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PowerPoint Animations: Animate Text, Objects, and Slides in Your Presentations

Working with graphic assets can bring a degree of expectancy when delivering a presentation, such as in the case of PowerPoint animations. They can help add emphasis to slide content and reveal parts of the slide gradually to help presenters discuss topics sequentially. 

As a presenting software, PowerPoint provides all kinds of animations for emphasis, entrance, exit, and to create a set motion. Join us today to learn all about animations in PowerPoint and unleash your creative potential.

Table of Contents

How PowerPoint Animations Can Benefit Presentation Design

Understanding powerpoint animation basics, types of animations in powerpoint, how to animate text on powerpoint, animating objects for visual impact, crafting seamless slide transitions in powerpoint, mastering advanced animation techniques in powerpoint, dos and don’ts of powerpoint animations, real-world use cases of animated presentation slides, recommended animated powerpoint templates, enhanced engagement and understanding through animations.

Dynamic presentations can have many benefits. The importance of such animations is often only realized by people familiar with PowerPoint. As we’ve seen in our guide on visual communication , graphical elements can make concepts more understandable. In the case of animations, we can use the transitions between slides or elements to split concepts and make them clearer.

Audience engagement is another factor, as eye-catching slides often include surprise elements hidden behind animations. These elements attract the audience’s interest and increase retention rate. In this case, animations serve as powerful presentation aids for the speaker.

Capturing Audience Attention

PowerPoint animations are more likely to capture the audience’s attention than static slides. The moving objects on-screen are the type of visuals people are likely to find attention-grabbing instead of trying to read through static slides or looking at static images. On this behalf, storytelling techniques boost their efficacy in connecting with the audience by implementing animations and transitions rather than sticking to static slides. 

Emphasizing Relationships Between Elements

Whenever we work with contrasting values, like pros and cons slides , animations help the presenter highlight areas of interest or disclose the opposite values section by section. This, in turn, structures the speech for real-time interaction with the graphical assets rather than having the audience read the slide and lose focus on the speech. 

Interactive Presentations

As mentioned before, presenters can craft compelling stories through the careful use of animations in PPT. What is often overlooked is the link between interactive presentations and animations. For instance, a speaker can deliver different outcomes of the presentation by selecting one path whose outcome is revealed through an animation. This “wow” factor induces surprise and creatively presents case scenarios.

Another option is when introducing your team in presentations. Rather than using static slides, incorporating animations gives more rhythm to the presentation and invites the public to interact with the speaker.

Getting Started with Animation in PowerPoint

To start with animations in PowerPoint, select an object you wish to animate and go to the Animations tab to choose an animation to add to the slide element. When adding animations to multiple objects in a slide, you should consider the sequence you wish to use to animate objects.

Accessing Animation Features

When accessing animation features, you will come across various animation types. By expanding the Animations menu, you can select animations for entrance, exit, emphasis, and motion paths to create a path for your animated sequence. You can also click to instantly preview an animation for the selected object or switch to slideshow mode to see how the animation will appear.

Adding Animations to Text and Objects

Once an animation is added to a text or object, a number is assigned. This number shows the sequence in which the object will be presented. For example, the object will be the first to be animated on screen, followed by two, three, and so on.

You can adjust the sequence of animations, triggers, and other settings from the Animation Pane in PowerPoint.

Timing and Sequence in Animations

The Timing menu in the Animations pane provides options to set the duration of the animation, the time to delay the animation on the screen (if necessary), and to assess if the animation starts on click, with the previous or after the last animation. How you select these animations will help you adjust the time and sequence of the animations. For example, you can use ‘ with previous’ option to show two animated objects simultaneously.

Entrance, Exit, and Emphasis Animations

Some of the most commonly used animation types fall under three categories: entrance, exit, and emphasis animations.

Entrance Animations

The Entrance Animations are meant to start or introduce objects. You can explore all entrance-related animations by going to Animations -> Animation (menu) -> More Entrance Effects . This will reveal all entrance animations you can click to preview for a selected object. These often consist of basic animations with effects like appear, fly-in, float-in, strips, wheel, circle, box, dissolve-in, split, wedge, wipe, plus, diamond, checkerboard, blinds, etc. The animations can be divided into three categories: basic, subtle, and moderate. These categories help identify the type of effects in each category according to how prominent they might be on screen.

Exit Animations

The Exit Animations are meant to help exit a slide or animated sequence to close a topic or subtopic, or to conclude the on-screen animations for a slide. These animations are similar to the Entrance Animations with the same effects. You can use these animation types for an exit sequence using effects like blinds, circles, checkerboard, box, plus, split, wedge, wipe, diamond, dissolve out, contract, swivel, fade, zoom, basic zoom, collapse, float up, etc.

Like the Entrance Animations, you can go to  Animations -> Animation (menu) -> More Exit Effects to preview the animations and to see the three categories for basic, subtle, or moderate animations.

Emphasis Animations

Other than basic, subtle, and moderate, the Emphasis Animations come with an additional category, ‘exciting.’ Emphasis animations in PowerPoint provide visual aids for emphasizing content within slides. The effects for these animation types in PowerPoint are also quite different from the entrance and exit-themed effects. Effects like fill color, grow/shrink, transparency, line color, teeter, color pulse, object color, desaturate, darken, lighten, blink, wave, and others can help emphasize an object within a slide to make it pop out before the audience.

Exploring Motion Path Animations

If primary effects aren’t what you want, it’s time to switch to Motion Paths . These are animated effects in PowerPoint that showcase objects across a specific path. In other words, these are elaborate animations that drag objects on the screen based on a particular shape or path, such as a 4,5, 6, or 8-point star, crescent moon, circle, diamond, football, heart, octagon, pentagon, square, trapezoid, teardrop, right triangle, arc (down, right, left, up), curvy right, bounce right, etc.

Motion Paths are divided into four categories. The basic effects consist of shapes, whereas, Line Curves provide lines and curves to animated objects. Similarly, the special category contains more elaborate effects such as inverted square, loop de loop, peanut, bean, curved square, etc.

Choosing Appropriate Animation Styles

When choosing animation styles, picking a style that best resonates with your presentation slides is important. The animations’ names and categories can help you identify what might work for you. Furthermore, after adding an animation, you can go to Effect Options to view the various directions and options used to refine the animation to build your sequence further. Depending on the animation type, you can pick variations of the animation, directions, colors, transparency, points to edit or lock, or other options for selected effects. The image below shows the variations for the Wheel animation in PowerPoint via Effect Options .

Similarly, if you select Transparency from Emphasis Effects, you can choose how transparent the object will appear on the screen. Likewise, many color-themed effects enable picking a custom color to animate an object.

Since Motion Paths are unique, you will get options to edit points, lock paths, reverse the direction of the default animated sequence, etc.

Now that you know how to animate in PowerPoint, it’s time to explore making written content more interesting using animations.

Start by opening a blank PPT file and adding a placeholder text. The idea is to learn how text interacts with animation effects without working with complex graphic layouts.

Select the text and switch to the Animations tab. In there, pick an animation effect of your preference. You will get a preview of the effect applied – which will show the number of the animation order once completed.

Animations for text, like any other animation, can be controlled in terms of behavior by accessing the panel at the right-most section of the Ribbon.

Additionally, we can expand the animations panel to select from the different effects offered by PowerPoint.

Animating Text Elements on PPT Templates

Animating text elements to highlight key aspects of your slides can be a great way to create engaging presentations. The Animated 3D 4 Steps & Core PowerPoint Template shown below are among the Animated PowerPoint templates at SlideModel that animate objects and text elements for emphasis while retaining a clear layout.

As visible from the animated sequence from the Animation Pane in the image below, the slide deck uses animated text boxes with a mix of other slide elements to create a sequence where a four-step diagram is highlighted with supported text to help elaborate each part of the diagram in an animated sequence. We can add, remove, or modify the included effects via the Animation Pane.

