Learning objectives

When you have completed this session, you should be able to

• create transitions,
• create animations.

Spectacles

Transitions

Transition and animation are not the same. Transition is responsible for the transformation between the slides. Choose Presentation/ Transition command and the work window for transition comes up.

Single transition can be chosen for the selected slides only and the effect can be seen instantly (if the preview on the bottom of the work window is not inactive). However the real transition effect can only be seen during the presentation (F5). Lower in the work window the speed of the transition can be defined and voice effects can be added (choosing lowest, other voices files with .waw extension can be searched for in the hard disc).

One very important detail, the way of moving slides can also be defined here. Marking the box for Clicking means the next slide will appear when clicking with the left mouse button. If Automatically box is marked the next slide will not only be displayed when clicking but automatically too, after a certain time passes. 00:05 means 5 seconds. Apply for all should only be pressed if this adjustment is relevant for all slides.

With Play and Show (from actual slide) buttons the transition effect can be checked.

In one case clicking on Apply for all is unnecessary. This is when work in done in Sample view and the transition is applicable for all slides. So the transition effect can be adjusted from both view but there is some difference between the applications.

Animations

In case of animations not the slide but the objects, texts, images, etc. in the slide can be displayed with exciting effects like an appearance from nowhere or a drop in the middle of the slide.

Ask a local menu with the right button for the object to be animated and choose Personalize. A work window appears for personalized animation where Add Effect button is activated. This button can only be inactive if nothing is selected.

Clicking on Add Effect the requested animation can be chosen within 4 categories but if that wouldn’t be enough an even wider selection can be found if More Effects is chosen. It has the advantage that the different effects can be observed without any outcome if the dialogue window is pulled. Changing only take place when OK is pressed.

Choose the Appearance/Insert effect which is one of the simplest animations. There are further options for the following adjustments here if we take a closer look at the work window. Start of the animation can happen by clicking or automatically. If there are more objects together with them or following them. The direction of the animation, how it should float in, and the speed can be defined. Adding more animations for one object is usually not a good choice. So, if this is the case unnecessary animations can be erased with the Delete button. Clicking with the right button delete can be chosen from the local menu too.

In this local menu there are some further interesting things. Clicking on the Adjust Effect command a dialogue window appears where the direction of the animation can be adjusted too but other specialties can also be found here such as rolling start/ stop or choosing audio effects. After animation is completed even the color of the chosen object can be modified. For texts there is a way to adjust if it should appear in one, word by word or character by character. On the timing flap the effect can be further improved by adding a little delay. In case of texts a third flap for Animate Text can be seen where texts with more paragraphs, as listings for example, can be adjusted whether to be displayed as one object or paragraph by paragraph. For multi level listings even the level of the text line can be defined and if it should be displayed in the opposite way. These things are better to try out than to talk about. By increasing tab PowerPoint can differentiate between level 1 and the other levels.

If more objects are presented with animation in one slide the order can be a matter. Which one should be the first or the last? The sequence can be modified easily by clicking on the green Rearrange arrows. Slides numbers help a lot to overview the order but it is better to give it a try with pressing the Play button before moving further.

Diagram animation works similarly. Some kind of animations, however do not provide much opportunities. In general not the diagrams but the columns or sections of the diagrams should be animated some way. To do this the following effects can be chosen (in respect to the main types):

From Appear and Disappear categories the Frame, Checked, Shutter, Rhombus or Wipe can be chosen.

Insert a diagram and add the last effect to see what it is in reality. Choose Adjust Effect (right button on the animation in the work window). The name of the third flap here is not animate text but animate Diagram. In the list appearing try the options for Serial and Category.

Adjust Projection

Adjust Projection command is located in the Projection menu. In the dialogue window the type of the presentation can be chosen or if the presentation should go on until Esc is pressed or if the presentation should be played without animation.

Timing Probe

When giving the command Timing probe it can be defined precisely in seconds when the next element or slide should appear, so this way the presentation can be set to our own or to others reading rate. Reading some longer text or description requires more time.

There is an option for not showing certain slides during the presentation. They can be deleted but if they are needed for the next presentation it is better to hide these slides. In Normal view or in Preview click on the small slide with the right button and choose the Hiding Slide command. The number of the slide in this case is crossed out and when asking for presentation with F5 the slides hidden will not appear.