Keeping your audience focused is critical for an effective PowerPoint presentation. A slide crowded with bullet points can be overwhelming and cause your viewers to tune out. Fortunately, PowerPoint includes a useful “dim text” feature to highlight key points and prevent information overload.
What is Dim Text in PowerPoint?
The dim text tool allows you to fade the appearance of non-essential text, while keeping important points fully visible. As you progress through your presentation, the dimmed text remains subtly visible as backup information. However, your viewers concentrate on the text you emphasize.
Dimming text is an easy way to direct the audience’s attention. It also makes your slides cleaner and less cluttered. The technique works well for fading previous bullet points as you move to new ones.
Benefits of Using Dim Text
Applying dim text in PowerPoint presentations:
- Highlights key ideas – Draws viewers to the most relevant point to improve retention.
- Reduces clutter – Faded text takes a back seat to emphasized content for cleaner slides.
- Holds audience attention – Allows you to reveal one concept at a time to avoid distraction.
- Provides context – Keeps supporting details visible for reference without overloading slides.
By strategically dimming text, you streamline information delivery for better audience comprehension.
How to Dim Text in PowerPoint
Dimming text in PowerPoint only takes a few simple steps:
Add Animations
- Open your presentation and select the slide with text you want to dim.
- Highlight the first bullet point and select an “Appear” entrance animation from the Animations tab.
- Repeat this for all bullet points, applying a unique animation for each.
Add appear animation
Adding an appear animation to bullet points
Adjust Animation Effect Options
- Select all animations in the pane and click “Effect Options.”
- In the Effect tab, change “After Animation” from “Don’t Dim” to a color matching your slide background.
Select a dim color
Choosing a color to dim text
- Select OK to apply the dim effect.
That’s all there is to it! Save your presentation to keep the dim text settings.
Presentation Tips
- Speak about each bullet point as it appears, then move to the next animation.
- Choose a subtle dim color so text remains visible but understated.
- Use no more than 6 bullet points per slide to avoid overcrowding.
- Discuss dimmed points again if needed for clarification.
Examples of Dim Text in Presentations
Dimming text works well in many situations:
Bullet Point Lists
Fade previous points to focus viewers on each new item as you present it.
Timelines
Emphasize the current year while keeping past years subtly visible for context.
Process Flows
Highlight steps in sequence while retaining the full process behind the scenes.
Image Callouts
Feature the text for only the part of the image you’re discussing.
Quotes
Draw attention to key passages you expand on while preserving the full quote.
The possibilities are endless. As long as you have text to emphasize, the dim tool can help direct your audience’s gaze.
Alternatives to Dimming Text
If you prefer not to dim text, consider these alternate methods to spotlight key points:
- Zoom animations – Zoom in on critical text to make it larger and more prominent.
- Bolding – Format essential text in bold to make it stand out on the slide.
- Color contrast – Make key phrases a different color than supporting text.
- Multiple slides – Use additional slides to reveal one bullet point at a time.
However, dimming text is a simple way to clean up slides and highlight important ideas without extra slides or overbearing animations.
Get Started with Dim Text
Now that you know how to dim text in PowerPoint, try utilizing this tool for better audience focus in your next presentation. Experiment with subtle dim colors and paired animations to seamlessly direct attention to your main points.
As you get comfortable with the basics, explore custom animation effects for even more possibilities. With strategic use of dimmed text, you can deliver polished, professional presentations that resonate with viewers.
