how to animate in powerpoint presentation

How To Add Animations To PowerPoint

With PowerPoint, you can make awesome presentations just by using static slides and non-animated elements. However, if you want to literally make your audience go ‘wow’ during your presentation, you’d need to think of a way to really get their attention. The best way to do this is by using animations. And in this tutorial, I’m going to show you exactly how to add animations to PowerPoint so you can use it to your advantage.

Before you proceed with this tutorial, have a look at these 6 PowerPoint Secrets from Profesional Presentation Designers . The design is another important aspect of your slide deck, and adding animations to your PowerPoint without working on an overall design of the presentation will not cut it.

The Different Types of Animations In PowerPoint

Animations are visual effects which make your texts, images, shapes, or charts come ‘alive.’ They catch your audience’s attention and helps them engage with you and your presentation.

Moreover, there are generally two types of animations you can use to make your presentation come alive. These are:

Transitions

The first type of animation is called transition animation ; these are animations added in between slides. When you transition from slide 1 to slide 2, you can add an animation in between the slides. You can view the different transition options by going to the Transitions pane on the PowerPoint ribbon.

(Caption: The Transitions pane in PowerPoint)

The default view shows 10 transitions, but if you click on the little arrow like you see in the screenshot above, then you’ll see many more options like you see here:

(Caption: More Transition options in PowerPoint – choose from Subtle, Exciting and Dynamic Content transition animations)

Transition animations have additional effect options. You will notice this when you click on the transition you want to use. The Effect Options button won’t be grayed out, and you can select additional settings.

For example, I selected ‘Reveal’ as my transition animation. Available effect options would be:

• Smoothly from right
• Smoothly from left
• Through black from right
• Through black from left

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like:

(Caption: Effect Options are available for some transition animations in PowerPoint)

You can also adjust the timing and duration of each transition as well as set how you want the slides to advance so that the transition can take place.

(Caption: More settings can be adjusted in the Timing section as well as the Animation Pane)

Feel free to play around with the transition animations and effect options that work best with your presentation.

The second type of animations bring the objects or elements within your slide to life. If you want to animate text, an image, shape, graph or chart, this is the type of animation you select.

You first to have to click on the object you want to animate , then click on the Animations tab .

(Caption: The Animations pane in PowerPoint)

The default view shows 8 animations, but if you click on the little arrow like you see on the screenshot above, then you’ll see many more options like you see here:

(Caption: More Animation options in PowerPoint – choose from Entrance, Exit, Emphasis and Motion Paths animations)

You can choose from the following types of animations:

• Entrance animations. The icons for this type of animation are colored green . If you use this type of animation for an object, that object will enter the slide according to your timing preferences.
• Exit animations. The icons for this type of animation are colored red . The object you’ve added this animation to will exit the slide .
• Emphasis animations. The icons for this kind of animation are colored yellow . The object won’t enter or exit the slide (unless you’ve added that particular animation to the same object) but will emphasize and draw attention to that object.
• Motion path animations. This type of animation will allow you to move an object from one spot to another. You can specify or draw the path you want the object to take.

In the next sections, we’ll go over how to add the 4 different types of animations to your slides.

How To Add Animations to PowerPoint In 2 Simple Steps

To add entrance animations to any object in PowerPoint, here’s what you need to do:

• Click on the object you want to animate. In this example, we will use a blue smiley face.

(Caption: The blue smiley face we will be animating for this tutorial)

2. Select the animation you want to use. For this example, we used the entrance animation – fade animation. We set the duration to 2.75 seconds. You will notice in the screenshot below that the fade animation has no effect options (the button is greyed out).

(Caption: The different options available for Fade animation in PowerPoint)

Here’s what those numbers in the screenshot mean:

1 – We chose the Fade animation.

2 – There are no Effect Options for Fade Animation (the button is grayed out and not clickable)

3 – You can adjust settings via the Advanced Animation, Timing, and Animation Pane sections

4 – The number (1) refers to the fact that we’ve added 1 animation to our object (this is the Fade animation).

5 – You can click on the Preview button to preview the animation.

As you can see, adding animations to an object is no rocket science. You can even add entrance, exit, emphasis and motion path animations to a single object!

Important Points To Remember When Adding Animations

It’s so easy adding animations to presentation slides that you can easily lose control. Therefore, you’ll find yourself animating all objects on your slides and adding slide transitions as well. Nevertheless, it might look fun to you, but in reality, it can distract your audience’s attention from the message you’re trying to convey in your presentation.

