Creating Custom Animations


If animation schemes don't provide the flexibility you need, try custom animation. The Custom Animation task pane offers more advanced animation options, such as the ability to set order and timings and to animate certain parts of a slide. You also use this task pane to set animation effects for charts, diagrams, organization charts , and media clips.

If you've already applied an animation scheme to a slide, these animation events appear in the Custom Animation list on the Custom Animation task pane. You can either delete these animations and start over with custom animation by clicking the Remove button on the task pane or add more enhancements to your animation schemes.

To learn more about animation schemes, see "Setting Special Animation Effects" later in this chapter, p. 327 .


NOTE

Applying a custom animation is far more complicated than applying an animation scheme. Be sure that you really need the power offered by custom animations before you spend the time to set them up.


To apply a custom animation to text or an object, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Slide Show, Custom Animation to open the Custom Animation task pane, as shown in Figure 15.3.

    Figure 15.3. Custom Animation offers more complex options.

    graphics/15fig03.jpg

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    If you already have a task pane open, you can click the down arrow at the top of the pane and select the Custom Animation task pane from the menu that appears.

  2. Select the text or object to animate.

  3. Click the Add Effect button to display a menu of additional options:

    • Entrance Determines how the text or object enters the slide. Options include Blinds, Box, Checkerboard, Diamonds, and Fly In.

    • Emphasis Adds emphasis to the text or object. Options include Change Font, Change Font Size, Change Font Style, Grow/Shrink, and Spin.

    • Exit Determines how the text or object exits the slide. Options include Blinds, Box, Checkerboard, Diamonds, Fly Out, and Whip.

    • Motion Paths Sets a path that the selected text or object follows . Options include Diagonal Down Right, Diagonal Up Right, Down, Left, Right, and Up. You can also draw a custom path based on a line, curve, freeform, or scribble shape.

    NOTE

    Not all options are always available, depending on what you select to animate. For example, text-based animation options such as Change Font or Change Font Size are only available if you select text.

  4. Click the type of effect you want and choose from the submenu of additional options. It appears in the Custom Animation list.

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    Verify that the AutoPreview check box is selected so that you can preview your transitions as you apply them.

  5. To see a complete list of effects, choose the More Effects menu option, which opens a dialog box of related effects, such as the Add Entrance Effect or Add Emphasis Effect dialog box (see Figure 15.4).

    Figure 15.4. Additional custom effects are available, ranging from subtle to extravagant.

    graphics/15fig04.gif

    The effects in these dialog boxes are grouped by stylebasic, subtle, moderate, or exciting, for example. If the Preview Effect check box is selected, you can see the effect on your slide when you click it in the dialog box. If you want to use one of these effects, select it and click OK to close the dialog box.

  6. From the Start drop-down list in the Custom Animation task pane, choose when you want the animation to start. Some choices might not appear in the drop-down list, depending on the sequence of the animation.

  7. Depending on which custom animation you choose, additional drop-down lists might appear, such as Direction, Speed, Font Style, Duration, and so forth. Select the options you prefer.

  8. Click the Play button to see the animations in your current view, or click the Slide Show button to see the animations in a slideshow.

To learn more about running slideshows, see Chapter 9, p. 175 .


Each animation event you add appears in the Custom Animation list in the order you enter it. The icon that precedes it tells you what kind of animation it is and corresponds to the icons that precede the choices on the Add Effect menu (Entrance, Emphasis, and so forth). Hover the mouse over the animation in the list to display more information, such as the start option and effect type. If you have multiple animations in this list, the list is numbered and the numbers also appear on your slide to show where the animations are located. These numbers don't appear in print or during a slideshow, however. Figure 15.5 shows a list of animation options.

Figure 15.5. PowerPoint lists your custom animations in sequence.

graphics/15fig05.jpg

Setting Special Animation Effects

The Custom Animation task pane also offers the option to add more animation effects, set timings, reorder animation events, and animate parts of diagrams, organization charts, media clips, or other charts you've added to your slides.

Setting Additional Effects

To add effects to an animation event in the Custom Animation listsuch as directional, sound, text, and color enhancementsclick the down arrow to the right of an animation in the list and choose Effect Options from the menu that appears. A dialog box opens with the Effect tab selected (see Figure 15.6).

Figure 15.6. Continue to customize your custom animation with the options in this dialog box.

graphics/15fig06.gif

The dialog box's name and content depend on the kind of animation event you're customizing. For example, if you choose the Box entrance effect, the Box dialog box appears. We will use the Box dialog box to explore the range of customizations you can make, but remember that depending on the effect you choose, this dialog box would have different fields or tabs.

The Effect tab on the Box dialog box has the following options:

  • Direction Specify a direction for the selected animation, such as In, Out, Horizontal, or Vertical.

    NOTE

    Only those directions that apply to the selected animation event will appear in this drop-down list.


  • Sound If you want a sound effect to accompany the effect, select a sound from the drop-down list. If you don't want to include a sound, choose No Sound, which is the default option. For even more sounds, choose Other Sound to open the Add Sound dialog box.

    CAUTION

    Use sounds sparinglythey can quickly annoy your audience.


    To learn how to add sound files, see "Inserting Sounds or Movies" in Chapter 13, "Working with Pictures, Movies, Sounds, and the Clip Organizer," p. 262 .