Balancing Text Animations for Impact

By balancing text animations, you can have maximum impact when highlighting content for your slides. The animations can be triggered to start simultaneously to reveal all the text after a sequence of objects, before objects appear, or one by one to reveal the diagram contents gradually.

Animating Images, Shapes, and Charts

When animating shapes and images, you can use a variety of animation types for entrance, exit, and emphasis, and to make the content pop out. However, charts require subtle animations, and it’s best to use basic effects to reveal charts, such as Appear and Disappear .

The Animated Network Diagram PowerPoint Template is an example of how to animate shapes.

The template’s title slide reveals shapes and icons in the form of a diagram in an animated sequence.

You can also include images in such a template to customize the given diagram and animate it to reveal the image simultaneously or after a set of objects has already been revealed.

If you are including a chart in your slide that is to be animated, make sure the animation corresponds to other elements that might also be animated. For example, you can trigger the chart to be revealed after the slide title with a simple Appear effect. In such a case, the chart can be displayed altogether or gradually, in animated form.

Applying Object Animations Strategically

When placing slide objects, you must apply the animations strategically to avoid revealing information out of sequence. Furthermore, it is also worth considering how your effects appear. For example, in the image of the diagram below, would you prefer the diagram to appear floating upward or downward? Such considerations and other vital elements, such as your branding needs, are important to ponder when setting your animated sequence.

Enhancing Presentation Flow with Transitions

While Animations for PowerPoint are one way of making your slides engaging, PowerPoint Transitions is another. You can access them via the Transitions tab in PowerPoint and apply transitions between slides.

While many legacy transitions provide basic effects when switching between slides, some of the more recent additions to this menu, such as Morph Transition , enable the creation of elaborate animations by using Transitions to animate your slides. The below example shows a slide with the Morph transition, giving an animated effect to the diagram.

Maintaining Coherence Between Slides

When applying Transitions, it is essential to maintain coherence between slides by ensuring they don’t overlap with any added Animations. To do this, you should preview your slide deck to see how it might appear once all the animated effects have been included in your slides. Like PowerPoint Animations, you can also use Effect Options for Transitions to set a sequence or direction that best suits your needs.

Layering for Complex Animation Effects

Using layers of multiple objects and slides can easily create advanced animation effects. This can be done using not only PowerPoint animations but also transitions. The Animated Pendulum Swing PowerPoint Templates from the SlideModel archive of animated templates use Transitions like Morph to create animated sequences. The below example shows a swinging pendulum created using Morph.

Combining and Triggering Animations

Depending on the number of elements within a slide and the animations used, you can use triggers to customize and set sequences for slide elements to animate. The example below shows the selected pendulum’s various linking options for the on-click trigger. By placing your slide objects to be connected and triggered with different parts of your slide, you can create and customize animated sequences that can be pretty attention-grabbing. 

PowerPoint Animation Painter

If you thought you had to start from scratch to animate each slide of your presentation, you are sorely mistaken. Much like the Format Painter option in PowerPoint, we can find Animation Painter , which is accessible via the Ribbon under the Advanced Animation control options.

This tool helps us duplicate animations between elements of the same slide or copy animation effects from one slide to another. As a format copying tool, it requires at least one animation effect to be placed otherwise the option is grayed out.

Creative Experimentation

Experimenting with Animations in PowerPoint can be pretty helpful to avoid making monotonous presentations. Experimentation does not necessarily require making slides from scratch, but you can also use ready-made templates such as the 3D animation PowerPoint Templates at SlideModel. Alternatively, some slide deck templates offer a considerable range of animation effects intended for maximum audience engagement, which users can quickly customize by editing placeholder areas for text, images, and logos.

Below is a list of do’s and don’ts of PowerPoint Animations for making presentations that best use animated effects.

Maintain Animation Moderation

It is essential to maintain moderation when using animations, as the use of too many animations on a single slide or presentation can make the content confusing.

Use of Appropriate Animations

Try to use appropriate animations for slide objects. The animation should suitably show if the object is to enter, exit, be emphasized, or be highlighted using a motion path.

Avoid Animation Overload

Avoid flashy animated sequences unless your presentation is meant for an audience that might find engaging, such as children in a classroom session.

Subtle can be Just as Engaging

Sometimes, subtle animations can be just as engaging as an animation with an elaborate effect. This can, in fact, be a better option than using animations that might be visually overpowering or difficult to follow due to elaborate effects.

Ensure Visual Consistency

As discussed earlier, it is vital to maintain consistency in using animated effects. Be it Animations or Transitions, using flashy effects or too many diverse effects can hurt how the audience perceives your content, as it might become confusing, visually overpowering, or unprofessional. In such a case, the audience might quickly lose interest in the presentation, leading to Death by PowerPoint.

Less is More

The design language of visual designs over the past decade or more has been intended to use fewer effects and graphical elements with ample space to make the interface look clean. Be it Modern UI or Material design apps, this design language has been evident across desktop and mobile UIs. Using the same concept, you can design your slides with fewer animations and graphical elements to make your content more visually appealing.

Turning PowerPoints into Millions

Courtney Allen, a professional PowerPoint designer who came out of a BFA in graphic design from Boise State University, had all but PowerPoint as a part of her portfolio. She started her freelancing career via Upwork, making over a thousand PowerPoints for clients, bringing in as many as $2 million. She suggests using simple designs and animations to make the most out of PowerPoint presentations. 

Guy Kawasaki Pitch Deck

Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee, whose famous 10-slide pitch deck has inspired a variety of PowerPoint templates. This rule was designed for startups and business presentations, focusing on pitching a concept to investors. While this isn’t directly related to using animations in presentations, it is an example of making the best use of minimalist content in a few slides. You can learn more about the Guy Kawasaki pitch deck from our article about the 10/20/30 rule for PowerPoint presentations .

How not to use an Animated PowerPoint Presentation in Court! 

Presentations with animations aren’t always a great idea. In 2014, a court in the United States criticized a PowerPoint presentation by the prosecutor, which led to the court throwing the case out. The presentation was made with sound effects and animations, with flashy elements like the bullseye. Some of the significant mistakes made by the prosecutor included ‘visual advocacy,’ where the defendant was marked with the word ‘guilt’ in the slide deck. Not to mention, the animated presentation seemed to be aimed at influencing the court using visual aids. Something that did not sit well with the court.

Use of PowerPoint by the US Military

The US Military has often been accused of Death by PowerPoint for preparing what some call the worst PowerPoint slides ever created. The issue became so profound that in 2011, it was revealed that an executive communications manager at Microsoft, Dave Karle, was tasked with ensuring that the US military could finally start using the software properly. After discussions with top military officials, an updated military presentation method was created, consisting of a number of presentation templates, tips, and graphics and more than 6000 map symbols. 

In this section, you can check some ready-made templates that can be easily customized for your presentation’s purposes. All these templates feature professionally made animation effects with native PowerPoint tools.

1. Multi-Purpose Animated PowerPoint Slide Deck

Those looking for how to animate in PowerPoint now have a ready-made solution to create mind-blowing presentations in a couple of minutes. This slide deck contains 26 slides in a broad selection of topics. We can present facts, introduce our team, our company, display charts with animated effects, and so much more. Check it out now!

Use This Template

2. Animated 8-Step Social Media Carousel PowerPoint Template

Bring dynamism to your social media posts by implementing this vivid social media carousel template. With eye-catching animated effects, this template emulates the typical carousel posts we can find on platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram.

3. Problem Solving Animated PowerPoint Template

Bring professional graphics to troubleshooting sessions with your team. This template, filled with PowerPoint animations, offers a user-friendly approach to conventional problem-solving situations in which the team has to observe the Issue Matrix, suggest possible solutions, and prepare an implementation plan and its corresponding process flow diagram. Thanks to its high-quality animation effects, the speaker can introduce the facts individually, without diverting attention from the speech.

4. Animated Company Profile Presentation Template for PowerPoint

We’ve seen this template as one of the examples of animations for PowerPoint. It is a 21-slide solution offering all the tools required for a corporate-styled company profile presentation, specifically tailored for service businesses.

