Something I use a lot in my work is having slides, which can have both the Back and Next button, just the Next button or just the Back button.

There is a debate on whether you should restrict navigation for adult learners, but as this will inevitably come up in your career, it’s useful to know how to do it quickly.

Master Slides.

The quickest way I suggest doing this, is to use your Master Slides. If you have a blank master slide, which has the Next and Back button, you can duplicate that slide. I suggest duplicating it twice. After you’ve done this, you should rename]one called ‘Next button only’ and the other ‘Back button only’.

Now you will have three slides all with your navigation buttons, so it’s time to save you so much time.

Go to your ‘Next button only’ slide, click on the back button, and press delete.

Now go to your ‘Back button only’ slide and do the same with the next button.

You’ve now saved yourself lots of time by doing this in your master slides, and you can simply choose which master slide you want to use in your properties menu.

Bonus Tip

If you have a slide where all of the buttons/interactions need to be clicked before the user can progress, there’s an easy way to do this. Select your ‘back button only’ master slide, then copy a Next button from any of your master slides and put it on your stage/development area. After you have scripted your buttons for the Next button to appear, when everything is selected, you can use this Next button, as it’s totally separate from the template.

If you do use this and need to hide the Next button, just make sure you hide the Next button when the user enters the slide.

Enjoy adding this to your pro toolbox.

If you would like further help with this, I provide virtual one-to-one coaching with Adobe Captivate.