Adding Transitions and Builds

Transitions Are …

A slide transition is the visual effect that is applied to a slide as PowerPoint moves from one slide to the next during an onscreen slide show. The default way to transition from one slide to the next is to simply cut to the new slide which is effective, but boring. By adding transitions, the presentation becomes visually more appealing.

However, remember the KISS principle when using transitions. Avoid the temptation to apply a different transition for every slide. It is recommended that you use no more than two or three different transitions for your entire presentation. For example, you may wish to use one transition for the opening title slide, another for all text slides, and perhaps a third for graphics slides.

Builds Are …

A build is the visual effect that is applied to the objects on a slide. In other words, how does the information on a slide “build”. Does all of the information appear at once, one item at a time? If the latter, in what order? Once you decide to “build”, you then must decide what build effect to use. The build effect determines how each item (object) appears and what happens to the preceding item.

It is important to also apply the KISS principle when using builds.

Builds (the old term) are now referred to as Animations/Custom Animations in PowerPoint.

Transitions and simple builds are most easily applied in the Slide Sorter view. My involved builds are applied in the Slide View.

Transitions

We will apply one transition to the title (first) slide and the two “Title Only” (section) slides. We will then apply a different transition to all other slides.

The Title (First) Slide and the “Title Only” (section) slides

• switch to Slide Sorter view
• click once on the first slide to select it (this slide will now be outlined to indicate it is selected)
• now Ctrl-Click (Windows) or Shift-Click (Macintosh) on the two “Title Only” (section) slides
• all three slides are now selected

Just below the Standard Toolbar you will notice the Slide Sorter toolbar (PowerPoint 2000 shown, 2001 is essentially the same):

• click on the Transition Dialog box button
  • you can apply a transition by simply using the transition popup list
  • however, clicking the button displays the dialog box which offers more choices
• click under [Effect] to select a transition effect from the popup list
  • watch the picture of the dog change to a key as the effect is selected!
  • if you do not like the effect, select another
• click one of the three radio buttons to select the rate of transition (slow, medium or fast)
• be sure to leave [Advance] set as “On mouse click”
  • the automatic setting is not used for manual slide shows, that is, a slide show that you control with the mouse and set you own pace
• click under [Sound] to select a sound to play with the transition (but be aware that sounds can be distracting!)
• click <Apply> to set this transition to this slide only
  • <Apply> means to apply the selected transition to the selected slides
  • <Apply to All> means to apply the selected transition to all slides whether selected or not
• note the symbol that now appears just below the lower left corner of the slide to indicate that a transition has been applied (click on this symbol to preview the transition in slide sorter view)

You have now applied a transition to the title slide and the two “Title Only”. Now for the rest.

The Remaining Slides

• you should still be in Slide Sorter view; if not switch to that view
• choose EditAll
  • this will select all of the slides
• hold down the <Shift> key (Macintosh) or the <Ctrl> (Windows) and click on the first (the title slide) slide
  • this will deselect the first slide
• repeat the <Shift>-Click key (Macintosh) or the <Ctrl>-Click (Windows) procedure to deselect the two “Title Only” slides
  • now only the remaining slides without transitions are selected
• repeat the procedure described in the previous section and apply a different transition to the remaining slides

Builds

Recommendation: Apply a single build effect to all slides using “the Simple Way”. Then, using the “Builds with More Options” method, add additional build features and effects to some of your slides.

The Simple Way

This method is quick and easy but does not offer as many options as the “Builds with More Options” below

you should still be in Slide Sorter view; if not switch to that view choose EditAll this will select all of the slides apply a build effect by simply using the Preset Text Animation popup list select an effect that you like note, in PowerPoint 97/98, you cannot “see” the effect now, there is no preview as there was with transition note, in PowerPoint 2000/2001, you will see a preview of the effect when you return to Slide Sorter view this tells PowerPoint to build the bulleted text one bullet at a time NOTE: bullets will be added one major section at a time; if you have bullets under bullets, the main bullet and any and all sub-bullets will appear at once. See below if you want to separate these bullets. note the symbol that appears just below the slide to indicate that that a build (animation) has been applied

Builds with More Options (aka Custom Animation)

This method is not quick and easy but does offer many options. The dialog boxes for PowerPoint 97/98 are shown. The dialog boxes for PowerPoint 2000/2001 have a slightly different layout but the choices are essentially the same.

SUMMARY: To do a Custom Animation involves four steps

First …

• If you are using PowerPoint 97/98, switch to Slide View
• If you are using PowerPoint 2000/2001, you may switch to either Slide View or the Tri-Pane View

Then …

• select the slide to which you wish to add a custom animation
• designate the object(s) on that slide to be animated
  • the process is slightly different for PowerPoint 97/98
  • then it is for PowerPoint 2000/2001
• add any additional effects (the process is the same for both versions of PowerPoint)

You then repeat this four-step process for each slide that you wish to use custom animations.

Try the method outlined below to add custom animations to one or more slides.