5. Corporate Company Profile Animated PowerPoint Template

An alternative option for company profile presentations, featuring a minimalistic graphic layout with a broad variety of animation effects. Check these 12 slides and customize them with information relevant to your organization – we bring complex animation effects in a ready-made format. Colors and placeholder images can also be replaced.

6. Animated Roadmap PowerPoint Template

Bring more action to any planning meeting using this animated PowerPoint roadmap template. After a clear path overview, each milestone slide contains animation effects to introduce relevant information to the topic. It is a new take on traditional roadmap presentations that allows the speaker to pace themselves regarding how to disclose the information about the strategy to embark on.

7. Animated Pros & Cons Comparison Slide Template for PowerPoint

We mentioned the advantages of using PowerPoint animations to discuss contrasting values of a situation. Well, this animated Pros & Cons slide is the ideal tool for that purpose, offering a generalist view, then two accompanying slides for Pros & Cons, respectively, with animated effects to introduce additional information per point.

Using animations to make visually appealing and engaging presentations requires ensuring that your content corresponds with your added animated effects. It is always best to use animations in moderation and to keep your slides minimalist while unleashing your creativity as a presenter. Using ready-made PowerPoint templates can also help give you a good starting point to begin experimenting with animations and effects. This can also be useful for people new to PowerPoint Animations to explore what is doable with an animated slide deck, using animated sequences tailored for customization. 

Whether you’re using an animated template or making one from scratch, a preview in slideshow mode can save you a lot of trouble with potential issues tied to animated effects. Last but not least, using animations in PowerPoint isn’t always necessary, and you can even go for a simple slide deck with a handful of slides. What matters is that you should be aware of the information being presented, and the visual aids should be just to aid your slides and not meant to be the whole package on their own.

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How to Add Animations and Transitions in PowerPoint

In this tutorial, you’ll learn the basics of adding animations and transitions to your presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint. These visual effects will help you make your slides more dynamic and will keep your audience engage.

Adding an Animation to a Text, an Image, a Shape or Other Elements of a Presentation

Adding transitions to a slide.

• Select the object that you want to animate.
• Click the Animations tab.
• Select the animation that you want from the list.
• If you want to see which animations are applied to an object, click Animation Pane. You can also rearrange the animations as you see fit.
• Use the timing options to set the timing of the animation. You can choose when you want the animation to start: on click, with previous or after previous. You can also set the duration and even set a delay before the animation begins.

• Select the slide you want to apply a transition to.
• Click the Transitions tab.
• After you select any transition from the list, you’ll see a preview of the resulting effect.
• If you want to adjust the direction of the effect, among other settings, click the Effect Options drop-down arrow.

• To remove a transition, on the Transitions tab, click None.

• You can change the animations or transitions at any time. To do so, select the animated object or the slide with a transition applied to it and choose a different option from the list.

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PowerPoint Animation Tutorial (2022) – Step-by-Step

July 27, 2022

Introduction

Animation in your slide deck is a great way to add visual interest. And when done well it can WOW your audience. This in-depth, step-by-step tutorial covers how to animate in PowerPoint showing the fundamentals of adding and modifying animations and then demonstrates advanced strategies like customizing timings, adding triggers, using morph, and creating animations with 3D objects.

Types of Animation Effects

Before you begin applying animation in PowerPoint, it helps to know how they are categorized and how these categories affect the function of the animation. These categories or types are also referred to as effects.

The first effect category is Enter. With this animation objects are not visible initially and appear based on a specific action by the presenter like a click of a mouse.

The second effect category is Emphasis. Here an object is visible on the slide and will animate to draw attention to it such as pulse.

The third effect category is Exit. Here an object is visible on the slide and then will exit from view based on an action like a mouse click.

Adding an animation

To apply an animation on a slide you need at least one object on the slide. An object is any type of content that can be added to a slide such as a shape, text, icon, picture, etc. In this example, I’ll use a shape on blank slide. The location of the object will be where the animation either ends or begins. You want to select the object. Click the Animations tab and click the animation you want to apply. You can scroll through the gallery or click the small drop-down arrow to display more options all at once. When you select an animation, the object will show what the animation looks like. You can also use the Preview button on the Animations tab to see what the animation looks like. You will notice that the object now has a small box with a number next to it. That is a visual indicator noting an animation has been applied to the object. The number indicates the order the animations occur if you have more than one object animating on the slide. In Windows if you select a new animation from the gallery, it will override the previous selection. For instance, if I apply an Emphasis animation the Enter fly-in is replaced. The same with applying an Exit Fly-out the Emphasis effect is replaced. To remove an animation, just choose None in the Gallery.

Some animations like the Fly In are pre-set to animate from a specific direction. To change the direction, click the Effects Option button after applying the animation. From the drop-down options choose the direction you want. If the Effects Option isn’t active, then that effect you selected can’t be changed in any way.

Motion Path animation

The next effect I want to touch on is the Motion Path option. You can choose a basic effect like moving in a straight line. Or something highly custom like drawing your own path. With the Motion Path, the small green dot is the starting point, and the red dot is the ending location. To extend the path, you can drag and drop the red dot to a new spot on the slide. With motion path the animation possibilities are quite extensive, especially if you use it with other effects.

Applying an animation to similar objects

If you have several objects that you want to add animation to, here are some strategies I use to save time. If you want to animation multiples of the same object in the same way first add the shape then add the animation to that shape and then press Control D to duplicate that shape.

Rearrange as needed and you will notice that all of the objects have a number indicator next to them. The different numbers indicate the order the objects will animate. Let's click the Preview button to see what it looks like.

Copying the shape and pasting is another option Either on the same slide or another slide. To copy either use Control C, Right-click and copy, or click the Copy button on the Home tab. Then paste either using Control V, Right-click and paste, or click the Paste button on the Home tab. Just like with Duplicate, there is an indication number.

If you want the same object to animation on a different slide, you can duplicate the slide Select the slide in the Thumbnail Pressing Control D or Right-click and choose Duplicate

Looking at the second slide, you can see the object has an animation indicator I will change the object's color so you can see what it looks like. I'll go into Presentation Mode and here is what the animation looks like.

If you have several different objects and you want them all to have the same animation, you have a couple of options. You can select them all. And click the animation type in the Animations tab. You will see they all have the same animation indicator next to them. As the Preview shows, this option sets the animation for all objects to start at the same time.

You can also use the Animation Painter. Once you’ve added an animation to an object, select it. Click the Animation Painter button. Then click on the object you want to apply the animation to.

With this option, it sets the animations to start one after the other. If you double click the Painter option, you can apply the animation to multiple objects without having to click the Painter button for each object.

Adjusting Start, Duration, and Delay

Once you’ve added an animation to an object, often the next step is modifying the timing of the animation. To the far right on the animation tab, there are three timing settings: Start, Duration, and Delay.

Modifying Start

The Start timing determines how the animation will start. The default is On Click. So when you click your mouse the animation begins.

The next option is With Previous. The object with this setting will animate at the same time as the previous animation. In this example the Triangle animates with the circle.

The third start setting is After Previous. Here an object animates after the previous animation is complete. In this example the triangle animates once the circle animation is done.

Changing Duration

The next timing is the Duration or speed of the animation. The default setting is typically Very Fast at half a second (0.5). You can use the up and down arrows to speed up or slow down the animation by quarter intervals. Or you can type in the duration.

In this example, you can see the Triangle fly in is much slower than the previous examples. As a side note, the duration can’t be changed for some animations.

Adding Delay

The last timing is Delay. This a slightly more advanced setting and this setting delays the start of an animation. The default setting is zero. Meaning there is no delay. In the example, the Triangle is set to start after previous with a one second delay.

Applying Multiple Animations

Now that you know how to modify a single animation, we can move on to apply multiple animations to one object. As I mentioned in Video 1 of this 3-part series, clicking a different animation in the gallery replaces the previous animation.

