Layout & Display
On the Layout tab you decide how the agenda looks: which columns the table of contents shows and in which order, which fields appear on the divider slides, whether divider slides and whether a table of contents are created, whether the table of contents appears as a table or a list, and whether entire slide categories are hidden from the slide show. The shared look (format template, ToC variant, accent color) lives on the Presentation tab, the structural details (duration) on the Configuration tab.
Expandable, collapsible sections
As on the Configuration tab, the Layout settings are organized into expandable, collapsible sections. Open by default are ToC columns & order, Divider slides, Create table of contents and ToC display; Divider fields, ToC split and Hide in presentation are collapsed. Click a heading to expand or collapse a section.
ToC columns & order
In the ToC columns & order group you set which columns the table of contents shows — and with the ▲ ▼ arrows you put them in the desired order.
| Column | Shows |
|---|---|
| No. | The automatically calculated number. Always visible, fixed at the front. |
| Topic | The item's title. Always visible. |
| Owner | The person/role stored per item. |
| Duration | The duration in minutes. |
| Time slot | The calculated time slot (e.g. 09:15–09:30). |
| Custom column | A freely named extra column; you enter the column name (e.g. "Goal") next to it. |
No. and Topic are always visible and cannot be switched off; the remaining columns are shown or hidden as needed and ordered with ▲ ▼.
Sub-item count in the topic field
The checkbox "Number of sub-items (in the topic field)" adds to each main item how many sub-items it has — directly in the topic text, without its own column.
Divider fields
On the divider slides, besides number and title, a set of meta fields can appear (duration, owner, time slot, a custom field and more). In the Divider fields group you control each of them with a three-way switch:
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Template | The field appears as the selected format template defines. |
| Always on | The field is shown on every divider slide — regardless of the template. |
| Always off | The field is never shown. |
This decouples the divider fields from the ToC columns: what appears in the table of contents does not have to match what appears on the divider slide.
Create divider slides
The "Create divider slides" checkbox turns the section slides on or off. When off, the Agenda Master creates only the table of contents. Details and progress indicator under Divider slides.
Create table of contents
The "Create table of contents (overview slide)" checkbox turns the ToC overview on or off. When off, the agenda consists of divider slides only — without the leading overview slide. This is handy when you structure your sections purely via the dividers and don't want an overall overview.
The switch takes effect both when generating and when refreshing: turn it off on an existing agenda and refresh, and the existing overview slide is removed; turn it back on and it is rebuilt in its former place.
At least one of the two
Table of contents and Divider slides cannot both be off — otherwise no agenda slides would be created at all. The last remaining switch therefore refuses to turn off while the other one is already off.
Affects the ToC options below
The ToC display (table/list) and ToC split groups only take effect when the table of contents is enabled. With the table of contents switched off they have no effect.
Table of contents: table or list
| Style | Description |
|---|---|
| Table | Columns No · Topic · Time · Duration … — structured, for agendas with a schedule. |
| List | Classic, one text line per item — lean, for simple agendas. |
Split across several slides (multi-ToC)
If the agenda doesn't fit on one slide, PPPTools distributes the table of contents automatically:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| One ToC | All items on one slide. |
| Split by count per slide | A fixed number of items per slide — enter it under Items per ToC slide. |
| Split by height (automatic) | PPPTools wraps as soon as the slide is full. |
Hide in presentation
In the Hide in presentation group you hide entire slide categories from the slide show. The slides stay in the deck — they are only skipped during presenting (this matches PowerPoint's "Hide Slide" function).
| Switch | Hides |
|---|---|
| Hide table-of-contents slides | All ToC slides of this agenda. |
| Hide main-item dividers | The divider slides of the main items. |
| Hide sub-item dividers | The divider slides of the sub-items. |
The switches apply deck-wide and take effect both when generating and when refreshing. Clearing a checkbox shows the affected slides again.
What this is for
This lets you work with a full table of contents and all dividers, yet during the actual talk show only the main-item dividers and skip the sub-item dividers — without deleting any slides.
Hiding entire items (rather than slide categories) is controlled per row via "do not show" on the Agenda items tab.
What no longer lives here
- Accent color and the format template / ToC variant are now chosen on the Presentation tab (area "Global — for the whole deck"), because they apply to the whole deck.
- Slide titles (ToC main title, divider title, content title) are now managed under Title management on the Configuration tab.
Save the look as a template
Once you have set columns, fields and color, you can save the entire look as a format template and later apply it to every new agenda with one click.