iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Chapter 14. Animating Your Slides

Over the course of the last few chapters, you’ve written, organized, and designed your slides into the perfect presentation. Congratulations—you’ve no doubt got an elegant and insightful slideshow on your hands. But even after all your care and attention, your presentation still isn’t all that different from an old-fashioned slideshow—a collection of static slides that march past your audience one after the other. It’s time to make some waves in your slides’ still waters by adding motion to your presentation, animating your slides with transitions and builds.

Transitions work their magic between slides, moving you from one slide to the next with effects that range from subtle dissolves to bombastic explosions that send objects flying on and off the screen. Builds, on the other hand, happen within individual slides, letting you pull the strings of objects and bullet points to make them appear, disappear, move, grow, shrink—and generally dance on your slide.

Besides adding some visual excitement to your slideshow, transitions and builds can help you present your information more clearly, add drama, signal changes in topic, and—if you use them wisely—give your slideshow a professional polish. This chapter takes you through Keynote’s special-effects laboratory to show you how to add slide transitions and program your objects for builds.