So here are some guidelines you should following when adding animations to PowerPoint:

• Simplicity is key. Simple animations like fade and appear may not be as impressive as other animations available, but these add a touch of elegance to well-timed slides. It makes your slides look clean and simple.
• Limit the number of animations on a slide. One or two animations per slide should suffice. There’s really no need to animate every single object on each slide.
• Time your presentation well. Make sure your objects appear right after you introduce it. This keeps your audience’s interest piqued.
• Don’t forget to practice. Practicing your timings and your animations are key to a successful presentation.

We hope you learned something new in today’s article. Remember, animations are fun and great when used sparingly and tastefully, but when overdone, you could potentially lose face in front of your audience and look like a total amateur instead.

At 24slides , we’re designing beautiful PowerPoint, Prezi and Keynote presentations using the latest design techniques and loads of creativity. We create professional presentations from scratch and redesign existing ones. Take a look at some examples of our work and let’s get in touch .

You might also find this interesting: PowerPoint’s Morph And Zoom: Everything You Need To Know

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How to Add Animations and Transitions in PowerPoint

In this tutorial, you’ll learn the basics of adding animations and transitions to your presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint. These visual effects will help you make your slides more dynamic and will keep your audience engage.

Adding an Animation to a Text, an Image, a Shape or Other Elements of a Presentation

Adding transitions to a slide.

• Select the object that you want to animate.
• Click the Animations tab.
• Select the animation that you want from the list.
• If you want to see which animations are applied to an object, click Animation Pane. You can also rearrange the animations as you see fit.
• Use the timing options to set the timing of the animation. You can choose when you want the animation to start: on click, with previous or after previous. You can also set the duration and even set a delay before the animation begins.

• Select the slide you want to apply a transition to.
• Click the Transitions tab.
• After you select any transition from the list, you’ll see a preview of the resulting effect.
• If you want to adjust the direction of the effect, among other settings, click the Effect Options drop-down arrow.

• To remove a transition, on the Transitions tab, click None.

• You can change the animations or transitions at any time. To do so, select the animated object or the slide with a transition applied to it and choose a different option from the list.

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials PowerPoint Animations: Animate Text, Objects, and Slides in Your Presentations

PowerPoint Animations: Animate Text, Objects, and Slides in Your Presentations

Working with graphic assets can bring a degree of expectancy when delivering a presentation, such as in the case of PowerPoint animations. They can help add emphasis to slide content and reveal parts of the slide gradually to help presenters discuss topics sequentially. 

As a presenting software, PowerPoint provides all kinds of animations for emphasis, entrance, exit, and to create a set motion. Join us today to learn all about animations in PowerPoint and unleash your creative potential.

Table of Contents

How PowerPoint Animations Can Benefit Presentation Design

Understanding powerpoint animation basics, types of animations in powerpoint, how to animate text on powerpoint, animating objects for visual impact, crafting seamless slide transitions in powerpoint, mastering advanced animation techniques in powerpoint, dos and don’ts of powerpoint animations, real-world use cases of animated presentation slides, recommended animated powerpoint templates, enhanced engagement and understanding through animations.

Dynamic presentations can have many benefits. The importance of such animations is often only realized by people familiar with PowerPoint. As we’ve seen in our guide on visual communication , graphical elements can make concepts more understandable. In the case of animations, we can use the transitions between slides or elements to split concepts and make them clearer.

Audience engagement is another factor, as eye-catching slides often include surprise elements hidden behind animations. These elements attract the audience’s interest and increase retention rate. In this case, animations serve as powerful presentation aids for the speaker.

Capturing Audience Attention

PowerPoint animations are more likely to capture the audience’s attention than static slides. The moving objects on-screen are the type of visuals people are likely to find attention-grabbing instead of trying to read through static slides or looking at static images. On this behalf, storytelling techniques boost their efficacy in connecting with the audience by implementing animations and transitions rather than sticking to static slides. 

Emphasizing Relationships Between Elements

Whenever we work with contrasting values, like pros and cons slides , animations help the presenter highlight areas of interest or disclose the opposite values section by section. This, in turn, structures the speech for real-time interaction with the graphical assets rather than having the audience read the slide and lose focus on the speech. 

Interactive Presentations

As mentioned before, presenters can craft compelling stories through the careful use of animations in PPT. What is often overlooked is the link between interactive presentations and animations. For instance, a speaker can deliver different outcomes of the presentation by selecting one path whose outcome is revealed through an animation. This “wow” factor induces surprise and creatively presents case scenarios.

