First some catch-up. Everyone who uses slide presentation software should regularly check their show in show mode. This is the end product. You need to see what it looks like and how it works. Hopefully you did this on the last assignment with buttons and interactivity. The easy way to check your show is with the show button in the bottom left. It’s the button that looks like this: (Use the Esc key to exit the show and get back to working mode.) OpenOffice Impress uses this button:

PowerPoint Animation (screen shots are from PowerPoint Newer versions will have some differences.) Did you know you can use your arrow keys to go to the next and previous slide?

PowerPoint animation features have had significant upgrades in the past couple versions of the software. Even though PowerPoint would not be considered “animation software”, there are a lot of ways to be creative with the tools and options that are available. First you need an object to animate, like the ball on this slide. Then right-click the object and select Custom Animation. The animation menu will open on the right. Go to the next slide and try it.

With the object selected and the custom animation window open, start by selecting a general effect from these 4 options. Each has additional options. Right-click the ball and select Custom Animation Play around with these. Some are better than others. Some are visually annoying if overused. You can add as many effects as you want to a single object, they can play one right after another. A typical sequence would be an entrance effect and an exit effect, with time in between the two if desired.

The Motion Paths effect allows you to draw a Custom motion Path. Right-click the ball and try it. Right-click the ball and select Custom Animation

After choosing an animation effect, the effect will show in the animation list. Options such as direction and speed may be available. Select the animation in the list and use the right side arrow for the drop down menu. The is how you start getting control of the animation effect. Select the ball, add an effect and note the available options. Right-click the ball and select Custom Animation

This very important option is how you make the animation play on mouse click or automatically. Selecting Timing in this drop down menu gives you more options for setting up your animation. Right-click the ball to open the Custom Animation window. Select Oval 1, drop the menu down and select Timing.

By selecting Timing, you’ll get to this window. The Start options are: On Click With Previous After Previous You can have as many animated objects on a slide as you want. They will all be listed in the Custom Animation window. If you want two different objects to animate at the same time, choose With Previous. If you want objects to animate automatically in sequence, chose After Previous.

The real POWER in PowerPoint animation hasn’t been shown to you yet. The power is in the Advanced Timeline. With the Custom Animation window open, select any one of the 4 listed Oval effects, and select Show Advanced Timeline from the drop-down menu.

This advanced timeline is like a timeline for audio – time is shown on the horizontal axis. Like sound, animation would not exist without time passing. You can change timing locations, adjust durations, and change objects so their movement overlaps rather that following in sequence as shown in the above screen shot. There is a lot of power here. Try to get to the advanced timeline on the next slide, experiment with options. Move your cursor around the timeline, make changes.

The power is in the Advanced Timeline. See if you can get to it. See if you can make the four balls all move up at the same time. Hint: you may need to expand your view of the Custom Animation window. Move the cursor to the left edge of the window until it becomes a double ended arrow. Then drag the window to enlarge it. You can also drag the listed effects in the Animation window to change their order.

Those of you using OpenOffice Impress will have some of the same options but not the advanced timeline. Creativity is still available. If using PowerPoint 2007 there may be some effects not available in previous versions. It is always best to test your presentation on the delivery computer if possible. Computer to computer issues include missing fonts, missing audio or video decompressors, missing software features due to version differences, cross platform issues. Welcome to the world of digital media.

The next few slides are students, mostly one student: Alan Woods. He did these years ago. The techniques are creative and innovative. Run the slideshow as a show to see Alan’s PowerPoint animation. Then you can come back to this view and reverse engineer a slide to see how it was done. When you come back to this view, go to the eel swimming through kelp slide. See if you can make the eel swim between the kelp by moving the middle kelp behind the eel. This will increase visual depth in the slide. Enjoy.

Over the wall

This has been an Allen Woods Production © 1999

Alan Woods PowerPoint art

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