In this example, I will set the object to fly-in, pulse, and then fly-out. Do do this, I select the object. I choose the Fly in animation. Then I click the Add Animation button. Choose Pulse as an emphasis. I'll add the third animation, clicking the Add animation button and then choosing Fly-out. And the Preview shows what that will look like.

In Video 1 of this series, I demonstrated the Animation Painter, when you have multiple animations, this option comes in handy.

Using the Animation Pane

Once you start adding multiple animations to objects, using the Animation Pane can help you keep track. To display the pane either click the Animations Pane button or click one of the animation indicators by an object.

From the animation pane, you can see the order of the animations. They are listed from beginning to end. A mouse means it is an On Click start animation. No icon means that it is set to With Previous. And a clock indicates that the Start is After Previous.

The color of the star indicates the type of effect: green for enter, yellow for emphasis, and red for exit. If you can’t see color very well, the lines Indicate whether it is an Enter, an Emphasis, or an Exit.

If you want to change the order of the animations, you can use the up and down arrows. Or just drag and drop. You can select more than one by holding down the Shift key and then moving them all at the same time.

Deleting animations from the Animation Pane is quite easy. Select the animation and press the Delete key.

The animation pane also shows the timeline of the animations. The placement of the bar on the timeline indicates when the animation begins and end. You can drag and drop the bar to change the delay. You can resize the bar to change the duration of the animation.

Effects and Timing Dialog Box

When you mouse over or select an animation, To the far right of each animation is a small down arrow. Clicking the arrow provides options to show more settings for the effects and timings. Let’s take a look.

You will notice there are three tabs Effect, Timing, and Text Animation The added options in the Effects tab, is that you can add a Dim after animation setting. I usually apply this to content that I have as part of a list. So, when I am done discussing one bullet point, I dim that option and then display the next option.

If you don’t want to apply an exit animation, you can also make content disappear right after the animation or hide on the next mouse click.

The Timing tab, provides the same options as on the Animation tab for Start, Duration, and Delay.

You can also add a repeat loop. You can set specific times or until the next animation or until the end of the slide show. The speed of the animation will determine how the effect looks such as a rapid pulse or slow flash.

The trigger setting lets you set an On Click to a specific object. When you click the object with your mouse, it activates the animation for a different object. This differs from a typical On Click animation because the object itself must be clicked for the animation to work.

To do this, apply each animation to the specific object Then select the animation in animation pane Click the trigger button in the Animations tab and choose the object from the menu options Repeat this process for each object.

Renaming objects in the Selection Pane helps if you have several objects to trigger. One reason I like this option, is because it allows me to animate in any order.

Text Animation Strategies

With all of the examples so far, I’ve worked with shapes and other objects. Text can be animated just like any other object on the slide. But here are some things to keep in mind.

Selecting the text box will animate each line separately Selecting all of the text in the text box will animate all of the text at once. To change the setting, highlight the line or lines and change the Start to On Click. Selecting each paragraph or line in a bullet and then choosing your effect, will animate each line separately.

Morph Transition

A more advanced animation people like to use is called morphing. Within PowerPoint, morphing is a transition and not an animation. That means you apply the effect to the entire slide and not an individual object. Morphing as its name implies is an object that is changed into something different. This can be a simple effect like moving and changing in color.

For this effect, I will duplicate the slide with the circle. On the second slide I’ll move the circle to the right side and changed the color fill. With the second slide selected in the thumbnail pane, I click the Transitions tab and select Morph.

The Preview shows you what it'll look like. As you can see, unlike a fly in type of animation, the object appears to be changing with a slight fade.

Advanced Morph Transition

An advanced morph transition can be used to make an object change into a different object. Like this example of a circle morphing into a star. To apply an advanced morph, create the two slides with the different objects.

Before applying the transition to the second slide, open the Selection Pane. Select the object on the first slide, then click the Selection Pane button either on the Home tab or in the Shape Format tab.

Within the Selection Pane, you can rename objects to help keep track of multiple objects. For this animation to work, the objects on each slide need to have the same name starting with 2 exclamation points. I will rename this object to !!morph1. And copy the name. And then press Enter to set the new name of the object.

Now I need to select the second slide. In the Selection Pane, double click in the name of the star object. And paste in the name of the first object. Then I will press Enter to set the new name.

Now with the second slide selected, I can apply the Morph transition. And it will show what the morph will looks like. This is one of my favorite tricks to add some pizazz to a slide deck.

Animating 3D objects

The last animation I want to show you is animating a 3D object, like this example. Many people aren’t aware that they have access to 3D objects within their 365 subscription.

To add a 3D object, click the Insert tab. Then click the 3D object button and choose from Stock 3D Models. Or if you have a model on your device, choose that option. Search and select the object you want. In this example, I will insert a Monarch Butterfly.

To view the different sides of the model, click the center button with the multiple arrows. And then just drag your mouse to view the object. With the model selected, click the Animations Tab. And you'll notice that the Gallery now has 3D animations added.

These will be cubes with arrows around them. For this example, I will use the turntable effect. With the Effects option button, I can make some adjustments like the direction and amount of spine as well as the spin axis.

Using the Morph transition with a 3D object can add an extra visual element. Using the butterfly again, I will duplicate the slide. For the first slide, I will delete the turntable animation and change it to top view.

On the second slide I will keep the side view and the turntable animation. Then I will apply the Morph transition to the second slide. The preview shows the butterfly smoothly transitions from the top view to the side view. and then the turntable animation begins.

About the Author

Jennifer Sharkey is known as the Virtual Presentation Specialist. Being passionate about seeing people shine and be heard, she leans into her 20+ years of public speaking experience and uses what she has learned from presenting, both in-person and virtually, to small groups all the way up to 5000 people. Jennifer draws from her experience as an associate professor, academic librarian, and coach to help holistic coaches master virtual presentations to grow their business. Her unique immersive program provides practical strategies and methods to build confidence, engage audiences, and generate authenticity and authority.

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How To Add Animations To PowerPoint

With PowerPoint, you can make awesome presentations just by using static slides and non-animated elements. However, if you want to literally make your audience go ‘wow’ during your presentation, you’d need to think of a way to really get their attention. The best way to do this is by using animations. And in this tutorial, I’m going to show you exactly how to add animations to PowerPoint so you can use it to your advantage.

Before you proceed with this tutorial, have a look at these 6 PowerPoint Secrets from Profesional Presentation Designers . The design is another important aspect of your slide deck, and adding animations to your PowerPoint without working on an overall design of the presentation will not cut it.

The Different Types of Animations In PowerPoint

Animations are visual effects which make your texts, images, shapes, or charts come ‘alive.’ They catch your audience’s attention and helps them engage with you and your presentation.

Moreover, there are generally two types of animations you can use to make your presentation come alive. These are:

Transitions

The first type of animation is called transition animation ; these are animations added in between slides. When you transition from slide 1 to slide 2, you can add an animation in between the slides. You can view the different transition options by going to the Transitions pane on the PowerPoint ribbon.

(Caption: The Transitions pane in PowerPoint)

The default view shows 10 transitions, but if you click on the little arrow like you see in the screenshot above, then you’ll see many more options like you see here:

(Caption: More Transition options in PowerPoint – choose from Subtle, Exciting and Dynamic Content transition animations)

Transition animations have additional effect options. You will notice this when you click on the transition you want to use. The Effect Options button won’t be grayed out, and you can select additional settings.

For example, I selected ‘Reveal’ as my transition animation. Available effect options would be:

• Smoothly from right
• Smoothly from left
• Through black from right
• Through black from left

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like:

(Caption: Effect Options are available for some transition animations in PowerPoint)

You can also adjust the timing and duration of each transition as well as set how you want the slides to advance so that the transition can take place.

(Caption: More settings can be adjusted in the Timing section as well as the Animation Pane)

Feel free to play around with the transition animations and effect options that work best with your presentation.

