Creating Custom Animations
The Custom Animation dialog box includes more advanced animation options such as the capability to set order and timings. You also use this dialog box to set animation effects for charts and media clips.
Note
Using custom animation, you can perform many of the same animation tasks as you can with preset animation. Custom animation offers more advanced functionality, however.
Choose Slide Show, Custom Animation to open the Custom Animation dialog box, shown in Figure 14.4.
As you set animation effects in this dialog box, you can use the Preview button to get an idea of what your animation will look like before saving these changes. PowerPoint displays the animations in the preview box to the left of the Preview button. When you're satisfied with your changes, click OK.
Setting Order and Timing
On the Order & Timing tab, you can specify the order in which to animate multiple objects on a single slide as well as how long to wait between animations.
In the box in the upper-left corner of the dialog box, select the check box to the left of all objects that you want to animate.
The order in which the selected objects are animated appears in the Animation Order box. To change this order, select an animation object, and then click the up or down Move button.
Select the On Mouse Click option in the Start Animation group box to activate the animation effect by clicking the mouse during the slide show.
If you want to automate the timing of the animation effect, select the Automatically option and enter the desired time lapse in seconds in the adjacent field.
Note
On Mouse Click is the default method of starting animation. If you want to automate animation for multiple objects, you need to select each object individually and apply this option.
Specifying Effects
Click the Effects tab to set other special effects. Figure 14.5 shows this tab.
In this tab, you can add transition and sound effects to the animation of individual objects.
Select the object to which you want to apply special effects in the box in the upper-left corner of the dialog box.
In the Entry Animation and Sound group box, select the animation effect in the first drop-down list, its direction in the adjacent drop-down list, and finally its sound effect, if any.
→ To learn more about sound effects in PowerPoint, see "Inserting Your Own Sound File."
Figure 14.5. Add entry animations and sounds in this tab.
These animation effects are in many ways similar to the slide transition and preset animation effects. In addition, you can specify how to end your animation in the After Animation drop-down list. Options include:
Standard Colors Enables you to choose a color from the default palette, which changes the object's color after animation.
More Colors Displays the Colors dialog box in which you can choose from a variety of other color options.
→ To learn more about this dialog box, see "Using the Colors Dialog Box."
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.
If the object you select is a text object, the Introduce Text group box is active. From the drop-down list choose a method for introducing text: All at Once (the default), By Word, or By Letter.
You can also specify to group the text by paragraph levels, animate an attached shape, or animate in reverse order.
Specifying Chart Effects
In the Chart Effects tab, you can add special animation effects to charts you create. Figure 14.6 shows this tab.
Figure 14.6. Animating a chart is another possibility.
→ For more details on chart capabilities, see "Working with Charts."
To animate a chart object, follow these steps:
Select the check box next to the chart you want to animate in the upper-left corner of the dialog box.
From the Introduce Chart Elements drop-down list, choose a method for animating the chart. Options include All at Once, By Series, By Category, By Element in Series, or By Element in Category.
Tip
If you choose any option other than All at Once, the Animate Grid and Legend check box activates, enabling you to include the chart grid and legend in the animation effect.
Next, choose an entry animation method, such as Box, Checkerboard, or Crawl from the drop-down list in the Entry Animation and Sound group box.
In the adjacent drop-down list, choose a direction for this animation method. For example, if you choose the Box animation method, you can direct this animation either In or Out.
Note
Only those directions that apply to the selected animation method will appear in this drop-down list.
If you want to add sound effects to this chart animation, select the sound file to use from the bottom drop-down list in the Entry Animation and Sound group box. To insert a sound file that isn't in the list of options, choose Other Sound from the drop-down list, which opens the Insert Sound dialog box.
Tip
If you don't want to include a sound, choose No Sound, the default option.
→ To understand how to work with sound effects, see "Inserting Your Own Sound File."
Finally, you can specify how to end your animation in the After Animation drop-down list. Options include converting the object to another color, continuing to display it without dimming, hiding it immediately, or hiding it upon a mouse click. The After Animation drop-down list in the Chart Effects tab is identical to the drop-down list of the same name in the Effects tab.
→ For more details, see "Specifying Effects."
Specifying Multimedia Settings
Use the Multimedia Settings tab to activate media clips—such as sounds and movies—that you insert into your presentation. Figure 14.7 shows this tab.
Figure 14.7. The Multimedia Settings tab enables you to work with media clips such as sounds and movies.
Select the Play Using Animation Order check box to play the media clip in this presentation.
Caution
If you don't select this check box, your media clip won't play.
While you're playing the media clip, you can choose to either Pause Slide Show or Continue Slide Show. If you pause the show, any timings you set are put on hold.
→ To learn how to set timings, see "Rehearsing Timings."
If your media clip is long, it's a good idea to pause the show; otherwise, it may proceed before the clip finishes.
If you do choose to continue the show, more options are available. You can stop playing After the Current Slide or After a certain number of Slides. Stopping after the current slide forces the media clip to stop as soon as it's time to move to the next slide.
To view additional options, click the More Options button. The Sound Options dialog box displays (see Figure 14.8).
In this dialog box, you can specify to Loop Until Stopped, which makes the media clip continue playing until it's time to move to the next slide or you stop it by an action such as a mouse click.
If the media clip is a movie, you can Rewind Movie When Done Playing. Choosing this option enables you to display the movie's initial image when it's done playing.
→ To learn more about using media clips, see "Adding Movies and Sound."
If the object you're animating is an embedded object, such as an organization chart or Word file, the Object Action field is activated. Use this field to specify whether to play, edit, or open the object during the slide show. For example, if you want to open an organization chart and edit it during a presentation, you would attach the Edit action to it.
→ To understand how to include an org chart in a presentation, see "Working with Organization Charts."
→ To learn more about embedded objects, see "Working with Embedded Office Objects."
This is similar to the Object Action field in the Action Settings dialog box.
→ For details on this dialog box, see "Using Action Settings."
Tip
Click Hide While Not Playing to hide an object, such as a sound icon, which has no real visual value.