90 Animate Text

One of the more interesting features of Impress is its capability to animate the various text elements of your slides, producing an animated effect as the slide appears during the presentation. Consider how captivating your presentation could be when any of the following occurs:

• The title and then the rest of the text flies onto the slide from the side.

• The title falls down from the top while the bottom half of the slide rises up from the bottom edge.

• The slide's graphics appear and the text slowly fades into view. ( 98 Impress with Special Effects describes how to animate graphics.)

  Before You Begin

  89 Format Presentation Text

  
  

  See Also

  92 Use a Style

  
  

• Each bulleted item in the list comes onto the slide by each letter cartwheeling into view.

  NOTE

  

  The biggest problem with animation is not getting it to work but getting it to work far too well. Don't overdo animation. The animated effects are so fun to work with that it's tempting to add all sorts of fades, cartwheels, wipes, and bounces to the slides. After so many, your presentation will become so top-heavy with animation that the importance of the content will be lost on your audience and the presentation will take on an overdone appearance.

  
  

• Paragraphs of text fade in at different moments.

• The title of your slide bounces into view, and when it finally comes to rest at its anchored location, the rest of the slide appears.

1. Select Text to Animate
   
   Click to select the text you wish to animate. Opening titles make good candidates for animated text, perhaps with some music in the background as your presentation's title flies in from the side of the screen. Self-running presentations should have slightly more animation than presentations that you give simply to keep the presentation from becoming stagnant. But even self-running presentations shouldn't overdo the effects at the expense of the content.
   
   
2. Request Text Animation
   
   With the text still selected, click to open the Format menu and select Text . This displays the Text dialog box. Click the Text Animation tab to display the Text Animation page in the Text dialog box.
   
   
3. Select an Effect
   
   Click the Effect list box to display the possible effects from which you can choose. Select an effect that you want Impress to use when bringing the text onto the screen during the presentation.
   
   
4. Click the Direction from Which Text Comes
   
   Once you've selected an effect from the Effect list, the Direction arrows will activate. Click one of the arrows to indicate the direction from which the text is to arrive. For example, if you click the down arrow, the text will arrive on the screen from the top of the slide and drop downward until it rests in its proper position in the text box.
   
   Depending on which effect you chose, you may or may not be able to change the Properties section. If the Start inside option is active, clicking it will make the animation begin inside the text box instead of entering the text box first from the direction you indicate. In other words, if you selected the Scroll Back and Forth effect, the text will first enter its area from the direction you chose and then shake back and forth. If you've clicked to select the Start inside option, however, the text instantly appears inside its text box area and begins moving back and forth without any entrance . Click to select Text visible when exiting option to keep the text on the screen after the animation completes (for when you don't request a continuous animation). Click the Continuous option to keep the animation going after it has performed its first cycle. The Continuous option keeps the animation going until the next slide appears on the screen.
   
   

   NOTE

   

   You're sure to lose your audience's attention if you keep the animation continuous as you talk! Leave the Continuous option unchecked for presentations you'll be controlling while speaking. You can keep the Continuous option checked for any animations that take place on automatic presentations that run on their own.

   The Increment value determines how many pixels the animation moves at each step. The smaller the number, the slower the animation moves; the larger the number, the faster the animation moves. The Delay option determines how long Impress waits before repeating the animation if you've elected to use continuous animation.
   
   

   KEY TERM

   

   Pixels ” An abbreviation for picture elements , which refers to the smallest addressable dot, or graphic element, on a screen or printer.

5. Test the Animation
   
   You don't have to run your entire presentation to test each text animation effect. Once you set up text for animation, click anywhere outside the text area (to remove the resizing handles) to see the effect immediately. To edit the effect, click the text once again and select the Format, Text menu option to adjust the animation.