What’s new in Slidewise 3.1?
We are excited to share another Slidewise update with you – featuring big improvements to slide masters, more powerful image replacement and new automated quality assurance checks.
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IN THIS UPDATE:
Slide masters — Rename masters / layouts and a massive upgrade to “Consolidate masters”.
Replace images — Replace specific image instances and change format.
External links — Automatically checks web links and warns you if any appear to be broken.
Autofit text box settings — Change autofit settings for objects in bulk. Set as 'Do not Autofit', 'Shrink', or 'Resize'.
Font styles — Identify objects with text decorations or font styles (e.g., Bold, Italic) and remove these styles in bulk.
Select same color objects — Right-click on a color in the Inspector and select matching objects on the current slide.
Menus — Redesigned menus with better spacing and icons for easier navigation and feature selection.
Thumbnail — View and control your presentation thumbnail - the one displayed in File Explorer.
Slide Masters
Rename Masters/Layouts
You can now rename masters and layouts using Slidewise. Right-click on the name you want to change and select “Rename Master” or “Rename Layout”.
You can now right-click on individual layouts to delete them with precision. Previously, you could only delete all unused layouts at once.
Consolidate Masters
This feature was previously only useful for consolidating redundant masters, a common issue when copying and pasting between presentations, which often results in many similar masters, as shown below.
Now, in addition to fixing redundant masters, you can now also use it to apply new templates to old presentations. Simply copy your new master into an old presentation, then consolidate the old master into the new one. Check out these instructions on applying a new template to an old presentation with Slidewise.
Right-click on any master and select “Consolidate Masters” to open this feature.
The "Consolidate Masters" feature has been completely redesigned to make it clearer and simpler. To the left are all presentation masters. Each master shows the number of layouts in use, total layouts available, and how many slides are currently using it.
Move any unwanted masters to the "Reassign slides from" list, then add the desired master to the "Reassign to" list. Finally, click the "Reassign slides" button to transfer all the slides from the unwanted masters into your new master.
Missing layouts
Slidewise no longer just skips layouts if they are missing from your destination master. Now it will tell you which layouts are missing up-front and give you a detailed report on the planned changes. You can then choose to skip as before, or add the missing layouts so everything can be reassigned automatically.
Alternatively, if you want to make manual changes before consolidating, you can use the report to help you with the manual edits. Open the report, copy it to another app and then click “Cancel” to stop the consolidation process.
“Don’t Panic”
If you aren’t happy with the consolidation after Slidewise has finished - just hit CTRL+Z to undo it and set everything back to how it was before.
Copy Masters, Layouts and Slides
If you want to copy a summary of the existing state of your slides, layouts and masters into another application - Slidewise now makes that easy. Right-click on any master, or the Active/Unused headings and choose “Copy to Clipboard”, then paste into your chosen application.
Replace Images
Slidewise’s “Replace image” feature lets you change images without altering effects or cropping. It works on individual images, or it can simultaneously replace images that are used multiple times in a presentation.
Replace specific image instances
In Slidewise 3.1, you can now selectively replace individual instances of the same image. Previously, replacing an image would automatically update every occurrence of it throughout the presentation. Now, if you have an image repeated ten times, you can choose to update only one of those instances.
Once you click “Replace Image”, a new dialog will appear, listing all image instances within the presentation. Select the instances you wish to replace, then click the "Replace image" button to choose your new image.
If you need to check the instances first, click on the picture name in the list to show it in PowerPoint.
Change image format
You can now switch image formats during replacement, such as changing a PNG to a JPEG. Previously, replacing an image forced you to use the same file type. Supported formats are JPEG, PNG and TIFF.
Right-click menu
To make this feature easier to use we’ve also added it to the right-click menu in PowerPoint. This means you no longer need to search for the image in Slidewise - you can just right-click on it in PowerPoint.
Note: Slidewise needs to be open for the right-click menus to work.
External links
Slidewise 3.1 introduces automated link checking for external web links. This new feature scans for and flags any broken links as soon as Slidewise is opened, reducing the need for manual checks.
A green dot indicates that all links are working correctly.
If any links cannot be checked automatically or appear to be broken, they will be flagged with a warning.
To open, copy or remove all links at once, right-click on the “External links” heading. Alternatively, right-click on individual links for the same options.
Autofit Text Box Settings
Slidewise 3.1 eliminates the frustration of unpredictable text box behavior. In the old days, before Slidewise, checking autofit settings meant manually inspecting each text box and placeholder throughout the presentation — but no longer!
Navigate to the “File Review” tool to see an immediate overview of the autofit setting for every text box, shape, or placeholder (Shrink, Resize, or Do not autofit). These settings can also be adjusted in bulk, saving you significant time and effort.
We’ve also added this setting to the Inspector, so you can see at a glance what the autofit setting is for the currently selected object.
Font Styles
Slidewise's "File Review" tool has been updated to address an issue where customers inadvertently caused "double bolding" by replacing bold-styled fonts with natively bold fonts (e.g., Arial Black). The tool now categorizes text decorations and font styles by their respective styles, making it easier for you to locate and remove all instances of a specific style within your presentation.
Select same color objects
The Inspector shows you properties of the currently selected object, including its color settings. Now, if you right-click on any color in the index, you will have the option to select any other objects on the current slide that use the same color. Handy if you have lots of small shapes that you need to recolor using PowerPoint’s color tools.
Menus
Menu navigation has been enhanced for better usability. Icons are now included to help differentiate features visually. Menu items are more spaced out, improving clarity. The Expand/Collapse options have been moved to an advanced menu, accessible by holding the Shift key while right-clicking.
Thumbnail
Do you want your PowerPoint presentation to show a preview icon in Windows File Explorer instead of the default icon? You'll need PowerPoint to generate a "preview picture," which is a thumbnail created from your presentation's first slide.
These thumbnails allow you to quickly see the contents of each file in Explorer, without opening the entire presentation in PowerPoint.
Slidewise now displays whether a thumbnail exists and simplifies the process of adding or removing them.
In the “Fonts and Media” index at the bottom, locate the “Thumbnail” heading. If no size is listed, your file uses the default application icon. A size indicates an existing thumbnail, which you can preview by hovering over the row.
Right-click on the “Thumbnail” heading and select “Open Advanced Properties”, where you can easily toggle the preview picture on or off.
What’s next?
We’re taking a little break from Slidewise to ensure recent changes are stable and to focus on the next version of our NXPowerLite suite. We're planning to pick up work on Slidewise again later this year. So, please keep your suggestions coming – your feedback is really valuable to us!
Thanks again for your ongoing support! Until next time, we hope you find these new updates super helpful.