The second type of animations bring the objects or elements within your slide to life. If you want to animate text, an image, shape, graph or chart, this is the type of animation you select.

You first to have to click on the object you want to animate , then click on the Animations tab .

(Caption: The Animations pane in PowerPoint)

The default view shows 8 animations, but if you click on the little arrow like you see on the screenshot above, then you’ll see many more options like you see here:

(Caption: More Animation options in PowerPoint – choose from Entrance, Exit, Emphasis and Motion Paths animations)

You can choose from the following types of animations:

• Entrance animations. The icons for this type of animation are colored green . If you use this type of animation for an object, that object will enter the slide according to your timing preferences.
• Exit animations. The icons for this type of animation are colored red . The object you’ve added this animation to will exit the slide .
• Emphasis animations. The icons for this kind of animation are colored yellow . The object won’t enter or exit the slide (unless you’ve added that particular animation to the same object) but will emphasize and draw attention to that object.
• Motion path animations. This type of animation will allow you to move an object from one spot to another. You can specify or draw the path you want the object to take.

In the next sections, we’ll go over how to add the 4 different types of animations to your slides.

How To Add Animations to PowerPoint In 2 Simple Steps

To add entrance animations to any object in PowerPoint, here’s what you need to do:

• Click on the object you want to animate. In this example, we will use a blue smiley face.

(Caption: The blue smiley face we will be animating for this tutorial)

2. Select the animation you want to use. For this example, we used the entrance animation – fade animation. We set the duration to 2.75 seconds. You will notice in the screenshot below that the fade animation has no effect options (the button is greyed out).

(Caption: The different options available for Fade animation in PowerPoint)

Here’s what those numbers in the screenshot mean:

1 – We chose the Fade animation.

2 – There are no Effect Options for Fade Animation (the button is grayed out and not clickable)

3 – You can adjust settings via the Advanced Animation, Timing, and Animation Pane sections

4 – The number (1) refers to the fact that we’ve added 1 animation to our object (this is the Fade animation).

5 – You can click on the Preview button to preview the animation.

As you can see, adding animations to an object is no rocket science. You can even add entrance, exit, emphasis and motion path animations to a single object!

Important Points To Remember When Adding Animations

It’s so easy adding animations to presentation slides that you can easily lose control. Therefore, you’ll find yourself animating all objects on your slides and adding slide transitions as well. Nevertheless, it might look fun to you, but in reality, it can distract your audience’s attention from the message you’re trying to convey in your presentation.

So here are some guidelines you should following when adding animations to PowerPoint:

• Simplicity is key. Simple animations like fade and appear may not be as impressive as other animations available, but these add a touch of elegance to well-timed slides. It makes your slides look clean and simple.
• Limit the number of animations on a slide. One or two animations per slide should suffice. There’s really no need to animate every single object on each slide.
• Time your presentation well. Make sure your objects appear right after you introduce it. This keeps your audience’s interest piqued.
• Don’t forget to practice. Practicing your timings and your animations are key to a successful presentation.

We hope you learned something new in today’s article. Remember, animations are fun and great when used sparingly and tastefully, but when overdone, you could potentially lose face in front of your audience and look like a total amateur instead.

At 24slides , we’re designing beautiful PowerPoint, Prezi and Keynote presentations using the latest design techniques and loads of creativity. We create professional presentations from scratch and redesign existing ones. Take a look at some examples of our work and let’s get in touch .

You might also find this interesting: PowerPoint’s Morph And Zoom: Everything You Need To Know

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Create custom animations

If you are the adventurous type, you can create some pretty amazing presentations with lots of motion path animations. It's not all that difficult once you get the hang of it.

Customize with motion paths

You can create some pretty amazing presentations with lots of motion path animations:

On the ANIMATIONS tab, click More in the Animation Gallery, and under Motion Paths , do one of the following:

Click Lines , Arcs , Turns , Shapes or Loops . The path chosen appears as a dotted line on the selected object or text. The green arrow indicates the path’s beginning and the red arrow indicates its end. Drag either end to put the endpoints where you want them.

Click Custom Path . When you click where you want the motion path to start, the pointer appears as a cross-hair.

To draw a path of connected straight lines    , click where you want the motion path to start. Move the pointer and click to create a line between the two click points. Move and click again to draw another line. Double-click to stop drawing lines.

To draw a freehand path    , click where you want the motion to start. Hold the left mouse button and move the pointer on the path that you want the object to follow. Double-click at the motion’s final endpoint.

If you are the adventurous type, you can create some pretty amazing presentations with lots of motion path animations.

You'll see that it is not all that difficult, once you get the hang of it. But let's start out small.

Click the shape called Behind Shape 1 .

Now if we add an Entrance animation like Fly In , we can control where the shape ends up, and the Direction and Sequence with Effect Options .

But we can't control where the shape begins, or the path it takes.

To do that we need to use motion paths. Go down to Motion Paths and select Lines .

This is the motion path: the line describes the path; the green arrow indicates where the shape starts; and the red arrow indicates where the shape ends.

Select the path. This half-transparent shape shows the shape at its endpoint.

Drag the red arrow and position the endpoint over the in-front shape.

Then, preview the animation. And the first shape moves behind the second one.

Motion paths can be a lot of fun.

Try some other ones, like Arcs and Loops .

Also, click Custom Path , if you want to draw your own motion path.

Let's go back to the previous slide and add a motion path to Behind Shape 2 .

Use the Animation Painter to copy the animation.

Then, select the motion path, and move its endpoint on top of the in-front shape.

Preview the animation.

The animation works alright, but the second behind shape ends up covering up the shape we want to keep on top.

This is a problem you'll run into more often when you are creating custom animations. But it's easy to fix.

Right-click the shape and click Send to Back , Send Backward .

Now preview the animation.

That's the way we want it.

You see, all the objects on the slide are organized into layers.

By sending the shape backward, we moved it to a layer behind the in-front shape.

Here's another thing you can do to create custom animations.

This ball shape actually contains two animations: a motion path that moves the shape horizontally and a Spin animation that makes the ball appear to roll as it moves.

To add multiple animations to an object, select the first animation in this gallery.

Then, click Add Animation to add the others.

Also, don’t forget about those additional effect and timing options.

Here's another way to open that dialog box in the Animation Pane .

Click the arrow next to the animation, and click Effect Options .

I added Auto-reverse to the animations, so the objects return to their original positions.

So now, you have everything you need to get started with the animations in PowerPoint.

The best way to understand animations is to experiment on your own.

For more information, check out the links in the course summary.

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11 Animated PowerPoint Templates With Interactive Features [To Edit and Download]

Written by: Orana Velarde

Animated presentations help grab the attention of viewers more than static ones can. And they can be especially helpful when you're giving a virtual or Zoom presentation and need to keep an online audience engaged.

To help you make the most of your time on stage or a screen, use animated PowerPoint templates in your content to add a new angle to your visuals. Slide decks with animated features work well for webinars, step-by-step video tutorials or a trends report full of charts and graphs.

Even if you created a presentation in PowerPoint previously, make your animated PowerPoint slides better by editing them right inside Visme. Upload existing PowerPoints into your Visme account, then add animated and interactive features like hotspots, links to other slides in the same deck, plus plenty of creative animations.

Visme also offers hundreds of animated presentation templates right inside our tool so that you can say goodbye to PowerPoint once and for all.

In this post, we’ve gathered our favorite animated slide deck templates for you to edit and download. There are templates for all types of projects, from business proposals to pitch decks. 

Keep scrolling to find your favorite. If you don’t, you can always use the Visme Brand Wizard to create ideal presentation slides for your brand.

But before you begin, check out our quick 5-minute tutorial video to learn how to create your next presentation in Visme.