  • Volume Click the Volume button to raise or lower the sound effect's volume level. You can also choose to mute the effect here.

  • After Animation Specify how to end your animation in this drop-down list, such as displaying the object in a new color or hiding it after animation. Options include

    • Standard Colors Let you apply a color from the default palette, which changes the object's color after the animation finishes.

    • More Colors Displays the Colors dialog box from which you can choose any color. The object changes to this color after the animation finishes.

      To learn more about the Colors dialog box, see "Specifying Colors" in Chapter 14, "Creating and Formatting Objects," p. 290


    • Don't Dim Continues to display a static image of the object after animation.

    • Hide After Animation Hides the object after animation.

    • Hide on Next Mouse Click Hides the object when you click the mouse.

  • Animate Text From the drop-down list, choose a method for introducing text: All at Once (the default), By Word, or By Letter.

  • % Delay Between If you choose the By Word or By Letter option, you can set how long PowerPoint waits after starting to display one word or letter before starting to display the next word or letter. 50% means that the previous word is 50% displayed when the next word begins to display.

Setting Timings

To set exact timing effects for your custom animations, click the down arrow next to an animation in the Custom Animation list and choose Timing from the menu that appears. A dialog box opens with the Timing tab selected, as shown in Figure 15.7.

Figure 15.7. Make additional timing modifications on the Timing tab.

graphics/15fig07.gif

Remember that the name of this dialog box reflects the type of animation effect whose timing you want to customize. On the Timing tab, you can set the following options:

  • Start Specify when to start the animation:

    • On Click When you click the mouse

    • With Previous As soon as the previous animation in the list starts

    • After Previous After the previous animation in the list finishes

  • Delay Enter the delay in seconds.

  • Speed Choose a speed levelfrom very slow to very fast.

  • Repeat Indicate how many times you want the animation to repeat. Options include none (which means that it plays once); two, three, four, five, or ten times; until the next mouse click; or until the next slide.

  • Rewind when Done Playing Click this check box if you want to return the animation to its original position when it finishes playing.

  • Triggers Click the Triggers button to display two more fields on this tab that let you determine what triggers this animation to start:

    • Animate as Part of Click Sequence Click this radio button to animate as part of the click sequence in the Custom Animation list.

    • Start Effect on Click Of Click this radio button and then choose a specific animation from the drop-down list on which to trigger this animation.

You can also display the Advanced Timeline, which lets you further customize timings by dragging the timeline's scrollbar. To open this timeline, right-click the Custom Animation list and choose Show Advanced Timeline. Figure 15.8 illustrates this timeline.

Figure 15.8. Define specific timings to give your presentation a professional polish.

graphics/15fig08.jpg

To close the timeline, right-click again and choose Hide Advanced Timeline.

Animating Charts

You can add more effects to a chart to which you've applied a custom animation. To do so, click the down arrow next to the chart in the Custom Animation list and choose Effect Options from the menu. Figure 15.9 shows the dialog box that appears. (Remember that the dialog box name reflects the type of effect you've applied, such as Box or Spin.)

Figure 15.9. Animating a chart is another possibility.

graphics/15fig09.gif

Click the Chart Animation tab and, from the Group chart drop-down list, indicate how you want to introduce the chart elements. Options include As One Object, By Series, By Category, By Element in Series, and By Element in Category.

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If you choose any option other than As One Object, the Animate Grid and Legend check box activates, letting you include the chart grid and legend in the animation.


To learn how to create a chart, see Chapter 11, "Working with Charts," p. 217 .


Animating Diagrams

Animating parts of diagrams or organization charts is another animation customization you can apply. To do so, click the down arrow next to the diagram in the Custom Animation list, choose Effect Options from the menu, and click the Diagram Animation tab, shown in Figure 15.10.

Figure 15.10. Animating parts of a diagram is another custom animation option.

graphics/15fig10.gif

From the Group Diagram drop-down list, choose the way you want to introduce the diagram onto the slide. The choices depend on the kind of diagram.

Animating Media Clips

You can also customize animations to media clips such as a sound or video file. For example, to customize a sound clip animation, click the down arrow next to the clip in the Custom Animation list and choose Effect Options from the menu. Figure 15.11 shows the Effect tab of the Play Sound dialog box that appears. This tab includes choices for starting and stopping the media clip.

Figure 15.11. The Effect tab adds fields for animating media clips.

graphics/15fig11.jpg

Reordering Animations

The animations in the Custom Animation list appear in the order you enter them, but you can change this order if you prefer. To specify the order in which to animate multiple objects on a single slide, select the object you want to reorder and click either the up or down Re-Order button. Or you can drag an animation to another location in the list.

Modifying Animations

After you apply custom animations to a slide, you might decide that you want to modify them. For example, you might want to change the type of effect you applied from Box to Diamond or from Grow/Shrink to Spin. To do so, select the animation in the Custom Animation list and click the Change button. Then select a new custom animation to apply.

NOTE

The Change button is the same as the Add Effect button. Its name changes when you modify an existing animation rather than add a new one.


Deleting Animations

To delete a custom animation, select it in the Custom Animation list and click the Remove button. To delete all animations, select the first animation in the list, press the Shift key, select the last animation in the list, and then click the Remove button.

graphics/undo.gif If you make a mistake and want to restore your deletions, click the Undo button on the Standard toolbar.



Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
ISBN: 0789729571
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 261

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