Apple Keynote '09 - Manual (Page 235)

Chapter 12 Designing Your Own Master Slides and Themes 235
Defining Object Placeholders
You can create a placeholder on a master slide to hold tables and charts. When you
add one of these items to a slide based on that master, the object automatically goes
into the placeholder at the specified position and size.
To define an object placeholder:
1 In the Master Slide navigator, select a slide (to open the Master Slide navigator, click
View in the toolbar and choose Show Master Slides).
2 Open the Master Slide inspector and then click Appearance.
3 Select Object Placeholder.
4 Position and size the placeholder.
Creating Background Elements on Master Slides
You can make an element (such as a company logo or other graphic, text, or color)
appear on every slide that’s based on a particular master slide.
Using this technique is one way to create groups of related slides within a
presentation. You could, for example, incorporate a subtle difference in the background
of each group of slides. To do so, you create a set of master slides with each of the
different backgrounds.
To modify a master slide background:
1 Select a master slide to work with.
2 Select unwanted elements and then press the Delete key.
3 If you want an object (shape, image, sound or movie file, table, or chart) to be a
background element, add it to the master slide and then size and position it on the slide.
After you place an object, you can choose Arrange > Lock to prevent it from being
accidentally moved as you work.
4 To allow master objects to interleave with objects added to slides based on that
master, open the Master Slide inspector, click Appearance, and select “Allow objects on
slide to layer with master.”
For more information about layering objects, see “Moving an Object Forward or
Backward (Layering Objects)” on page 89.
5 To fill the slide background with color or an image, use the Background controls in the
Appearance pane of the Master Slide inspector.
A common use of background layers is for alpha-channel graphics (graphics with
transparency); you can add objects to a slide and layer them so that they show
through part of the background image.