• Upload Your Animated PowerPoint to Visme
• Add Engaging Transitions to Your Animated PowerPoint [+Templates]
• Add Custom Animations to Your Animated PowerPoint [+Templates]
• Add Interactive Features To Your Animated PowerPoint [+Templates]
• Add Animated Charts, Graphs and Data Widgets To Your Animated PowerPoint [+Templates]
• Export Your Visme Presentations as a PowerPoint

Animated PowerPoint FAQs

• Visme offers thousands of templates you can use to create animated PowerPoint presentations. These templates span multiple industries, use cases and designs.
• To create an animated PowerPoint in Visme, upload a template, add engaging transitions, custom animations, interactive features, animated charts and widgets, collaborate with multiple team members and export your presentation in PowerPoint (PPTX) format.
• If you're short on time, you can use the Visme AI presentation maker to whip up stunning animated PowerPoint presentations in seconds. Be it an interactive presentation for sales , business , project , product or corporate use.
• Sign up to Visme's presentation software to access beautiful templates, design assets, and cutting-edge features that make creating animated PowerPoint presentations a breeze.

Step 1: Upload Your Animated PowerPoint to Visme

Your first step is to upload your ppt with animation to Visme. You can easily do so with a business account in Visme. Then when you create a new presentation , you'll instead hit the upload button to bring your old presentations back to life with Visme animations, templates, interactivity and design elements.

Better yet, you can access some of Visme's creative slide transitions. Every single animated presentation template in Visme includes an attractive staggered transition effect from slide to slide. 

More than 900 slides in our template library are designed especially for your presentations to look impressive and unforgettable. Plus, our design panel is loaded with free animations for PowerPoint slides.

When you import a PowerPoint template to Visme, you can easily add slide transitions to one slide at a time or all at once. However, it's best to stick with a single transition from slide to slide so that your presentation doesn't look too cluttered.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a quick solution, instead of creating your slides separately, you can use Visme's AI presentation maker to create your presentations in minimal time.

Input a text prompt explaining your requirements, choose a style and Visme's AI will craft text, images and icons to create tailored presentations. You can then customize the slides in Visme's presentation maker and include your interactive and animated features to make your presentations more engaging.

Working on the presentation with your team? The collaboration tool is a handy resource. You can invite team members and give them regulated or unlimited access to leave comments, reply to comments and work on the design in real time. The workflow feature makes project management easier. You can assign specific slides or the entire project, set deadlines, review and approve projects—all in one workspace.

Spice up your boring PowerPoints

• Easily import your PowerPoint into Visme
• Improve existing presentations inside Visme
• Add new design elements and interactivity

Sign up. It’s free.

Step 2: Add Engaging Transitions to Your Animated PowerPoint

After importing a PowerPoint template into Visme, it’s easy to convert it into a ppt with animation by adding animated transitions to the slides. Here’s how to do it:

• Click on the gear icon on the top left of a slide in the slide list on the right of the editor.
• Select Change Transition .
• Choose to add a transition only to that slide or to all slides in one go.

These are the slide transition options to make your animated PPT template that much better:

• Staggered Fade
• Enter from Side
• Enter from Bottom
• Enter from Top
• Simple Fade

Transitions can be added with different options: based on time, when clicked, or when a video ends.

We’re sure you’re happy to hear that all PowerPoint templates can be imported and animated with Visme. 

But that isn’t the best part!

The Visme presentation library is full of animated templates and free animations for PowerPoint in many different industry styles and content types.

But wait, there’s more. Did you know you can also create animated infographics? In the video below, Mike will show you how to design interactive infographics that will elevate your content strategy.

Below are some of our most versatile animated slide decks read for you to edit, animate and download or share online.

1. Animated Market Trends Report Presentation Template

This animated market trends report has a cool slide background and creative transitions that navigate from slide to slide. Each transition is different but they don’t feel overwhelming. The data widgets enter the slide seamlessly in a visually interesting way.

2. Simple But Animated Architecture Presentation Template

Even simple designs will look great with creative transitions and animations as PPT presentations. This Architecture Presentation template has slide transitions all coming down from the top, making it look interesting and attractive.

3. Fashion Design Animated Presentation Template

The fashion design presentation has a different combination of slide transitions. They are all zoom-in and zoom-out transitions, perfect for the design style of the slides in this template.

Add more slides from the template or duplicate the ones you have and they will all have the same transition. With these animated images for PowerPoint, you can grab and hold your audience's attention for longer periods.

Watch this video below to discover the power of animated illustrations to tell compelling stories, convey complex concepts, and evoke emotions in your audience.

Step 3: Add Custom Animations to Your Animated PowerPoint

Your animated PowerPoint templates and all Visme presentation templates have plenty of different styles of animation possibilities. 

With Visme, you can add various animation effects in PowerPoint to any element within a slide. Here are a few types you can incorporate:

Enter Animations

• Fly in from top 
• Fly in from bottom
• Fly in from left
• Fly in from right

Exit Animations

• Fly to top, 
• Fly to bottom
• Fly to left
• Fly to right

Furthermore, control the timing of the animations to create interesting and unforgettable compositions. Use these animation features to create your own in and out slide transitions. Control the movements on click, hover or just by navigating to the next slide.

When designing your slides, take advantage of our selection of moving backgrounds for PowerPoint. Choose between animated and video backgrounds to create even more attractive animated PPTs.

Hey marketers! Need to create scroll-stopping visual content fast?

• Transform your visual content with Visme’s easy-to-use content creation platform
• Produce beautiful, effective marketing content quickly even without an extensive design skillset
• Inspire your sales team to create their own content with branded templates for easy customization

Below are some animated templates for different industries.

4. Technology Trends Animated Slide

Use enter and exit animated effects for the elements on each slide. Use a two-directional approach with the elements coming in from two sides in a staggered effect. Time the animation so that it comes in slowly as a creative visual.

This PowerPoint animation template has this style of animation. You can duplicate the slides and then switch the elements to create more slides.

5. Social Media Posting Times Animated Slide

Looking for an animated background for PowerPoint? This animated slide has up and down movements for different elements. The effect created is a rotating scenery from day to night with a gradient background quality.

Share this PowerPoint template with animation as a live link or an HTML file. Alternatively, embed it on your site as part of a blog post or call to action.

6. Step-by-Step Information Animated Slide

This type of animated presentation is called building the story. The entire presentation seems like it's created on one slide as pieces of the puzzle enter the scene one by one. Use an animated slide like this to create an unforgettable presentation.

7. Animated Venn Diagram Presentation Slide

Similar to the above template, this animated Venn diagram has a staggered effect with pieces that come into the scene one by one. A Venn diagram has lots of possibilities for different topics and industries. It's always best to explore a variety of venn diagram templates to see which design can best showcase your point. 

Step 4: Add Interactive Features To Your Animated PowerPoint

Moving on from animated slide transitions and animation effects for slide elements. Your animated PowerPoint templates also have the opportunity of becoming interactive.

Visme offers a number of interactive features like pop-up boxes, hover effects, links to other slides, content blocks or objects and links to external websites.

Mix it up with transitions and animations and you have yourself an interactive animated PowerPoint presentation.

Below are some of the best Visme animated presentation templates and PowerPoint video templates that use interactive features.

8. Graffiti Style Interactive Animated PowerPoint Template

This presentation template has seamless transitions from slide to slide plus a number of creative pop-ups. Each pop-up includes additional information for its respective slide. The design follows the style of the presentation and adds an extra dose of creativity.

9. Navigable Menu Interactive Animated Presentation Template

Create an interactive navigable slide deck with a main menu that links to different slides with Visme’s interactive link features. This style of presentation is like a website you can look through. The best way to share an interactive presentation like this, share a live link.

The video below shows you how it all works.

The best part is that there’s no limit to what you can do in Visme. You can make animated backgrounds for PowerPoint, animated images for PowerPoint or a complete PowerPoint template with animation.

Use Visme’s 3D character creator to add animated characters to your presentations. This tool allows you to create characters with different body types, facial expressions, hair styles and more to suit your presentation theme. Also, you can choose from various entry, waiting and exit poses to animate these characters and keep your audience entertained

Step 5: Add Animated Charts, Graphs and Data Widgets To Your Animated PowerPoint

Visme turns your animated PowerPoint templates into amazing data visualization presentations. All charts and graphs created with the Graph Engine can not only be animated, but they can also have interactivity. In this article, we've explained how to create animated charts in Visme.

