How Animations Are Organized In PowerPoint 2007/2010

If you've used previous PowerPoint versions you'll have used animations in two main ways. These are animations schemes which apply to whole slides, and custom animations which apply to individual items. In PowerPoint 2007/2010 animation schemes are gone, but instead you have an enhanced Animations tab. This article describes how animations are organized in PowerPoint 2007/2010.

If you launch PowerPoint 2007/2010 you'll see the new Animations tab with all its features, which are used in much the same way as custom animations in previous PowerPoint versions. If you want to continue applying animations for whole slides, as animation schemes allowed you to do in previous versions, you can switch to Slide Master view and apply the required animations. Then switch back to regular view. Now all animations applied to the Master view will apply to all slides in the current presentation. You could also create several slide masters and then apply different effects to each. Then back in regular view you can apply different masters to different groups of slides, so you can still apply animation effects to one or more slides.

However for the remainder of this article we'll look at animations applied in the regular design view.

With the animations tab displayed, you need to select any object on the slide for all the tab options to be available. Once done, you can see the tab contains a Preview button on the far left, then a wide panel showing preset animations, then an Add Animation button. If you click the Add Animation button you'll see all the available animations appearing in a large pop down panel.

The animations are still organized under the same four categories; Entrance, Emphasis, Exit and Motion paths but there are more options under each category compared to earlier PowerPoint versions. If you select an effect from any of the categories, all the effects from the same line as the one selected appear in the wide panel to the left of the Add Animation button. This allows you to change the applied effect to a similar one, without having to go all the way back into the Add Animation options. By default the first row of effects appear in this panel.

With any object selected in the slide, try applying an animation effect, for example Fly In. This is applied to the object and the effect previews. A number tag is also placed next to the object. If you want to replace that effect with another, make a different selection from the wide animation panel, using the pop down to show more effects as necessary. You see the new effect previewed and still only one number in the tag. If you want to add another effect but keep the first one, click the Add Animation button and make a selection form the options. The added effect previews and you'll see a second effect number tag next to the object.

If you want to edit the effect features, turn on the Animation pane. To do this look in the right of the Animations tab, in the Advanced Animations group, and choose Animation pane. The pane appears to the right of the display. This pane is the same as used in previous PowerPoint versions. In this panel you can edit the effect trigger and timing options. To do this first select an effect on the slide. You can click on the tag number next to the object to do this, or click on the effect name in the animations pane. If you then right click on the effect in the pane, you'll see several options. Try choosing Effect Options. A panel appears with one or more tabs giving you a variety of options including adding sound effects, changing how the effect is triggered or edit effect timings.

Interested in copying animation from one object to another, or from one object to several others? Help is now at hand with the new, and not before time, Animation painter feature. To use this, select an object containing one or more animations. Then in the Animations tab, right of centre, in the Advanced Animation group, click on Animation Painter. Then select a different object, and hey presto the animation is copied. This works in the same way as format painter. So if you want to apply the animation effects to lots of objects, first select the object with the required animations and then double click on Animation Painter, and apply to as many objects as you like. You can copy animations between objects on the same slide, or in different slides or in different presentations.

That completes our look at how animations are organized in PowerPoint 2010. All animations are applied using the single Animations tab, and you can amend or apply new animations to objects on the current slide. Effects can be edited using the Animations panel and now at last you can copy effects using the new Animations Painter. Interested in learning more about PowerPoint 2010? A really effective way is to attend a training course. This helps you gain lots of additional PowerPoint skills in a relatively short time.