How to Create Custom Slide Shows in LibreOffice Impress

Custom slide shows in LibreOffice Impress allow you to create tailored, mini-presentations from a single master presentation without duplicating slides or creating multiple files. This guide provides a straightforward walkthrough on how to set up, organize, manage, and run custom slide shows to present specific content to different audiences efficiently.

What is a Custom Slide Show?

A custom slide show is a feature in LibreOffice Impress that lets you group a specific subset of slides from an existing presentation into a unique running order. This is useful when you have a comprehensive deck and need to present only relevant sections to specific groups, such as clients, executives, or technical teams.

Steps to Create a Custom Slide Show

1. Open Your Presentation: Launch LibreOffice Impress and open the presentation file containing all your slides.
2. Access the Custom Slide Show Menu: In the top menu bar, click on Slide Show and select Custom Slide Show… from the dropdown list.
3. Create a New Show: In the Custom Slide Shows dialog box, click the New button on the right side.
4. Name the Show: Enter a descriptive name in the Name field (for example, “Executive Summary” or “10-Minute Overview”).
5. Select and Add Slides:
   • The Existing slides column on the left displays all the slides in your presentation.
   • Click on a slide you want to include, then click the >> (Right Arrow) button to move it to the Selected slides column on the right.
   • Hold Ctrl (or Cmd on macOS) while clicking to select multiple non-consecutive slides, or hold Shift to select a continuous range of slides.
6. Reorder Slides (Optional): Click on any slide in the Selected slides column and use the up and down arrow buttons on the far right to change the presentation sequence.
7. Save the Custom Show: Click OK to save the new show configuration.

How to Run a Custom Slide Show

You can launch a custom slide show in two ways:

• Directly from the Custom Slide Show Dialog: Go to Slide Show > Custom Slide Show…, highlight your custom show in the list, and click Start.
• Via Slide Show Settings:
  1. Go to Slide Show > Slide Show Settings….
  2. Under the Range section, select the Custom slide show radio button.
  3. Choose your desired custom show from the dropdown menu.
  4. Click OK. Pressing F5 will now play your selected custom show instead of the full presentation.

Managing Existing Custom Slide Shows

To make changes later, navigate back to Slide Show > Custom Slide Show…:

• Edit: Select a custom show and click Edit to add, remove, or reorder slides.
• Copy: Duplicate an existing custom show to create a variation quickly.
• Delete: Remove a custom show without deleting the actual slides from your presentation file.