MS PowerPoint Animation

PowerPoint offers a variety of animations you can use to enhance your presentation. Animations can be used to make text or objects appear on a slide, exit a slide, or emphasize the text or objects already on a slide. You can even use motion paths to create a customized animation.

The four types of animations

There are many different 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 and are 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 an object.
2. Click the Animations tab.
3. In the Animation group, click the More drop-down arrow to view the available animations.
4. Select the desired animation effect.
5. The object will now have a small number next to it to show that it has an animation. Also, in the Slide pane, the slide will now have a star symbol next to it. At the bottom of the menu, you can access even more 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 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. However, you'll sometimes want to place more than one animation on an object, such as with an entrance and exit effect. To do this, you'll need to use the Add Animation command, which will allow you to keep your current animations while adding new ones.

1. Select the object.
2. Click the Animations tab.
3. In the Advanced Animation group, click the Add Animation command to view the available animations.
4. Select the desired animation effect.
5. If the object has more than one effect, it will have a different number for each effect. The numbers indicate the order in which the effects will occur.  

It's important to consider how you want animations to appear in your slide show. Well-placed animations can help emphasize important points or information, while too many animations can become distracting for your audience.

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 preview animations:

Any animation effects you have applied will show up when you play the slide show. However, you can also quickly preview the animations for the current slide without viewing the slide show.

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

The Animation pane allows you to view and manage all of the effects that are on the current slide. You can modify and reorder effects directly from the Animation pane, which 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 will show all of the effects for the current slide in the order they will appear.

To reorder effects from the Animation pane:

1. On the Animation pane, click and drag an effect up or down.
2. The effects will reorder.