Another option is when introducing your team in presentations. Rather than using static slides, incorporating animations gives more rhythm to the presentation and invites the public to interact with the speaker.

Getting Started with Animation in PowerPoint

To start with animations in PowerPoint, select an object you wish to animate and go to the Animations tab to choose an animation to add to the slide element. When adding animations to multiple objects in a slide, you should consider the sequence you wish to use to animate objects.

Accessing Animation Features

When accessing animation features, you will come across various animation types. By expanding the Animations menu, you can select animations for entrance, exit, emphasis, and motion paths to create a path for your animated sequence. You can also click to instantly preview an animation for the selected object or switch to slideshow mode to see how the animation will appear.

Adding Animations to Text and Objects

Once an animation is added to a text or object, a number is assigned. This number shows the sequence in which the object will be presented. For example, the object will be the first to be animated on screen, followed by two, three, and so on.

You can adjust the sequence of animations, triggers, and other settings from the Animation Pane in PowerPoint.

Timing and Sequence in Animations

The Timing menu in the Animations pane provides options to set the duration of the animation, the time to delay the animation on the screen (if necessary), and to assess if the animation starts on click, with the previous or after the last animation. How you select these animations will help you adjust the time and sequence of the animations. For example, you can use ‘ with previous’ option to show two animated objects simultaneously.

Entrance, Exit, and Emphasis Animations

Some of the most commonly used animation types fall under three categories: entrance, exit, and emphasis animations.

Entrance Animations

The Entrance Animations are meant to start or introduce objects. You can explore all entrance-related animations by going to Animations -> Animation (menu) -> More Entrance Effects . This will reveal all entrance animations you can click to preview for a selected object. These often consist of basic animations with effects like appear, fly-in, float-in, strips, wheel, circle, box, dissolve-in, split, wedge, wipe, plus, diamond, checkerboard, blinds, etc. The animations can be divided into three categories: basic, subtle, and moderate. These categories help identify the type of effects in each category according to how prominent they might be on screen.

Exit Animations

The Exit Animations are meant to help exit a slide or animated sequence to close a topic or subtopic, or to conclude the on-screen animations for a slide. These animations are similar to the Entrance Animations with the same effects. You can use these animation types for an exit sequence using effects like blinds, circles, checkerboard, box, plus, split, wedge, wipe, diamond, dissolve out, contract, swivel, fade, zoom, basic zoom, collapse, float up, etc.

Like the Entrance Animations, you can go to  Animations -> Animation (menu) -> More Exit Effects to preview the animations and to see the three categories for basic, subtle, or moderate animations.

Emphasis Animations

Other than basic, subtle, and moderate, the Emphasis Animations come with an additional category, ‘exciting.’ Emphasis animations in PowerPoint provide visual aids for emphasizing content within slides. The effects for these animation types in PowerPoint are also quite different from the entrance and exit-themed effects. Effects like fill color, grow/shrink, transparency, line color, teeter, color pulse, object color, desaturate, darken, lighten, blink, wave, and others can help emphasize an object within a slide to make it pop out before the audience.

Exploring Motion Path Animations

If primary effects aren’t what you want, it’s time to switch to Motion Paths . These are animated effects in PowerPoint that showcase objects across a specific path. In other words, these are elaborate animations that drag objects on the screen based on a particular shape or path, such as a 4,5, 6, or 8-point star, crescent moon, circle, diamond, football, heart, octagon, pentagon, square, trapezoid, teardrop, right triangle, arc (down, right, left, up), curvy right, bounce right, etc.

Motion Paths are divided into four categories. The basic effects consist of shapes, whereas, Line Curves provide lines and curves to animated objects. Similarly, the special category contains more elaborate effects such as inverted square, loop de loop, peanut, bean, curved square, etc.

Choosing Appropriate Animation Styles

When choosing animation styles, picking a style that best resonates with your presentation slides is important. The animations’ names and categories can help you identify what might work for you. Furthermore, after adding an animation, you can go to Effect Options to view the various directions and options used to refine the animation to build your sequence further. Depending on the animation type, you can pick variations of the animation, directions, colors, transparency, points to edit or lock, or other options for selected effects. The image below shows the variations for the Wheel animation in PowerPoint via Effect Options .

Similarly, if you select Transparency from Emphasis Effects, you can choose how transparent the object will appear on the screen. Likewise, many color-themed effects enable picking a custom color to animate an object.

