Apple Keynote 3 - Manual (Page 175)

Chapter 9 Designing Your Own Master Slides and Themes 175
 If you are building a completely new background, you may want to begin with a blank
master.
 If you want to retain a copy of the original master, do one of the following to create a
duplicate of the master slide:
 Choose Slide > New Slide.
 Click New in the toolbar.
 Choose Edit > Duplicate.
2 Select unwanted elements and press the Delete key.
3 Make your changes to the master.
 Use Keynote tools to place background elements on the master slide.
 Drag external objects (movie files, sound files, and so on) from the desktop or the
Media Browser to the slide canvas.
4 After you place an element where you want it, you can choose Arrange > Lock to
prevent the element from being accidentally moved as you work.
Any changes you make (including external files you add) to this master slide will
appear on every slide based on this master.
Layering Background Objects and Objects on Slides
When you edit a master slide, you can move objects forward and backward just as you
can on slides. All objects on a master stay in their own master slide layer, which, by
default, is on the bottom. Objects you add to slides sit on top of any object on the
master. You can, however, place each object you add to individual slides on top of or
behind all master layer objects.
A common use of background layers is for alpha-channel graphics in which slide
objects show through part of the background image. For more information, see
“Working With Photo Cutouts (Alpha-Channel Graphics)” on page 66.
To make objects on a master slide layer with slide objects:
1 Place objects on the master slide canvas, positioning and layering them as you want.
2 In the Master Slide Inspector, select “Allow objects on slide to layer with master.”
Note: You can move placeholders forward or backward on a master or a slide. For
more information, see “Resizing, Moving, and Layering Objects” on page 62.