Apart from that, there are also plenty of data widgets to visualize other types of information, like maps and percentages.

To help you make your data visualization more engaging, Visme comes with a wide variety of 3D charts, graphs and data widgets. You can customize and add these 3D data visualizations in your presentations to bring your data to life and make complex data easier to understand.

10. Financial Report Presentation Template With Animated Charts And Graphs

Financial reports are full of analytics and data visualizations. Make yours even better by using animated charts and graphs. The bars, lines, and curves have animation features to fit any presentation.

This template is perfect for all the financial reports you create for your business.

11. Animated Statistical Report Presentation Template

Statistics is a classic source for data visualization in a business setting. Stats presentations are used in meetings day in and day out, sent to team members and stakeholders. Make all your stats reports better than they’ve ever been by adding animation to charts and graphs .

Even better, use this presentation template and save yourself some time.

Step 6: Export Your Visme Presentations as a PowerPoint

Just like we imported your PowerPoint presentation into Visme, all Visme presentations can be exported as PPTx presentations for offline presentations. All you have to do is click on PPTx in the download options.

The catch is that PowerPoint doesn't support all of Visme's unique animation and interactivity features , so it will always be best to stick with Visme for sharing and presenting. With Visme, you can share an animated presentation as a live link or an HTML file to present offline.

If you're running out of time and don't want to go through these steps, you can use the Visme AI presentation maker to whip up stunning animated PowerPoint presentations in seconds. Be it an interactive presentation for sales , business , project , product or corporate use.

And before you present, watch the video below to review the ways to structure your presentations . There are 7 main presentation structures to help you set up amazing stories throughout your presentation.

The tips and templates provided above can help you create impressive animated presentations. However, Visme understands that not everyone has the time or design expertise to start from scratch. That's where Visme's AI Design Generator comes in.

Visme's AI Design Generator is a powerful tool that can help you create professional-looking designs in seconds. It uses artificial intelligence to generate unique designs based on the prompt you input. You can use it to create presentations, documents, printables and social media graphics.

Q1. How do you animate a PowerPoint presentation?

To animate a PowerPoint presentation, select the object you want to animate, go to the "Animations" tab, and choose from various animation options available.

However, for more advanced interactive animations, you can import your PowerPoint into Visme and utilize its extensive animation options.

Q2. What are the 4 types of animation in PowerPoint?

The four main types of animations in PowerPoint are Enter Animations, Emphasis Animations, Exit Animations and Motion Paths.

Q3. Can PowerPoint auto animate?

Yes, you can set PowerPoint slides to auto-animate by adjusting the timing settings for each animation effect.

Q4. How to create PowerPoint presentations with transitions and Animations?

To create PowerPoint presentations with transitions and animations, first add your content to the slides. Then, apply animations to elements through the "Animations" tab and transitions between slides from the "Transitions" tab.

Q5. What is the difference between animation and transition in PowerPoint?

In PowerPoint, animation is the movement or effect you apply to individual objects or elements within a slide, such as text or images. Transition, on the other hand, is the effect that takes place between slides as you move from one to another during a presentation.

Q6. How do I make PowerPoint slides play automatically without clicking?

To make PowerPoint slides play automatically without clicking, go to the "Transitions" tab, find the "Timing" group, and set "After" to the desired duration before moving to the next slide. You can apply this to each slide for an automated presentation.

Create Your Own Animated PowerPoints and Visme Presentations

There are many options for creating animated presentations with Visme, from uploading PowerPoint templates to using Visme’s PowerPoint video templates.

Animate any presentation in our library, edit the slide transitions, add animated compositions to your slide decks and create visually rich presentations. Share them with your audience and use our integrated analytics to track views and reads.

Create the best animated and interactive presentations with Visme today!

Create stunning animated PowerPoint presentations with Visme

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

How to Add Cool Free Animation to PowerPoint Presentations

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When used wisely, animation adds emphasis and visual appeal to PowerPoint presentations. It can transform a dull presentation into a lively and engaging one. However, you should be careful not to overdo it.

Too much animation can be distracting, reduce comprehension, and make a presentation appear flimsy. In this article, we'll see how you can add free animation to your PowerPoint presentations.

PowerPoint Animation Basics

It is useful to understand the four basic types of free animations for PowerPoint:

• Entrance : used to introduce animated objects on a slide.
• Emphasis : used for emphasizing elements already present on a slide.
• Exit : how objects move off the slide.
• Motion Paths : move objects in a specified path on the slide.

Use Preset Animation for Text or Objects in PowerPoint

To animate any object and make your PowerPoint presentation more engaging, go through the following steps:

• Select the object you wish to animate.
• On the ribbon, select the Animations tab.
• Choose an animation from the Animation menu or head to the Advanced animation menu and click Add animation .

Use Custom Animation for Text or Objects in PowerPoint

If you want to change the default settings for your animations, select the animated object and head to the Advanced animation pane. You can adjust the trigger or add another animation to the same object. Also, use the Timing menu to adjust when the animation should start, its duration, and delay.

For more options, click open the Animation pane . There, you can readjust the order of the animations with the re-order buttons at the top and preview them individually. For additional options, click the More icon next to the animation. If you click Effect options , you can change the animation direction, add sound effects, or rewind it when done playing, among other options.

Add Motion Path Animation in PowerPoint

To make a graphic object move in a certain path on the slide, use Motion Path animation. This works best for graphic images with transparent backgrounds, as the graphic moves across other elements on the slide. To add Motion Path animation to an object, do the following:

• Drag the object you wish to animate to its starting position.
• Click to select the object.
• Open the Add animation menu and select open of the options from Motion Paths .
• Edit the object trajectory by clicking the path.

If you double-click on the animation, you can adjust more of its settings.

To create a custom path for your animated object, go to Add animation > Motion Paths > Custom paths . PowerPoint will allow you to draw a custom trajectory. To set the end point of the trajectory, double-click.

How to Delete an Animation From Your Slides in PowerPoint

If you want to remove one of the animations, select the slide containing it and click Animation Pane . There, open the drop-down menu next to the animation and select Remove . Or, you can choose the animation and press Del .

Add Transitions Between Slides in PowerPoint

Animations between two slides are called Transitions. To add a transition effect to your PowerPoint presentation, open the Transitions tab and choose one of the options. Keep in mind, PowerPoint will add a transition only to the selected slide.

You can add a different effect to different slides, but if you want to have the same transition throughout your entire presentation, select all the slides before adding a transition effect. This way, you don’t have to set the transition effect for each slide, so you can save time while working in PowerPoint .

Go to the Timing menu to configure the transition settings. You can add a sound, change the duration, and choose if it should start on mouse click or after a specified time.

If you have selected different transition effects for different slides, click the Apply to all button to have a uniform-looking PowerPoint presentation. If you want to remove the transition for a certain slide, open the Animations tab and select None from the available transitions.

Add Animated Clip Art

You can check out free animated clip art graphics on the web. This way, you can get some cool free animations that are ready to be added to your presentations. Also, you can include free animated PowerPoint templates in your presentation.

Quickly Animate PowerPoint Objects

With the above tips, you can now insert and configure animations and transitions into your slides. Before doing so, make sure you don’t have to replace any of the objects that you want to animate.

Now that you’ve gotten the PowerPoint animation basics, there are a few tips you could use to take your presentation to the next level.

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How to use motion path animations in microsoft powerpoint.

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Our technology relies too much on the internet, 5 quick access toolbar must-haves in microsoft word, quick links, add a motion path animation, customize the motion path.

Microsoft PowerPoint offers many types of animations . You can add effects to text , images, and shapes. But if you want to create your own, you can select a motion path animation to move your object wherever you like.

With motion path animations in PowerPoint, you can make your object zigzag, loop, spiral, or swoosh. Once you select the motion path you want to use, you can customize the points to create the exact path you want your object to take.