Since Motion Paths are unique, you will get options to edit points, lock paths, reverse the direction of the default animated sequence, etc.

Now that you know how to animate in PowerPoint, it’s time to explore making written content more interesting using animations.

Start by opening a blank PPT file and adding a placeholder text. The idea is to learn how text interacts with animation effects without working with complex graphic layouts.

Select the text and switch to the Animations tab. In there, pick an animation effect of your preference. You will get a preview of the effect applied – which will show the number of the animation order once completed.

Animations for text, like any other animation, can be controlled in terms of behavior by accessing the panel at the right-most section of the Ribbon.

Additionally, we can expand the animations panel to select from the different effects offered by PowerPoint.

Animating Text Elements on PPT Templates

Animating text elements to highlight key aspects of your slides can be a great way to create engaging presentations. The Animated 3D 4 Steps & Core PowerPoint Template shown below are among the Animated PowerPoint templates at SlideModel that animate objects and text elements for emphasis while retaining a clear layout.

As visible from the animated sequence from the Animation Pane in the image below, the slide deck uses animated text boxes with a mix of other slide elements to create a sequence where a four-step diagram is highlighted with supported text to help elaborate each part of the diagram in an animated sequence. We can add, remove, or modify the included effects via the Animation Pane.

Balancing Text Animations for Impact

By balancing text animations, you can have maximum impact when highlighting content for your slides. The animations can be triggered to start simultaneously to reveal all the text after a sequence of objects, before objects appear, or one by one to reveal the diagram contents gradually.

Animating Images, Shapes, and Charts

When animating shapes and images, you can use a variety of animation types for entrance, exit, and emphasis, and to make the content pop out. However, charts require subtle animations, and it’s best to use basic effects to reveal charts, such as Appear and Disappear .

The Animated Network Diagram PowerPoint Template is an example of how to animate shapes.

The template’s title slide reveals shapes and icons in the form of a diagram in an animated sequence.

You can also include images in such a template to customize the given diagram and animate it to reveal the image simultaneously or after a set of objects has already been revealed.

If you are including a chart in your slide that is to be animated, make sure the animation corresponds to other elements that might also be animated. For example, you can trigger the chart to be revealed after the slide title with a simple Appear effect. In such a case, the chart can be displayed altogether or gradually, in animated form.

Applying Object Animations Strategically

When placing slide objects, you must apply the animations strategically to avoid revealing information out of sequence. Furthermore, it is also worth considering how your effects appear. For example, in the image of the diagram below, would you prefer the diagram to appear floating upward or downward? Such considerations and other vital elements, such as your branding needs, are important to ponder when setting your animated sequence.

Enhancing Presentation Flow with Transitions

While Animations for PowerPoint are one way of making your slides engaging, PowerPoint Transitions is another. You can access them via the Transitions tab in PowerPoint and apply transitions between slides.

While many legacy transitions provide basic effects when switching between slides, some of the more recent additions to this menu, such as Morph Transition , enable the creation of elaborate animations by using Transitions to animate your slides. The below example shows a slide with the Morph transition, giving an animated effect to the diagram.

Maintaining Coherence Between Slides

When applying Transitions, it is essential to maintain coherence between slides by ensuring they don’t overlap with any added Animations. To do this, you should preview your slide deck to see how it might appear once all the animated effects have been included in your slides. Like PowerPoint Animations, you can also use Effect Options for Transitions to set a sequence or direction that best suits your needs.

Layering for Complex Animation Effects

Using layers of multiple objects and slides can easily create advanced animation effects. This can be done using not only PowerPoint animations but also transitions. The Animated Pendulum Swing PowerPoint Templates from the SlideModel archive of animated templates use Transitions like Morph to create animated sequences. The below example shows a swinging pendulum created using Morph.

Combining and Triggering Animations

Depending on the number of elements within a slide and the animations used, you can use triggers to customize and set sequences for slide elements to animate. The example below shows the selected pendulum’s various linking options for the on-click trigger. By placing your slide objects to be connected and triggered with different parts of your slide, you can create and customize animated sequences that can be pretty attention-grabbing. 

PowerPoint Animation Painter

If you thought you had to start from scratch to animate each slide of your presentation, you are sorely mistaken. Much like the Format Painter option in PowerPoint, we can find Animation Painter , which is accessible via the Ribbon under the Advanced Animation control options.

This tool helps us duplicate animations between elements of the same slide or copy animation effects from one slide to another. As a format copying tool, it requires at least one animation effect to be placed otherwise the option is grayed out.

