity for the shape.

Image . Insert an image and adjust its stroke, shadow, and opacity.

Table . Insert a table and adjust its borders, headers, background, shadow, and opacity (see Section 10.5).
Choose Format Advanced Define [object] for Current Master to save these standard properties for only that object youve created in the current slide master. Or choose Format Advanced Define [object] for All Masters to save these standard properties for the whole theme .

Chart.

Insert a chart and use the Chart Inspector's chart type pop-up menu to choose which kind of chart you'd like to see when you insert a new chart .
With the chart still selected, choose Format Advanced Set [chart type] Chart as Default for Current Theme .
With the chart still selected, choose Format Advanced Set Chart and Legend Geometry for All Masters .

Keynote offers eight varieties of charts to choose from and therefore you're supposed to be able to define a standard style for each type of chart. At least that's the planit doesn't work out quite that way in practice. You're supposed to create a chart in each of the eight styles, format it the way you want it to look, and choose Format Advanced Define [chart] For Current Master (or for All Masters).

However, when you define any one of the chart styles, it overrides settings you've defined in the other chart styles. Even if Apple fixes this bug, you're better off creating a chart library in a separate Keynote document. Make a slide for each chart style, insert the chart, and then format it the way you want it. By creating a chart library, you can make several variations of each chart style to have on hand.

When you need to add one of your preformatted charts to a slideshow, open your chart library slideshow, copy the chart, and then paste it into the slide you're working on.

12.4.3. Creating Photo Cutouts

Keynote's photo cutouts consist of an alpha-channel graphic a graphic that's partly transparenton top of the slide background (see Section 4.3.8). When you add a picture to the cutout, Keynote adds the picture to a layer behind the cutout , so the picture shows through the transparent portion.

You need to use a program like Photoshop ($600) or GraphicConverter ($30 at www.graphicconverter.net) to create alpha-channel graphicsKeynote can't do it. Make a cutout graphic the same dimensions as your slideshow theme800 x 600 pixels, for examplewith the transparent part any size or shape you like.

Add the alpha-channel graphic to your slide master, positioning it to exactly cover the slide. Then choose Arrange Lock to anchor it in that position.

Turn on the checkbox marked "Allow objects on slide to layer with master" in the Master Slide Inspector's Appearance tab. This option lets Keynote put pictures you drop into the photo cutout on the layer behind it. When you turn on this option, Keynote also lets you layer objects you add to the slide with other objects on the slide master.

Figure 12-3. If you tire of Keynote's theme collection, you'll find hundreds more available online. Many of the commercially available themes take Keynote's photo cutouts, image fills, builds, and transitions in unexpected directions.