Animating Text and Objects in PowerPoint

Introduction

In PowerPoint, you can animate text and objects like clip art, shapes, and pictures. Animation—or movement—on the slide can be used to draw the audience's attention to specific content or to make the slide easier to read.

The four types of animations

There are several animation effects you can choose from, and they are organized into four types.

• Entrance: These control how the object enters the slide. For example, with the Bounce animation the object will drop onto the slide and then bounce several times.

• Emphasis: These animations occur while the object is on the slide, often triggered by a mouse click. For example, you can set an object to spin when you click the mouse.

• Exit: These control how the object exits the slide. For example, with the Fade animation the object will simply fade away.

• Motion Paths: These are similar to Emphasis effects, except the object moves within the slide along a predetermined path, like a circle.

To apply an animation to an object:

1. Select the object you want to animate.
2. On the Animations tab, click the More drop-down arrow in the Animation group.

3. A drop-down menu of animation effects will appear. Select the desired effect.

4. The effect will apply to the object. The object will have a small number next to it to show that it has an animation. In the Slide pane, a star symbol also will appear next to the slide.

At the bottom of the menu, you can access additional effects.

Effect options

Some effects will have options you can change. For example, with the Fly In effect you can control which direction the object comes from. These options can be accessed from the Effect Options command in the Animation group.

To remove an animation:

1. Select the small number located next to the animated object.

2. Press the Delete key. The animation will be deleted.

Working with animations

To add multiple animations to an object:

If you select a new animation from the menu in the Animation group, it will replace the object's current animation. To place more than one animation on an object, you'll need to use the Add Animation command.

1. Select an object and click the Animations tab.
2. In the Advanced Animation group, click the Add Animation command to view the available animations.
3. Select the desired animation effect.

4. If the object has more than one effect, it will have a different number for each effect, indicating the order.

To reorder the animations:

1. Select the number of the effect you want to change.

2. From the Animations tab, click the Move Earlier or Move Later commands to change the ordering.

To copy animations with the Animation Painter:

1. Click the object that has the effects you want to copy.

2. From the Animations tab, click the Animation Painter command.

3. Click the object you want to copy the effects to. Both objects now have the same effect.

To preview animations:

Navigate to the slide you want to preview and, from the Animations tab, click the Preview command. The animations for the current slide will play.

The Animation Pane

The Animation Pane allows you to view and manage all of the effects that are on the current slide. This is especially useful when you have several effects.

To open the Animation Pane:

1. From the Animations tab, click the Animation Pane command.

2. The Animation Pane will open on the right side of the window. It shows all effects in order.

Note: You can rename objects in the Selection pane (Format tab > Selection Pane) to help stay organized when reordering animations.

To reorder effects from the Animation Pane:

On the Animation Pane, click and drag an effect up or down to change the sequence.

To preview effects from the Animation Pane:

1. From the Animation Pane, click the Play button.

2. You will see a timeline that shows the progress through each effect.

If the timeline is not visible, click the drop-down arrow for an effect, then select Show Advanced Timeline.

To change an effect's start option:

By default, an effect starts On Click. You can change the start option by selecting an effect in the pane and clicking the drop-down arrow:

• Start on Click: Starts the effect when the mouse is clicked.

• Start With Previous: Starts the effect at the same time as the previous effect.

• Start After Previous: Starts the effect when the previous effect ends.

The Effect Options dialog box

From the Animation Pane, you can access the Effect Options dialog box for advanced adjustments like adding sounds or animating text by word/letter.

1. Select an effect, click the drop-down arrow, then select Effect Options...

2. The dialog box will appear with various enhancement options.

To change the effect timing:

1. From the Effect Options dialog box, select the Timing tab.

2. You can add a delay, change the duration, or set the effect to repeat.

Challenge!

• Open our practice presentation.
• On slide 2, select the text box that contains Answer: Neil Armstrong, and add a Pulse animation from the Emphasis group.
• In the same text box, use Add Animation to add a Wipe animation from the Entrance group.
• Change the Effect Options so it wipes From Left.
• Reorder the animations so the Wipe animation occurs first.
• Change the Start options for the Pulse animation so it starts After Previous.
• Use the Animation Painter to copy your animations to the Answer: Mercury text box on slide 3.
• Remove the animations from the text box on slide 3 containing What planet is closest to the sun?