Creative Experimentation

Experimenting with Animations in PowerPoint can be pretty helpful to avoid making monotonous presentations. Experimentation does not necessarily require making slides from scratch, but you can also use ready-made templates such as the 3D animation PowerPoint Templates at SlideModel. Alternatively, some slide deck templates offer a considerable range of animation effects intended for maximum audience engagement, which users can quickly customize by editing placeholder areas for text, images, and logos.

Below is a list of do’s and don’ts of PowerPoint Animations for making presentations that best use animated effects.

Maintain Animation Moderation

It is essential to maintain moderation when using animations, as the use of too many animations on a single slide or presentation can make the content confusing.

Use of Appropriate Animations

Try to use appropriate animations for slide objects. The animation should suitably show if the object is to enter, exit, be emphasized, or be highlighted using a motion path.

Avoid Animation Overload

Avoid flashy animated sequences unless your presentation is meant for an audience that might find engaging, such as children in a classroom session.

Subtle can be Just as Engaging

Sometimes, subtle animations can be just as engaging as an animation with an elaborate effect. This can, in fact, be a better option than using animations that might be visually overpowering or difficult to follow due to elaborate effects.

Ensure Visual Consistency

As discussed earlier, it is vital to maintain consistency in using animated effects. Be it Animations or Transitions, using flashy effects or too many diverse effects can hurt how the audience perceives your content, as it might become confusing, visually overpowering, or unprofessional. In such a case, the audience might quickly lose interest in the presentation, leading to Death by PowerPoint.

Less is More

The design language of visual designs over the past decade or more has been intended to use fewer effects and graphical elements with ample space to make the interface look clean. Be it Modern UI or Material design apps, this design language has been evident across desktop and mobile UIs. Using the same concept, you can design your slides with fewer animations and graphical elements to make your content more visually appealing.

Turning PowerPoints into Millions

Courtney Allen, a professional PowerPoint designer who came out of a BFA in graphic design from Boise State University, had all but PowerPoint as a part of her portfolio. She started her freelancing career via Upwork, making over a thousand PowerPoints for clients, bringing in as many as $2 million. She suggests using simple designs and animations to make the most out of PowerPoint presentations. 

Guy Kawasaki Pitch Deck

Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee, whose famous 10-slide pitch deck has inspired a variety of PowerPoint templates. This rule was designed for startups and business presentations, focusing on pitching a concept to investors. While this isn’t directly related to using animations in presentations, it is an example of making the best use of minimalist content in a few slides. You can learn more about the Guy Kawasaki pitch deck from our article about the 10/20/30 rule for PowerPoint presentations .

How not to use an Animated PowerPoint Presentation in Court! 

Presentations with animations aren’t always a great idea. In 2014, a court in the United States criticized a PowerPoint presentation by the prosecutor, which led to the court throwing the case out. The presentation was made with sound effects and animations, with flashy elements like the bullseye. Some of the significant mistakes made by the prosecutor included ‘visual advocacy,’ where the defendant was marked with the word ‘guilt’ in the slide deck. Not to mention, the animated presentation seemed to be aimed at influencing the court using visual aids. Something that did not sit well with the court.

Use of PowerPoint by the US Military

The US Military has often been accused of Death by PowerPoint for preparing what some call the worst PowerPoint slides ever created. The issue became so profound that in 2011, it was revealed that an executive communications manager at Microsoft, Dave Karle, was tasked with ensuring that the US military could finally start using the software properly. After discussions with top military officials, an updated military presentation method was created, consisting of a number of presentation templates, tips, and graphics and more than 6000 map symbols. 

In this section, you can check some ready-made templates that can be easily customized for your presentation’s purposes. All these templates feature professionally made animation effects with native PowerPoint tools.

1. Multi-Purpose Animated PowerPoint Slide Deck

Those looking for how to animate in PowerPoint now have a ready-made solution to create mind-blowing presentations in a couple of minutes. This slide deck contains 26 slides in a broad selection of topics. We can present facts, introduce our team, our company, display charts with animated effects, and so much more. Check it out now!

Use This Template

2. Animated 8-Step Social Media Carousel PowerPoint Template

Bring dynamism to your social media posts by implementing this vivid social media carousel template. With eye-catching animated effects, this template emulates the typical carousel posts we can find on platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram.

