Animating text and objects in PowerPoint presentations can bring your content to life and make it more visually appealing and engaging for your audience. In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about animating text and objects in PowerPoint 2013.
What is Animation in PowerPoint?
Animation refers to adding visual effects that make text or objects in your PowerPoint slides move, fade, grow, shrink, etc. over time. For example, you can make a text box slide in from the left or have an image spin around.
There are several types of animations available in PowerPoint 2013:
- Entrance animations: Make objects enter or appear on the slide
- Emphasis animations: Draw attention to specific objects
- Exit animations: Make objects leave or disappear from the slide
- Motion path animations: Make objects move along a custom path
Animations allow you to sequence the order in which objects appear, determine timing and transitions, and add sound effects. When used effectively, animations can make your presentations more dynamic, visually appealing, and help convey information clearly.
How to Add Animations in PowerPoint 2013
Adding animations in PowerPoint 2013 is easy. Follow these simple steps:
- Select the text or object you want to animate on the slide
- Go to the Animations tab
- Click the animation style you want from the gallery
Animations Tab
The animation gallery is divided into the four types of animations. You can hover over each style to preview how it will look.
To access more animation options, click the More button at the bottom. The full gallery will open up.
Once you’ve selected an animation, a numbered marker will appear next to the object indicating the animation order. You can have multiple animations on one object.
Customizing Animations
The real power of animations lies in customizing them to fit your needs. There are several ways to customize animations in PowerPoint 2013:
Effect Options
Every animation style has effect options you can tweak like:
- Duration
- Delay
- Triggers like start on click
- And more
Click the drop-down next to the animation style and select Effect Options to customize.
Animation Pane
The animation pane gives you precise sequence and timing control over all animations on a slide.
Go to Advanced Animation > Animation Pane to open it.
You can reorder animations, change duration, add sound effects, and more here.
Timing
Control timing of animations using the Timing group on the Animations tab. Options include:
- Duration
- Delay between animations
- Repeating animations
- And more
Properly timing your animations is key.
Transitions
Add cool transitions between animations like fade, push, wipe, etc. using the transition gallery.
Triggers
Use triggers like click or previous animation to control when animations start. This lets you sequence your animations.
Motion Paths
Under Motion Paths, choose from dozens of predefined paths or draw your own custom one!
Animating Text
You can animate text in PowerPoint to make it more visually interesting:
- By paragraph – Text appears one paragraph at a time
- By word – Text appears one word at a time
- By letter – Text appears one letter at a time
- All at once
Each option can have further customizations like delays between words or percentage of delay.
Best Practices for Animations
When adding animations to your PowerPoint presentations, keep these best practices in mind:
- Use animations sparingly – Too many can be overwhelming
- Keep it simple – Avoid overly complex animations
- Be consistent – Use the same style animations throughout
- Support your content – Animations should reinforce your message
- Check timing – Make sure animations have proper timing
The key is to strike the right balance between engaging your audience and staying focused on your presentation content.
Conclusion
Animating text and objects can take your PowerPoint slides from simple to spectacular. Start small, experiment, and identify what works best for you. Use animations to emphasize key points, sequence information, and guide your audience through your presentation.
With PowerPoint 2013’s animation tools, the possibilities are endless. Just remember to use them intentionally and avoid going overboard. Animations are meant to enhance your presentations, not become the main focus.
