I think that the order that I can move from one object to the next using my Tab key is determined by the order in which the objects were placed on the (Master) slide.
However, what I'd like to do is change the order that I can tab around them, so that I can always move from Title > Subtitle > Content > Footer etc. Is there any way to do this? It doesn't seem to make any difference if I rename or move the objects around in the Selection Pane.
Tab order in Powerpoint is determined by the Z-order, that is, the order in which objects are stacked if you place them all in one pile. The bottom-most item is Tab Order 0, the next up is Tab Order 1, and so on. To rearrange the Tab Order you will use "Send to Back" and "Send to Front" to set your desired order.
While this does loosely correspond to the order in which you place things on the Master Slide or individually built slides, any "Send to Back" or "Send to Front" commands you issued would have changed that.
To set a desired Tab Order, select the object you want to be activated LAST and select Send to Back, then, in reverse order, going to the 2nd to last item, then the 3rd to last item, use Send to Back on each of these in turn, with the result being that the last item you Send to Back will be the Back-most item, and the last item, or any items you do not care to Tab through will be the Front-most.
>> I think that the order that I can move from one object to the next using my Tab key is determined by the order in which the objects were placed on the (Master) slide.
Not exactly. The order is based on the order in which the objects are created ON THAT SLIDE. But when a new slide is created, the first things on the slide are the shapes it inherits from the master slide or slide layout that it's based on.
Visualize the slide as a stack of shapes. As you add new shapes, they'll sit on top of whatever came from the master/layout when the slide was created. And the tab key will take you through that order, shape by shape, from bottom (ie first created) to top (last created).
You can change the order easily: right-click on the shape you want to change and from the pop-up menu, click Bring to Front or Send to Back (to move the shape atop or behind ALL other shapes on the slide). Or click Bring to Front > and choose Bring Forward to move the shape up one at a time.