3. Problem Solving Animated PowerPoint Template

Bring professional graphics to troubleshooting sessions with your team. This template, filled with PowerPoint animations, offers a user-friendly approach to conventional problem-solving situations in which the team has to observe the Issue Matrix, suggest possible solutions, and prepare an implementation plan and its corresponding process flow diagram. Thanks to its high-quality animation effects, the speaker can introduce the facts individually, without diverting attention from the speech.

4. Animated Company Profile Presentation Template for PowerPoint

We’ve seen this template as one of the examples of animations for PowerPoint. It is a 21-slide solution offering all the tools required for a corporate-styled company profile presentation, specifically tailored for service businesses.

5. Corporate Company Profile Animated PowerPoint Template

An alternative option for company profile presentations, featuring a minimalistic graphic layout with a broad variety of animation effects. Check these 12 slides and customize them with information relevant to your organization – we bring complex animation effects in a ready-made format. Colors and placeholder images can also be replaced.

6. Animated Roadmap PowerPoint Template

Bring more action to any planning meeting using this animated PowerPoint roadmap template. After a clear path overview, each milestone slide contains animation effects to introduce relevant information to the topic. It is a new take on traditional roadmap presentations that allows the speaker to pace themselves regarding how to disclose the information about the strategy to embark on.

7. Animated Pros & Cons Comparison Slide Template for PowerPoint

We mentioned the advantages of using PowerPoint animations to discuss contrasting values of a situation. Well, this animated Pros & Cons slide is the ideal tool for that purpose, offering a generalist view, then two accompanying slides for Pros & Cons, respectively, with animated effects to introduce additional information per point.

Using animations to make visually appealing and engaging presentations requires ensuring that your content corresponds with your added animated effects. It is always best to use animations in moderation and to keep your slides minimalist while unleashing your creativity as a presenter. Using ready-made PowerPoint templates can also help give you a good starting point to begin experimenting with animations and effects. This can also be useful for people new to PowerPoint Animations to explore what is doable with an animated slide deck, using animated sequences tailored for customization. 

Whether you’re using an animated template or making one from scratch, a preview in slideshow mode can save you a lot of trouble with potential issues tied to animated effects. Last but not least, using animations in PowerPoint isn’t always necessary, and you can even go for a simple slide deck with a handful of slides. What matters is that you should be aware of the information being presented, and the visual aids should be just to aid your slides and not meant to be the whole package on their own.

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Ultimate Guide to PowerPoint Animations: Tutorials, Templates, Tips & Tricks

Animations in powerpoint.

We have put together a massive collection of resources for PowerPoint Animations. This includes free & premium tips, tricks, tutorials and templates that you can access online to polish your slides and engage your audience.

We will cover both Custom Animations and Transitions feature in PowerPoint. This includes the new Morph Transition introduced in PowerPoint for Office 365

About PowerPoint Custom Animations

Custom Animation is a useful feature in PowerPoint. You can use it to add interaction to your slides and make the presentation more engaging for your audience. Almost any element in your slide - text, photos, graphs, shapes, audio and video can be animated.  

You can add PowerPoint animations to any of these elements in just three steps: (1) Select the object to animate (2) apply an animation, and (3) customize the effects.

Let us see how to apply animation to different parts of a presentation.

Custom animation, when used correctly can enhance the effectiveness of your message in your business presentations. #PowerPoint #Tips

4 Types of Animations 

PowerPoint offers 4 types of Animations:

• Entrance animation: Animations to make elements enter the slide.
• Exit Animation : Animations to make elements exit the slide.
• Emphasis Animation :   Animations to highlight elements on the slide and direct attention
• Motion Path Animation : Animations that make elements on the slide move from one place to another along predefined paths. 

You can add more than one animation to the same object. With this feature, it is possible to create a variety of custom animations to suit your specific requirement.

Animation can help make a PowerPoint presentation more dynamic, and the information more memorable. The most common types of animation effects include entrances and exits. 

Learn how to set up basic animations with these tutorials on Microsoft website. 

[Basic] Add Animations in PowerPoint 2016

In this easy to follow video, learn how to add animation in PowerPoint 2016. This video shows how to get started and is a primer.

Customizing Animation Effects

Once you add an animation to an object, PowerPoint offers further options to customize the animation. Each Animation effect can be controlled using the following additional settings:

Option 1: Preview Animations

Animations in PowerPoint can be normally viewed only in Slideshow mode. So if you want to preview the animations you added on a slide, PowerPoint allows you to view them using the Preview option.

Option 2: Effect Options

Some effects in PowerPoint like Fly In have additional options available. For example, Fly In animation can be set to Flyin from Left, Right, Top or Bottom of the slide. 

