Present Beyond Measure

17Master Motion with Simple Animation

“Motion is the sign of life.”

—Swami Vivekananda

I'm often asked how I use animation in my presentation slides. My answer: I use it simply, judiciously, and very, very carefully.

PowerPoint currently lists more than 65 entrance, exit, and motion effects in its animation arsenal. So many to choose from, right? Well…not if you want your audience to stay focused.

The only training in presentation design I ever received was a summer college class on PowerPoint “effectiveness.” The class unlocked so much knowledge about all the fantastical features this tool had to offer in the early 2000s, especially animation!

I learned invaluable skills like how to use laser beam in individual letters of every sentence on every slide (complete with laser beam sound effects) and how to use checkerboard slide transitions to “keep it exciting.” I mean, PowerPoint even features an “Exciting” category of animations! How exciting is that?

Or at least, so I thought. Several years later, I was working at an internship for a small software company when I was asked to present the capabilities of our sales territory alignment program to a prospect. So, I pulled out all the stops. I used every PowerPoint bell and whistle I could think of.

When I asked for feedback afterward, my boss graciously responded, “Hey, nice job in there. But do you think next time, you can, um, not make me so dizzy?” Yikes! I was crestfallen. I simply didn't understand how they weren't blown ...