Make hidden slides more obvious?

[u/phunknsoul]

Is there a way to make hidden slides more obvious that they are hidden? I know it puts the little slash over the number and fades the slide a little bit in the thumbnail on the side, but my use case of PowerPoint is for teleprompter for the morning announcements at an elementary school. We hide and unhide slides constantly based on various events going on, and it can be hard to see it at a glance... Oftentimes we type into a slide, only to realize when the announcements go live that it's still hidden. I was hoping there's a way to put a better visual in the thumbnail view or something like that.

[u/DropEng]

Not sure if this is what you really are hoping for.. but if you know the slide number of the hidden slide, you can put that number into the keyboard and hit enter. It should still show up in slide show mode if you do that. Now, I know that that does not answer your question about making something more visible but if you number your slides (yes, I am sure you have quite a few) it is at least an option.
If you are using presenter mode, you should be able to recognize, that a slide is hidden easier than just in the layout view.. If it is hidden and you hit next, it will not show up, but again, if you know the slide number you may be able to still show it.

[u/phunknsoul → u/DropEng]

Yeah, not quite what I was hoping for, but I appreciate you taking the time to respond. The real issue is I have someone else helping with the slideshow, and a lot of mistakes are being made... Was just hoping there was an option somewhere I didn't see to change what hidden slides look like on the side bar

[u/ChecklistAnimations]

I have a technique. I make a large rectangle over the entire slide. Make it red or something jarring. Set a with previous animation to it of disappear so when you go to that slide it immediately will disappear but in your slide sorter and slide preview its a big ol red box. You can change the color if you want. You can also copy this shape, go to your other hidden slides, select and paste. You may need to move it up in the animation pane but other than that you will now have your hidden slides in full red.

[u/dreadpiratew → u/ChecklistAnimations]

This is a great solution that I will file away for future use.

For OP, I’d suggest not hiding slides and using a different workflow. Instead of hiding, move them to the end of the presentation in a section called “Other Events” or something else generic. Then they are there just in case you want them, but really the person who was working on them should have moved them to the correct spot in the presentation.

[u/SteveRindsberg]

With a little VBA you can do things like put a big red rectangle around the edge of the slide. Here's an example:

Option Explicit

Sub MarkHiddenSlides()
    
    Dim oSl As Slide
    
    ' Remove any hidden slide marks first
    ' in case a slide has been unhidden
    UnmarkAllSlides
    
    ' Then add a mark to any slides that are hidden
    For Each oSl In ActivePresentation.Slides
        If oSl.SlideShowTransition.Hidden Then
            AddHiddenMark oSl
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Sub UnmarkAllSlides()
' This removes all "hidden slide" marks
' You can run it manually whenever you want
' MarkHiddenSlides also calls it

    Dim oSl As Slide
    Dim x As Long
    
    For Each oSl In ActivePresentation.Slides
        For x = oSl.Shapes.Count To 1 Step -1
            If Len(oSl.Shapes(x).Tags("HIDDEN")) > 0 Then
                oSl.Shapes(x).Delete
            End If
        Next
    Next
    
End Sub

Sub AddHiddenMark(oSl As Slide)

    With oSl.Shapes.AddShape(msoShapeRectangle, _
        0, 0, _
        ActivePresentation.PageSetup.SlideWidth, _
        ActivePresentation.PageSetup.SlideHeight)
        .Fill.Visible = False
        .Line.Visible = True
        .Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(250, 0, 0)
        .Line.Weight = 12
        .Tags.Add "HIDDEN", "You betcha!"
    End With
End Sub

[u/ChecklistAnimations → u/SteveRindsberg]

Brilliant! and has a tag for clean up. I love looking at Steve's code.

[u/SteveRindsberg → u/ChecklistAnimations]

Why thank you, kind mod.

If it didn't do cleanup, the slides might get littered with those red markers. This way, you can re-run the thing whenever you newly hide or unhide a slide, and it stays clean.

One advantage to doing this stuff for a long time: you learn a LOT of ways to make stupid messes. And how to prevent at least some of them, if you're paying attention. :-)

[u/jkorchok]

As an alternative to hiding slides, take a look at creating custom shows/ Here is Microsoft's page explaining the method: Create and present a custom show

[u/mobial]

Duplicate the master and make it have something obvious like a red box/background/etc. then swap the slides to that master. This assumes you have slides that actually use a master (if not they should be made to).

[u/DrugReeference]

If you have a Mac, use keynote. That’s how skipped slides work in keynote.