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Animations have their benefits in entertaining PowerPoint presentations. But maybe you haven’t seen the one you want, aren’t sure how to use different triggers, or haven’t realized that you can add sound. We’re here to help with those little-known animation options.
Get more animation options
When you head over to the Animations tab in PowerPoint, you’ll see a nice collection of effects on the ribbon. You may have browsed and even previewed a few, but none impressed you. Guess what? There is more!
RELATED: How to Use Motion Path Animations in Microsoft PowerPoint
Select the arrow in the lower right corner of the Animations box.
When the dropdown box opens, scroll to the bottom. You’ll see options for More Entry Effects, More Emphasis Effects, More Exit Effects, and More Motion Paths.
When you choose one of these options, you’ll see many more animations than what appears in the Animations box on the ribbon. For example, if you see More Entrance Effects, you’ll see about 40 animations compared to the dozen you see in the Animations box.
You can also check the box at the bottom for preview effect. Then when you choose an animation from the list, you’ll see what it looks like before applying and saving it. When you land on the one you want, click “OK.”
Change direction or sequence
For some animations, you can choose the direction or the sequence. This small adjustment can have a big impact on how your elements are displayed.
For example, if you choose the “Flight Entry” effect, you can choose from eight different directions, or for the Shape Entry effect, you can choose to have the shape fly in or out, and then choose from four different shapes.
Select the animation, go to the Animations tab and open the “Effect Options” dropdown menu. Then choose the direction or sequence you want to use for a more unique effect.
Using the Fly In animation, you can see below that each image on the slide comes from a different location for its location.
Add sound to an animation
You may already know that you can add sound to your PowerPoint slideshow, but did you know that you can add sound to animation? You can play a clap, a drum roll, a typewriter, or an explosion, among other sound effects.
RELATED: How to Make a Typewriter or Command Line Animation in PowerPoint
Select the animation and choose “Animation Panel” in the Animations tab to open the sidebar.
Click the arrow to the right of the animation and choose “Effect Options.”
Go to the Effect tab in the small window and use the Sound dropdown box to select the one you want. You can click the speaker button on the right to adjust the volume if you want.
Then click “OK” to apply the sound to the animation.
Animate text with a word or letter
An animation feature that you would like to see is applied to the text. If you want to animate one word or letter at a time, this can create a fantastic effect.
Select the text box you want to animate and apply the animation you want. Open the Animation Panel, click the arrow next to the animation, and choose “Effect Options.”
Go to the Effect tab and choose “By Word” or “By Letter” from the Animate Text dropdown box. Then click “OK.”
When you play the slideshow, you’ll see each word or letter fly, spin, or disappear for an animation of your choice.
repeat an animation
Would you like your animation effect to repeat multiple times or until you move to the next slide? This is one of those hidden animation features in PowerPoint.
RELATED: How to hide an object before animation in PowerPoint
Open the Animation Panel using the button on the Animation tab. In the sidebar, select the arrow to the right of the animation and choose “Time”.
When the small box opens on the Time tab, select a number from the Repeat dropdown list. You can choose from options like 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10, or select Until Next Click or Until End of Slide depending on the type of effect you want.
When you activate the animation, you will see it repeat.
Animate multiple objects at once
If you have multiple elements on your slide that you want to mimic each other, you can animate multiple elements at the same time. You can use this for text boxes, shapes, images, or icons.
To select all elements on the slide, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A on Windows or Command+A on Mac. To select only certain elements, click the first one, hold down Ctrl on Windows or Command on Mac, and then click on each additional element.
Once you’ve selected your elements, apply the animation you want. You can adjust the Effect Options just like any other animation, and the changes apply to the entire group as you’ll see in the Animation Panel.
When you play the slideshow, you should see all the elements you chose animated together.
Use Different Triggers
If you play your presentation automatically, such as in a kiosk, your animations are displayed automatically. But if you want to present each one with a click, you can choose which element triggers the animation.
RELATED: How to control when an image appears in PowerPoint
For example, you can have multiple slide elements such as titles, text, images, and shapes. You can choose one of these specific elements as your animation trigger.
Select the animated element and go to the Animations tab. Open the Activate dropdown box and move to On Clicking No. You can then choose the item you want from the popup menu.
When you preview your presentation, you’ll notice a hand symbol on the element you choose. This is a good indicator that the element contains an action. In this case, the action triggers the animation.
If you’re creating a presentation that the use of animated effects will enhance, keep in mind these additional options for animations in PowerPoint.
To learn more, check out these other things you didn’t know you could do in PowerPoint.
RELATED: How to Disable or Remove PowerPoint Animations
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