Using Animation and Slide Transition Effects on Presentation Slides

Using Animation and Slide Transition Effects
on Presentation Slides
By Dave Paradi, MBA, co-author of "Guide to PowerPoint"

Adding movement to your presentation slides is exciting, but carries with it some caution. Two of the most common ways to add movement are by animating a slide element such as text or a graphic and by having movement to bring a new slide on screen, called slide transition. The key idea to keep in mind when using movement effects is that you should not be distracting the audience from your message by using movement. Here is some background on the types of movement effects and when they should be used.

Animation Effects for Slide Elements
When we discuss animation effects, we need to define two key spots. The first is the final place, which is the spot where the slide element (such as text or a graphic) is placed when you are building the slide and is where you want the audience to see the text or graphic when the movement is finished. The other key spot is the starting point, which is the place where the slide element starts the movement effect. In general, the longer it takes for the slide element to get from the starting place to the final place, the harder it is for the audience to determine what the slide element is and the more energy the audience spends on figuring out what the slide element is and less on the message you are trying to deliver.

The animation effects can be divided into two basic categories based on the way the movement appears. The first category are those effects that happen within the boundary of the slide element and the second category are those effects that happen outside the boundary of the slide element.

Movement within slide element boundary
These effects are preferable to effects where movement happens outside of the boundary of the slide element because the audience energy is not spent chasing the slide element around the slide. The audience can focus on the point you are trying to make with the slide element and they have more energy to direct towards your message. Here are the animation effects that fall into this category:
Appear – appears in final place, no movement
Blinds – choose horizontal or vertical effect; divides slide element into strips and simultaneously reveals strips
Box – slide element moves into final place with zoom sort of effect
Checkerboard – divides slide element into boxes and simultaneously reveals boxes from left to right or top to bottom
Dissolve – divides slide element into large number of dots that dissolve to reveal all dots in final place
Flash Once – displays slide element using Appear effect then removes slide element from the display based on setting of slow, medium or fast; useful to simulate movement of objects sometimes
Peek – Like the crawl effect, but the starting point is the side of the slide element that you choose to peek from.
Random Bars – Similar to the Blinds effect except the order that strips are displayed is random
Split – splits the slide element into two halves and reveal the two halves from/to opposite starting points.
Stretch – takes slide element and expands it outwards from a starting point at the center line of the final point.
Strips – divides slide element into strips like Blinds effect except strips are revealed from one corner of the slide element to the opposite corner of the slide element.
Swivel – Rotates the slide element horizontally around a central axis three times and then stops in the final position
Wipe - Select one of four non-diagonal directions and the slide element is then revealed in that direction
Zoom – zooms slide element into final position from either a spot centered on the final position or slightly less zoom depending on the settings you set

Movement outside the slide element boundary
These effects are much harder to read for the audience. The audience is forced to guess at the final destination of the slide element and what it really is. The audience can only read or interpret the slide element only after it has reached the final spot.
Fly – choose side of screen or corner for slide element to start from and fly to final place
Crawl – choose side of screen for slide element to start from and slowly moves to final place
Spiral – slide element moves in a circular motion starting point is above and to the left of the final point

Slide Element Animation Suggestions
Remembering that the focus is on the audience spending most of their focus on the point you are making, here are my suggested slide element effects:
Text – the Appear effect – this effect has the least movement and allows the audience the greatest focus on the point you are making
Lines & Arrows – the Peek effect – this effect can make a line or arrow move in a certain direction to place emphasis on a certain area which can help the audience understand your point
Graphics – the Dissolve effect – this effect reveals a graphic in a way that allows the audience to focus on the point

Slide Transition Effects
There are some of the same effects to move from one slide to another, including Blinds, Box, Checkerboard, Dissolve, Random, Split, Strips, and Wipe. There are four other effects for slide transitions:
Cover – brings the next slide over the current one from a direction you specify
Cut – this is similar to the Appear effect where the slide appears over the previous slide
Fade – this is similar to the Dissolve effect except that it starts with an all black screen before dissolving the new slide on the screen
Uncover – takes away the previous slide to reveal the new slide underneath

Many of the transitions have a choice of what speed the transition should happen at and you can choose whether the transition should happen on the slide advance or at a certain time. There is also an option to randomly choose the transition effect from the list of possibilities. You can choose to apply the transition to one slide only or to all the slides in the slide show.

A slide transition is a less distracting way to add movement to a slide show because the audience is not having to figure out a graphic or some text since a new slide usually moves into a new major point. I have found that using random transitions allow the audience’s eyes to have some visual variety without making them spend too much energy on many slide elements having motion. It usually works best to have the transitions based on the slide advance instead of a certain time to give you the time to make the point you want to make. If you are choosing a specific transition, I usually suggest the fast mode so that the transition does not cause too much of a delay.

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Dave Paradi’s Think Outside the Slide™ approach helps presenters get results by showing them how to quickly create effective PowerPoint presentations. He is the co-author of “Guide to PowerPoint”, part of the Prentice Hall Series in Advanced Business Communication. He offers a free PowerPoint e-course, newsletter and articles on his web site at www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.