In addition to this, text animation can be further set to: As One Object, All at One or By Paragraph.

Option 3: Advanced Animation Effects

These options help you fine tune your animation further. You can: 

Add Animation: Add more animation effects to an object

Animation Pane: View Animation Pane to view list of animations applied on the slide and modify them.

Trigger:   Start animation on a trigger like on click of a button/text etc. to make your slide more interactive.

Animation Painter: This lesser known tool can be used to copy all the animations applied to one object and "paint" or replicate the animation to another object. This is a very useful tool to reduce the time taken to create animation effects.

Option 4: Animation Timing

The Animation timing tools allow you to control when and how the animations play. 

Start: Animations can start On Click, With Previous and After Previous

Duration: Controls how long the animation should play for. 

Delay: This feature controls how long after the previous animation the current animation should be played.

Reorder Animation: When the Animation Pane is open, you can reorder the animations and move them up or down with these tools.

5. About Animation Pane

The Animation Pane provides the list of all the animations applied to a slide in once place. You can do the following actions in the Pane:

• Change the Start option
• Edit the Effect options
• Change the Timings
• Remove the animations 
• Preview the animations

You can find out more about Animation Panes in this post from Tutsplus .

How To Preview Animations

When you put together a slide with multiple animation effects, you need to preview the animation periodically. Going to Slideshow mode every time takes a lot of time. In this video, you will find some quick ways to preview animations. All the options shared in this video allow you to preview the animation in the slide itself.

Text Animation Effects

PowerPoint animations are useful for text or bullet lists. You can make each point in your list appear one at a time as you present it.  In this section we'll explore some basic and advanced ways to present text.

Animations to Bullet Lists

When you present a list of bullet points, you can add animations to make each point exit the slide, after you finish covering it.  This post from Techrepublic shows how to add an exit strategy to bullet points in a slide. 

[Easy] Useful Animation Tricks for Bullet Points

Learn 3 useful PowerPoint Text animation tricks in the video below. The tricks you will learn are: 1. How to animate a bullet point list one by one 2. How to dim a bullet point after it is animated 3. How to make a bullet point disappear after the animation PLUS How to animate bullet points in reverse order These PowerPoint animation effects should help you make your next presentation more effective.

[Advanced] Animation Effect for Text 

Learn how to create a realistic looking effect of a hand writing text in PowerPoint. The animation looks like it was created by whiteboard animation software like Videoscribe. This popular video by Presentation Process has over 1200 Likes and 134K views. 

Find these videos useful? Please subscribe to Presentation Process YouTube channel for more:

Most people use animation only to make the bullet points appear one after another. Some advanced users make the points dim after animation. There is so much more to animation than this basic feature. In the following sections we'll see some advanced and creative uses of Animations in PowerPoint.

Picture Animation Effects

In this section you will find some creative ways to animate slides with photos. This includes photos in jpeg or png format as well as vector images in EMF, WMF or SVG format.

You can find video tutorials on how to animate Pictures and Shapes on Microsoft website.

[Advanced]  PowerPoint Zoom Animation

Sometimes when you present large pictures in your business presentation, you may be required to zoom in to your pictures to show the details. In such a situation this PowerPoint zoom effect comes in handy. You can use the animation effect to zoom into a certain step in a large multi step process, or you can use this custom animation trick to zoom in on an individual in a large group photo or zoom in on a country in a large world map etc.

[Advanced]  PowerPoint Animation to Create Videoscribe Effect

Learn to create an interesting Videoscribe effect with PowerPoint Animation within a few seconds. The effect you will learn is to have a base image and to animate it so that it looks like someone is completing a drawing on the slide. This is a great way to add engagement to your training slides.

If you would like to follow this tutorial, you can download a similar image here .

This kind of animation can be done with any wmf or emf file and can be used to explain business concepts like planning and execution or explanation of a step by step process.

Shapes & SmartArt  Animations

Autoshapes in PowerPoint can be used to create visuals for your presentation. In this section, we will see how to animate Autoshapes as well as SmartArt.

[Easy]  PowerPoint Timeline Animation

Learn to create a beautiful Animated PowerPoint Timeline Infographic with this step by step tutorial. Grab your audience attention with this easy to design slide with custom animation effect.

[Easy]  PowerPoint Animation for SmartArt Objects

When you add animation to a SmartArt graphic in PowerPoint , initially the entire graphic gets animated. But PowerPoint does provide some control over animating SmartArt shapes. To learn how to animate a SmartArt graphic with more control read this post on Indezine .

