Power Point® All?in?One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 1. Taking Advantage of Transitions and Animations

In This Chapter

• Contrasting transitions and animations

• Applying transitions to slides

• Understanding how animations work

• Taking advantage of the prebuilt animations

• Using advanced animation techniques

• Making sound a part of an animation

This chapter describes how to put a little pizzazz in your presentations with transitions and animations. In a normal, humdrum presentation, slides simply arrive on‐screen one after the next, but with transitions, slides arrive on‐screen with a flourish. With animations, slide elements such as text frames and graphics can dance around on slides — they can fade in, fly out, spin, change shape, move from place to place, and do any number of things.

Transitions are easy. All you have to do is tell PowerPoint which kind you want and be done with it. Animations can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. You can opt for PowerPoint's canned animations or create animations from scratch on your own. If you're running a self‐propelled, kiosk‐style presentation, transitions and animations may be exactly what you need to attract passersby to your slide show. This chapter explains how to fiddle with transitions and animations. It looks into the numerous ways you can animate parts of a PowerPoint slide.

Comparing Transitions and Animations

A transition occurs as a slide arrives on‐screen; animations occur while a slide is still on the screen. You can apply only one transition per slide, but a slide can have ...