How to get "Double-click to edit" behavior in fields added to Master slides

I was just looking for a solution to this... how timely! The closest I found to being able to have an "apple-defined placeholder" is by following all your steps (editing master, making new text box), but then doing the following:
1) select the text box
2) go to the "Format">"Advanced" menu and select "Define as Text Placeholder."
This isn't the same, since the text will always show up on the slides (as opposed to only showing up if YOU wrote something in the box... you can delete it if you want, but its not the same as apple's default), but it does have the functionality you want. I hope this helps you!

EDITED TO ADD:
...aaaand the age-old trick of reading the manual works again. Go to page 188 of the linked document and you'll see that there's a different way to do it. In short:
1) Make a text box in a master slide, keep it selected.
2) In the Inspector, go to "slide inspector" (second from right), and select the "appearance" tab.
3) Check the checkbox next to "Define as Text Placeholder." Assign it a tag.
For me, I found that once I did this, I could delete the text inside the textbox and it wouldn't automatically be deleted. I assume that assigning it a tag has something to do with that. I still don't know how to get text to automatically show up in the textbox... that seems to be a special functionality reserved for the apple-defined boxes. Again, I hope this helps!

Message was edited by: Eliezer Kanal

Hi James,

I don't know any way to create those "Apple placeholder text boxes" from scratch but there is an easy way to make your own Master slide.

Under the view menu select "View Master Slides" Of course this places the list of master slides in the upper left. Go to a master slide that has an "Apple" text box like the one you want and copy the slide, then paste it. Use that slide to add or delete objects and backgrounds until you have your preferred slide, making sure you don't touch the default text box.

When you're done, the child of the master will have the "double click to edit..." message in the text box just like you want it to.

D.

Sorry James. No way to do that . . .that I know of. Maybe Apple wants to force the Steve Jobs style of Keynote on us: One slide - Three words or less. 🙂