Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances

Chapter 7. Animations, Action Settings, and Hyperlinks

PowerPoint is all about making things move, so animations and transitions are extremely important. Animations control the movement on an individual slide, while transitions control the movement between slides. Action settings and hyperlinks are equally important—you can click them to initiate a transition and move yourself around in a presentation.

All this moving and shaking can be challenging. This chapter aims to get you into the groove by making movement easier. You’ll learn about using various settings on the Animation task pane, creating complex animations, using action settings and hyperlinks to jump to other slides, and troubleshooting the most common annoyances.

ANIMATIONS AND TRANSITIONS

Animation Plays Differently in Different Versions

THE ANNOYANCE: I made this really cool presentation at home using PowerPoint 2002. When I brought it to the office, the objects with motion-path and exit animations just appear dormant on the slide.

THE FIX: Most likely, you’re using an earlier version of PowerPoint at the office. PowerPoint 97 and 2000 don’t support the new animations and transitions introduced in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003. To show the presentation as you intended it to look, download the free PowerPoint Viewer 2003 from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=428d5727-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&DisplayLang=en).

PowerPoint Viewer 2003 lets you show presentations created in newer