Giving presentations in PowerPoint allows you to communicate ideas visually to engage your audience. However, with all the text, images, and other elements competing for attention on each slide, how can you emphasize the most important concepts?

Applying animations to highlight individual words or phrases is an excellent technique for focusing the audience on key takeaways. This article will teach you step-by-step how to animate text in PowerPoint to emphasize critical information in your slides.

Why Should You Animate Key Words in Presentations?

Before jumping into the how-to steps, let’s discuss the benefits of using text animations:

Directs focus – Animations naturally draw viewers’ eyes to the movement on-screen. You can leverage this to spotlight essential terminology, statistics, or selling points you want remembered.
Boosts memorability – Our brains latch onto novel stimuli. Animating a word makes it stand out from static text so that it sticks in the audience’s memory long after the presentation.
Adds energy – Subtle motions keep people engaged as you speak by adding visual interest to slides that would otherwise feel flat or dense with text.

Reinforces ideas – Emphasizing keywords as you discuss related concepts helps the audience grasp and retain connections as you explain them verbally.

How to Animate Text in PowerPoint

Now let’s get hands-on! Follow these steps to make selected words pop off the slide:

Select the text – Highlight the word or phrase you want to animate by clicking and dragging your cursor over it.

Open text animation options – Go to the “Animations” tab and click the dropdown under “Animation Styles.”
Choose an animation – Select an animation effect you like. For text, subtle options like “Fade” or “Grow/Shrink” work well.
Customize the effect – Click “Effect Options” to tweak the animation’s direction, speed, delay, and more to your liking.

Add additional animations – Repeat for other words or phrases you want to emphasize. PowerPoint lets you layer multiple animations to create interest!
Reorder animations – Arrange animations in the sequence you want them to play using the “Animation Pane” timeline.
Preview animations – View how your animations flow together by clicking “Play” in the toolbar. Make tweaks until you’re satisfied.

And that’s it! Now when you present, your animated text will glide smoothly into focus as you discuss those key points.

Creative Ways to Animate Words in PowerPoint

Basic text animations like fades and flies work well, but don’t limit yourself. Here are some creative ideas to make critical words really stand out:

Animate letters to “type” out a heading as you introduce it.

Use “Bounce” or “Float” animations for an energetic, fun vibe.
Spotlight words with a directional motion like “Grow & Turn” or “Swivel.”
For contrast, animate all text on the slide except the key phrase.

Use color changes or temporary transparency effects to shift the weight of words.
Layer animations like magnify and pulse for added emphasis.
Incorporate animated SVGs, gifs, or other graphics alongside words.

With a little imagination, you can turn your highlighted vocabulary into dynamic focal points!

Tips for Using Text Animation Effectively

When applying animations in PowerPoint, follow these best practices so they improve rather than distract from your content:

Use sparingly – Limit animations to your 3-5 most critical words or phrases per slide to retain impact.

Keep it simple – Stick with subtle, clean animation styles; over-the-top effects can feel tacky or annoying.
Match timing to narration – Set animations to occur precisely when discussing each key point verbally.
Be consistent – Use the same animation type and configuration for continuity across slides.

Conclusion

Animating pivotal words and phrases helps presenters cut through informational clutter to direct the audience’s attention. Follow the steps in this guide to start incorporating text animations that spotlight your most crucial talking points in any PowerPoint presentation.

With smart visual highlighting through animations, your viewers will walk away understanding and remembering the key ideas you want to relay most. So put this skill to use at your next presentation to make core concepts unforgettable!