Setting Slide Animation Schemes

After running the slide show a few times, you might find that the presentation doesn't really provide the visual impact that you had hoped. Even though you have designed your slides well and created slides that include images and movies, you are still looking for something with a more "artsy" feel. A great way to add visual impact to the presentation is to assign an animation scheme to a slide or slides in the presentation.

An animation scheme controls how the text in the text boxes on the slide appear or materialize on the slide during the presentation. For example, you can select a slide animation scheme called Bounce, where the text on the slide " bounces " onto the slide when it appears onscreen during the slide show.

Animation Scheme A scheme that controls how objects materialize onto the slide during the slide show.

PowerPoint provides three categories of animation schemes that you can assign to a slide: Subtle, Moderate, and Exciting. Each of these categories provides a number of animation schemes. The great thing about the animation schemes is that you can assign them to a slide or slides and then try them out in the Normal view. If you don't like the animation scheme, you can select another.

To assign an animation scheme to a slide in the presentation, follow these steps:

1. Select the slide to which you will assign the animation scheme so that it appears in the Slide pane in the Normal view.

2. Select the Slide Show menu and select Animation Schemes . The Animation Schemes list appears in the Slide Design task pane on the right side of the PowerPoint window (see Figure 12.2).

   Figure 12.2. The task pane houses the animation schemes that you can assign to the slides in your presentation.

   

3. Scroll through the list of animation schemes. When you find a scheme that you want to try, select the scheme in the list box.

4. To try the scheme, click the Play button in the task pane.

5. If you don't like the scheme, select another.

6. If you find a scheme that you would like to apply to all the slides in the presentation, click the Apply to All Slides button.

Assign Animation Schemes to Selected Slides You can select several slides in the Slide Sorter view and then use the Slide Design task pane to assign the same animation scheme to all the selected slides.