Episode 2 - Inserting Animations

How to insert animations in PowerPoint?

A key part of any presentation is animations. They determine how the content on the slide is displayed. If done properly, they have a huge impact in presenting the information in synchronized and phased manner. However, too much of animation and your slide will face the issue of slow and confusing transition and the actual message is lost, most of the times. Let us just see some basics about how to use animations in PowerPoint.

It is simple. Simply, select the content you want to have animated. Go to the top ribbon. Click on animations and then simply select the animation type. The image below shows the animation tab and selected content.

Selecting content for animation

Now that you have selected content, you need to insert animations from the available list of animations as per your preference. You can add both entry as well as exit animation from the list. You can check all animations using the Animation Pane which is there on the top ribbon bar. The image below shows the animation effect list, animation pane button and the animation pane on the right hand corner.

Animation effects and Animation Pane

Note: Animation pane is a handy tool to add, delete, modify and re-order animations.
It provides you options as a drop down list to manage your animations as shown in diagram below:

Animation Pane Drop Down

Few tips:

1. Go for least number of animations possible. Higher number of transitions and animations make presentations slow (sometimes even hang) and break the flow

2. Don't opt for too jazzy animations as they overshadow the core message of your presentation.

3. When you have different types of content and you need to insert animations, try to combine elements and then insert animations for the group. For example, combine a shape and the text using Group facility (you can get it by selecting the contents and pressing right click) and then insert animation.

4. When using SmartArt, or mix of contents you can also insert animations for the entire shape as one object, or can insert animations one-by-one or as one paragraph using the effects option as shown below.

Effect Options

For now this is it!!! Please do share your thoughts and tips regarding the same.