A custom show feature that uses PPT

If you have to tailor a presentation to the needs of different audiences, a custom show is exactly what you need. You can imagine a custom show feature as a different version of the same presentation than the audience-without creating a separate file.

Custom shows can be created from a target audience or discussion topic. For example, you can provide a presentation summary for an audience and provide the details of the same presentation to another audience. Or, if your presentation includes three slides for a specific topic, you can create a custom show for each topic while you get the full presentation as you want.

The basic prerequisite is that all slides must be included in one presentation. A custom show is just a list of slides that you want to show for a particular audience. In other words, if you have an existing presentation that contains 50 slides, you need only 1-23, 27, 32-35, and 40-50 slides for a particular audience. You don't need to copy these slides from an existing presentation to a separate new presentation, just create a custom show that is attached to an existing presentation.

Create and modify a custom show

When you create a custom show, you should include each slide that you want in your use. To create a custom show, you can follow these steps:

Click New to enable a new custom show. Displays the Definition Custom dialog box.

Note: These slide titles are used to identify each slide. If all of your slide titles have a company name enabled, it's hard to differentiate each slide. Try to avoid this happening. If you have to specify a standard topic for each slide, try adding a subtitle (mostly a smaller font) to identify the theme of the slide.

The top of the dialog box is the slide Show name text box. Enter an appropriate name for this custom show. The maximum length of the name is 30 characters.

On the left side of the dialog box is a list of titles for each slide in the active presentation. Double-click each slide that you want for your custom show, and the slide titles are automatically copied to the column on the right side of the dialog box.

You can select a set of slides at once. If the slides are contiguous, click the first slide, hold down the SHIFT key, and click the last slide. If the slides are not contiguous, click the first slide, hold down the CTRL key, and click each slide title individually. Then click the Add button to copy the names to the slides in the custom show.

To rearrange slides in a custom show, select the slides you want to move and click the up or down arrows to move the slides in the list. You can't select multiple slides in a slide in a custom show list. You can move only one slide at a time.

After you have finished copying the slide titles and arranging the list order, click OK.

The Custom Show dialog box appears again. You can select a name and click the show to preview the custom show. The other buttons in the dialog box include:

Edit the Display Definition Custom Show dialog box. You can add, remove, or rearrange the slides that are marked by your custom show.

Delete Deletes a custom show. This feature only removes the slide list from the custom show, not the actual slide.

Copy you can copy an existing custom show as a starting point for a new custom show.

Run a custom show

Now that you've created a custom show, you can run the show by selecting a slide show and setting up a show. In the Set Up Show dialog box, click the custom show Drop-down arrow and select the custom show you want to use.

Click the OK button. The dialog box closes. Then click the Slide Show button to run the show.

Warning: It is a good idea to end the set show options to all the original options after using a custom show. Otherwise, each time you try to run the presentation, you can display only those slides that are recorded in the custom show.

Custom shows can also run as a hyperlink from a presentation. With Action settings, action buttons, and hyperlinks, you can create a presentation that can run any number of custom shows you create.