Designating an Object for Animation in PowerPoint 97/98

• choose Slide Show Custom Animation and click on the “Timing” tab
  • the objects on your slide that have not yet been animated will be listed under “Slide objects without animation”
  • in the dialog box shown, the Title object is not currently animated while the Text 2 object is animate
    • if you did the build as directed in the previous section, the text object will already be animated and it will be listed under “Animation Order:”
• select “Text 2” (as shown) and then click the “Animate” radio button under “Start animation”
  • the result will be that this object will “build” after the slide appears
• once an object has been animated, the object name (in this case “Text 2“) will appear in the “Animation order” box; the object itself will be outlined in the Preview box (as shown)
  • you can change the order of the appearance of objects on a slide by using the up/down arrows
  • the first item listed will appear first on the slide.
• the slide as it is currently set will appear in the box to the left of the <OK>/<Cancel/<Preview> buttons
  • click the <Preview> button to preview the building of objects on your slide

Designating an Object for Animation in PowerPoint 2000/2001

• choose Slide ShowCustom Animation (Windows) or Slide ShowAnimationsCustom  (Macintosh) and click on the “Order & Timing” tab
  • the objects on your slide will be listed under “Check to animate slide objects” (Windows) or “Select to Animate” (Macintosh)

  	Custom Animation PowerPoint 2000
  	Custom Animation PowerPoint 2001

   

• check “Text 2” (Windows) or click on “Text 2” (Macintosh)
  • under the [Effects] tab, select the desired effect from the drop-down list(s); the result will be that this object will “build” after the slide appears
  • if you did the build as directed in the previous section, this text object will already be checked.
• once an object has been animated, the object name (in this case “Text 2”) will appear in the “Animation order” box under the [Order and Timing] tab; the object itself will be outlined in the Preview box as shown
  • you can change the order of the appearance of objects on a slide by using the up/down arrows
  • the first item listed will appear first on the slide.
• the slide as it is currently set will appear in the box to the left of the <OK>/<Cancel/<Preview> buttons
  • click the <Preview> button to preview the building of objects on your slide

Adding Animation Effects - PowerPoint 97/98

Now that you have designated one or more slide objects to be animated, you next task is to determine the visual effect for the build (animation).

• now click on the “Effects” tab
• select an object from the “Animation order” box (Text 2 is shown in this picture)
• select an “Entry animation and sound”
  • first, the popup list for entry animation (“Peek from Left” is shown) determines how the object will appear
  • second, the popup list for sound ([No Sound] is shown) determines if a sound is played as the object appears; remember can sounds can be very distracting)
• select an “After animation” effect
  • suppose you have two or more bullets of text, what do you want to happen to the first when the second one appears?
  • “Don't Dim“ (as shown) means that each bullet of text appears the same; instead you can select
    • a contrasting color so that the first bullet “grays out” as the second appears
    • “hide after animation” so that the first disappears as the second appears
• select an “Introduce text” option
  • as bullet items appear, how to you want the text to build? and how should it be grouped?
    • the popup list determines the building of text
      • “All at once” is shown (one word at a time)
      • other options are “By Word” or ”By letter”
    • the “Grouped by” check box sets how bullets and sub-bullets appear
      • “Grouped by 1st” means that all sub-bullets appear as the first level appears
      • “Groups by 2nd” and “Grouped by 3rd” allow you to separate subitems from the first level

Adding Animation Effects - PowerPoint 2000/2001

Now that you have designated one or more slide objects to be animated, you next task is to determine the visual effect for the build (animation).

• select an object from the “Animation order” box (Text 2 is shown in this picture)
• In Windows, now click on the “Effects” tab; In Macintosh, the “Effects” tab is already selected (see Custom Animation
  PowerPoint 2001 picture above) 
• select an “Entry animation and sound”
  • first, the popup list for entry animation (“Peek” is shown) determines how the object will appear
  • second, the popup list for direction “From Left”
  • third, the popup list for sound ([No Sound] is shown) determines if a sound is played as the object appears; remember can sounds can be very distracting)
• PowerPoint 2001 only: you can also select an “Exit animation and sound” (see Custom Animation PowerPoint 2001 picture above) 
• select an “After animation“ effect
  • suppose you have two or more bullets of text, what do you want to happen to the first when the second one appears?
  • “Don't Dim” (as shown) means that each bullet of text appears the same; instead you can select
    • a contrasting color so that the first bullet “grays out“ as the second appears
    • “hide after animation” so that the first disappears as the second appears
• Windows: select an “Introduce text” option
  • as bullet items appear, how to you want the text to build? and how should it be grouped?
    • the popup list determines the building of text
      • “All at once Word” is shown (one word at a time)
      • other options are “By Word” or ”By letter”
    • the “Grouped by” check box sets how bullets and sub-bullets appear
      • “Grouped by 1st” means that all sub-bullets appear as the first level appears
      • “Groups by 2nd” and “Grouped by 3rd” allow you to separate subitems from the first level
• Macintosh: select a “Text entry option”
  • under the [Options] tab, in the “Text entry options” section, select the desired entry mode from the [Bullets grouped by] drop-down list
    • “Bullets grouped by 1st level” means that all sub-bullets appear as the first level appears
    • “Bullets grouped by 2nd  level” and “Bullets grouped by 3rd  level” allow you to separate subitems from the first level
  • you can also select a “Text exit option”

Slide Show

Now switch to the Slide Show View to see the effect of the transitions and builds you have applied!

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Copyright © 2003
last updated August 12, 2003