Powerpoint Animations

Animations In Powerpoint

In Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 you can animate just about anything - text, images, SmartArt and even charts. Let's learn how by looking at a few real world examples.

Animating Text

First of all type out some text and then select it. Click Animations and then click the More button (bottom right) in the Animations group. A cornucopia of different animations appears for you to select from.

A live preview of each animation is available when you hover over the animation in the selection window. The only problem is that the selection window often obscures your workspace, so you can't see the live preview! However, it's easy to apply an animation and then simply undo (ctrl-z) if you decide you don't like it. If you want to remind yourself of how an animation looks after you've applied it, click the Preview button an the Animation tab.

Removing an animation is easy: click on the More button in the Animation group and select None, at the top.

You can discover which slides feature animations by looking at the slides pane in normal view. If a slide has an animation, there is a "rushing" star displayed next to it. This star is visible in Normal View and Slide Sorter View.

Adding Animations In PowerPoint

Be careful when using commands in the Animations group. Whenever you select an animation from here, it replaces any animations previously added. If you want to add animations cumulatively, you will need to use the Add Animation button in the Advanced Animation group.

The same animations are on offer, but selecting one from here adds it instead of replacing any previously added animations.

There is much more to cover on the subject of animation in PowerPoint, but this is merely an introduction. Stay tuned for the advanced PowerPoint animation tutorial!