Open your PowerPoint presentation and select the slide where you want to create the animation. Either insert the object you want to animate or select it if you've already added it to the slide.

Related: How to Hide an Object Before Animation in PowerPoint

Go to the Animations tab and click the arrow at the bottom of the Animation selection box. This opens the full collection.

Scroll toward the bottom and you'll see a few options in the Motion Paths section. If you want to use one of these, simply select it to apply it to your object. Notice you can choose Custom Path which allows you to draw the path yourself.

For additional options, click "More Motion Paths" at the bottom of the window.

In the Change Motion Path box, you'll see Basic, Lines and Curves, and Special paths. To see a preview before you apply it, check the box for Preview Effect at the bottom. Then, choose one to see it in action.

When you find the path you want to use, select it and click "OK."

If you want to combine motion paths so that your object ends in a certain spot, check out our how-to.

Related: How to Combine Motion Paths in Microsoft PowerPoint

After you apply the motion path, you may have options to change the direction. Select the animated object and go to the Animations tab. Click the Effect Options drop-down arrow to view your choices. Note that not all paths offer extra effects, but most let you reverse the path direction.

Along with changing the direction of your motion path, you can edit the points. Click the Effect Options drop-down arrow and pick "Edit Points."

You'll then see the motion path with the points as squares. Select and drag a point to move it.

You can also right-click a point for options like making it a smooth, straight, or corner point. Additionally, you can add more points or remove one.

If you want to change the start action or duration , or add a delay, select the animation and use the tools on the Animations tab.

Remember, you can preview your animation as you make edits to it using the Preview button on the left side of the ribbon on the Animations tab. This helps to see if you need more adjustments or want to reorder the animations .

Animations can spruce up your slideshow . So if a motion path animation is what you need, you have plenty of options in PowerPoint.

Related: 8 Tips to Make the Best PowerPoint Presentations

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The benefits of interactive slides

🗣️ Active participation An interactive slide deck gives your audience cool things to click on and discover, boosting learning and engagement.

👂 Multi-sensory experience Audio, video, animations, and mouse interactions make your content immersive, entertaining and accessible.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People-friendly format Pop-ups and embeds condense more material into fewer slides so you can break information down into digestible chunks.


🎮 Gamification Games, quizzes and puzzles make information more memorable and enable you to gather feedback and check understanding.

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How do I make a presentation interactive and how does Genially work? Find the answers to all of your slide-related questions here!

What’s an interactive presentation?

Interactive slides contain clickable hotspots, links, buttons, and animations that are activated at the touch of a button. Instead of reading or watching passively, your audience can actively interact with the content.  

Genially’s interaction presentation software allows you to combine text, photos, video clips, audio and other content in one deck. It’s a great way to condense more information into fewer slides. 

If you’re a teacher, you can share multiple materials in one single learning resource. Students can create their own projects using digital media and online maps. For business or training, try embedding spreadsheet data, PDFs, and online content directly in your slides. 

An interactive slide deck is more user-friendly than a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides document. That’s because you can break information down into chunks with pop-ups, labels, voiceovers and annotated infographics.  

The other benefit of interactive content is increased engagement. It’s easier to keep your audience’s attention when they’re actively participating. Try Genially’s presentation software and free slideshow maker to see how it’s better than other presentation websites. You won’t go back to standard presentation apps!

How do you make a clickable slide?

The best way to make slides clickable is to use Genially’s free interactive presentation program. Design your slide then apply an interaction. In a couple of clicks, you can add popup windows, hyperlinks, close-up images, games, animations, multimedia and other content. 

Choose from the library of hotspot buttons and icons to show people what to click on. Go to Presenter View to get a preview and see how your content will appear to your audience.

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You’ve got a deadline looming and you’re staring at the screen with a blank presentation. We’ve all been there! Starting a presentation design from scratch is tricky, especially if you’re short on time. 

Genially’s free online presentation maker has over 2000 ready-to-use templates for professional slide presentations, photos slideshows, and more. Each slide design has been created by our team of top graphic designers. No need to worry about fonts, centering images, or designing a matching color scheme. It’s all done for you. 

Start by browsing our layouts and themes for education, business and then customize with your own text and images.

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Because Genially is a cloud based presentation software, you can simply share the link to your slides. Like other online presentation tools, there are no files to download or store on your computer. Everything is saved online.  

When you publish your slide deck, it gets its own unique url, just like a website. Share the link with others to let them explore the content in their own time. If you’re presenting live, just click the Present button. 

You can also embed your presentation on your website, company wiki, or social media. Genially is compatible with WordPress, Moodle, Google Classroom, and other platforms. If you use an LMS, you can also download your interactive design slides in SCORM format.

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Effective Use of Morph Transition for Seamless Animationin

The art of presentation has evolved, and PowerPoint has kept pace with innovative features that breathe life into slideshows. One such feature that has transformed the animation game is the Morph transition. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the definition of Morph transition, delve into the benefits it brings to presentations, provide detailed how-to guides for seamless implementation, and introduce the revolutionary capabilities of Smallppt's AI PowerPoint.

Morph transition in PowerPoint is a dynamic and smooth animation effect that allows seamless transitions between slides. Unlike traditional slide transitions, Morph analyzes the objects on one slide and smoothly morphs them into the corresponding objects on the next slide. This creates a visually stunning and cohesive flow, making presentations more engaging and professional.

1.Visual Continuity:

Morph transition creates a sense of visual continuity, eliminating abrupt jumps between slides and providing a more polished look to your presentation.

2.Storytelling Impact:

The fluidity of Morph enhances storytelling, allowing presenters to convey a narrative with more impact and coherence.

3.Enhanced Focus:

The gradual transition keeps the audience focused on the content, reducing distractions that may arise from sudden changes.

4.Professional Aesthetics:

Morph adds a touch of professionalism to your presentations, making them appear more refined and well-crafted.

How-to Guides

Applying morph transition:.

1. Create two slides with similar content.

2. Select the second slide in the slide sorter view.

3. Go to the "Transitions" tab on the ribbon.

4. Choose "Morph" from the transition options.

Using Morph for Text:

1. Add a text box with text on the first slide.

2. Duplicate the slide and make changes to the text on the second slide.

3. Apply Morph transition. The text will smoothly transition between the two states.

Morphing Shapes:

1. Insert a shape on the first slide.

2. Duplicate the slide and modify the shape.

3. Apply Morph transition for seamless shape transformation.

Image Transitions:

1. Insert an image on the first slide.

2. Duplicate the slide and change the image.

3. Apply Morph for a smooth transition between the images.

Customizing Morph:

1. Access the "Transition Options" in the ribbon.

2. Adjust the duration and other settings to customize the Morph transition according to your preferences.

Introduction of Smallppt's AI PowerPoint

Smallppt's AI PowerPoint, a leading AI PowerPoint maker and generator, integrates seamlessly with Morph transitions, enhancing the overall presentation experience. As an AI for ppt, Smallppt analyzes the content and offers real-time suggestions for optimizing the application of Morph transitions, ensuring a harmonious and professional look.

In the landscape of PowerPoint AI, Smallppt stands out as an innovative force, combining traditional design principles with the efficiency of artificial intelligence. The tool not only streamlines the process of incorporating Morph transitions but also provides insights into maximizing their impact on audience engagement.

In conclusion, the effective use of Morph transition elevates PowerPoint presentations to a new level of sophistication. The benefits, from visual continuity to enhanced storytelling, highlight the significance of integrating this feature into your slideshows. As you explore the world of Morph transitions, consider the advanced capabilities of Smallppt's AI PowerPoint.

With Smallppt, the process of utilizing Morph transitions becomes not only efficient but also innovative. As an AI PPT slides creator, Smallppt exemplifies the seamless integration of creativity and efficiency. Elevate your presentations, captivate your audience, and embrace the seamless animation potential of Morph transitions with Smallppt's AI PowerPoint.

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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