Working with slides

Every change on this page can be undone with Undo or ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows and Linux).

Add a slide

A new slide is always added straight after the current slide, and becomes the current slide. There are three ways to add one:

Add a slide with a layout

A PowerPoint template defines layouts — for example a title slide, a title with content, or two columns of content. Each layout says where its boxes go.

1. Go to the slide you want the new slide to follow.
2. On Home › Slides, click the layout menu to the right of +.
3. Choose a layout.

The menu lists every layout in the presentation, in the template’s order. The button itself always shows the name of the first layout; it’s a menu of layouts to add, not a setting.

Layouts are listed by the name the template gives them. When a layout has no name, or a generic numbered name such as “1_Custom Layout”, it is listed by its type instead:

The new slide gets one box for each placeholder in the layout, in the same position and size, apart from slide number, footer and date placeholders. Picture, chart and table placeholders become text boxes that show a prompt such as “Click to add picture”.

The layout menu appears when the presentation has layouts. For a presentation you created in Nixt Slides, the layouts are available once you save it and open it again.

Go to a slide

• Click its thumbnail in the slide list, or
• In the slide sorter, click it to select it or double-click it to edit it.

Changing slides clears the shape selection.

Duplicate a slide

Duplicate the current slide in any of these ways:

• Home › Slides › Duplicate this slide
• ⌘D (Ctrl+D)
• Right-click the slide’s thumbnail in the slide list or slide sorter and choose Duplicate (this duplicates the slide you right-clicked)

The copy is inserted straight after the original and becomes the current slide. It has the same shapes, speaker notes, layout, transition and background colour.

Charts and SmartArt graphics on the copy are saved as copies of their own, so changing one later in PowerPoint doesn’t change the other.

Delete a slide

• Home › Slides › Delete this slide deletes the current slide.
• Right-click a thumbnail and choose Delete to delete that slide.

To bring a deleted slide back, use Undo. A presentation must keep at least one slide. Trying to delete the last one shows “A presentation needs at least one slide.” in the status bar.

Reorder slides

In the slide list

1. Point at a slide’s thumbnail.
2. Drag it up or down to where you want it, and release.

In the slide sorter

1. Choose View › Presentation views › Slide sorter.
2. Drag a slide onto the slide whose place it should take. The slide under the pointer is outlined to show where it will land.
3. Release. The dragged slide takes that position and the others move along.

Hide a slide

A hidden slide stays in the presentation, but the slide show skips it and PDF export leaves it out.

Hide the current slide in any of these ways:

• More › Hide this slide
• Slide Show › Set up, the lock button (tooltip Skip this slide when presenting)
• View › Show, the lock button (same tooltip)
• Right-click its thumbnail and choose Hide

To show it again, use the same controls: More › Show this slide, the lock button (tooltip Show this slide when presenting), or right-click and choose Show. The lock buttons are highlighted while the current slide is hidden.

Hidden slides are faded in the slide list and slide sorter, the slide sorter marks them with a crossed-out eye, and the status bar counts them, as in “Slide 3 of 12 (2 hidden)”.

Use the slide sorter

The slide sorter shows every slide at once as a grid of thumbnails, which makes it quicker to rearrange a long presentation than the slide list.

1. Choose View › Presentation views and click the second button (tooltip “Slide sorter — every slide at once, dragged into order”).

Each thumbnail shows the slide’s number and title. The title is the text of the slide’s title box, or the first line of text on the slide, or “Untitled slide” when there is no text. A strip along the bottom reminds you: “Drag a slide onto another to move it there. Double-click one to edit it.”

In the slide sorter you can:

• Click a slide to make it the current slide.
• Double-click a slide to go back to Normal view on that slide.
• Drag a slide onto another to move it.
• Right-click a slide for Duplicate, Delete and Hide or Show.

To go back without choosing a slide, choose View › Presentation views and click the first button (tooltip “Normal — one slide, edited”).

Change the slide size

Nixt Slides offers two slide sizes:

Change the size for the whole presentation with either:

• Design › Slide size › 16:9 or 4:3 (tooltips “Set the deck to 16:9 slide” and “Set the deck to 4:3 slide”), or
• More › Widescreen (16:9) or More › Standard (4:3)

Every shape on every slide is scaled in proportion to the new width and height, so shapes get wider or narrower. The change is one undo step.

Charts, SmartArt graphics, connector lines and other objects shown as a labelled box are moved and resized with everything else, and keep their contents.

The slide right-click menu

Right-click a thumbnail in the slide list or the slide sorter: