Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office XP

Using Transitions to Control Pacing

PowerPoint makes it easy to control what your audience sees on the screen when you move from one slide to another. You can arrange things so that one slide replaces another onscreen, just as it would if you clicked through a carousel of 35mm slides. Or you can add wipes, dissolves, and other varieties of eye-catching (and frequently distracting) transitions. Properly done, transitions (sometimes also called transition effects or slide transitions) provide a breathing space between slides. Improperly done, your presentation will look amateurish and detract from making your point—which, after all, is the purpose of PowerPoint.

The nature of that breathing space lies totally at your control—a subtle, quick fade ...