You can also see the process of animating a SmartArt diagram with the tutorial video below. The diagram we will be using is a core diagram with a circle relationship from the inbuilt PowerPoint SmartArt

The type of diagrams you can create and the animations you can apply, are only limited by your imagination. 

Watch the video above to know more

Creative Slide Design & Animation

Design 25 beautiful Slides to impress your boss & clients – using PowerPoint Tips & Tricks. Save time and improve your workflow efficiency. Suited for Beginner and Intermediate PowerPoint users.

Chart  Animations

Most business presentations have charts included in them. Many times PowerPoint charts can be overwhelming for the audience.  The reason for their overwhelm is - too much information hitting them too soon. If you learn to sequence the way you present your numbers, you make it easy for your business audience to understand your PowerPoint presentation.

This video in Microsoft support site  shows how to add animations to Charts and SmartArt. 

[Easy]  Guide to PowerPoint Chart Animation

Learn to animate your charts like a pro. In this short video tutorial, you will find how to apply custom animation to your PowerPoint charts and present information at your own pace.

[Easy]  Animate Excel in PowerPoint

Many presenters have the habit of creating charts in Excel first and then again in PowerPoint. This video shows how you can simply copy an existing chart from Excel and animate it to present your information clearly and in sequence.

Adding Interactivity 

PowerPoint animations has a trigger feature which can be used to add interactivity to your slides. These are specially useful for training and e-learning presentations.

Hyperlinks and Triggers

Triggers are like an internal hyperlink on your slide. The person viewing the presentation can control what happens next. This is useful for building multiple choice quizzes. This post from Brightcarbon provides an overview of setting up triggers & hyperlinks.

Creating Simple & Interactive PowerPoint Animated Slide

Engage your audience in training and information presentation with this beautiful slide. The slide has 4 images. On clicking on an image, the description or details relevant to that image appears next to it.

Creating Interactive Buzzers with Sound in PowerPoint

Make your training more engaging and interesting with this creative PowerPoint idea. Follow this step by step tutorial video to create an interactive PowerPoint buzzer with sound effects. You can use this buzzer to run a quiz in your classroom.

45 PowerPoint Quiz Templates Pack

Create excitement & make learning fun with games in your classroom! Gamify your classroom & generate excitement with Ready To Use PowerPoint Quiz Templates.  

Quiz templates for any type of training: Corporate Training, Universities, Schools or Freelance Training. Includes complete instructions for customizing & playing each game

Video Animation Effects

You can insert and play videos in PowerPoint. You can insert these videos from YouTube, from your PC or Storage location like OneDrive.   This tutorial in Microsoft website covers how to insert video and audio in PowerPoint.

[Easy]  Insert YouTube Video in PowerPoint

Learn how to embed an online video into your next presentation. It is a fairly straightforward option in PowerPoint 2016.

[Advanced]  PowerPoint Movie Magic with Videos, Text and Animations 

Create PowerPoint Movie Magic by using the combo of videos, text and animations. Use this technique to create slides that engage your audience. The presentation shows a car moving along a road. The windshield wiper moves across the screen. Text appears and fades away in sync with the movement of the windshield wiper. We will use the Video Bookmark option, Text Entrance and Exit Animations, and Trigger animations options to create this effect.

Using Transitions Effectively

Slide transitions are the visual movements where one slide changes into another during a presentation. They add to the professional appearance of the slideshow in general and can draw attention to specific important slides. To know how to apply and remove transitions,  read this post on Lifewire.

[Easy]  5 Tricks to Use Transition Effects in PowerPoint

Learn how to use PowerPoint slide transition effects in an interesting way to make your presentations creative.

[Advanced]  The Power of Dynamic Pan Transition Effect

Sometimes the information you want to present spreads beyond one slide. For example, an excel spreadsheet you stuck on the slide has too many columns to fit into one slide.  A map you placed on the slide is too big to be shown on one slide. If you force yourself to show the image in one page (by shrinking the size of the map), the details get too small to be clearly visible to the audience in the last row.

Learn an easy trick to overcome this situation with the video below:

Using Morph Transition 

PowerPoint Morph is a revolutionary feature available for Office 365 users. It eliminates the need for complex animation. Technically speaking, PowerPoint Morph is a transition, but in reality it can be widely used a substitute/enhancement for complex animation. Read this post from Efficiency365 for a quick overview  of this feature.

[Easy]  Animated Roadmap with Morph Transition

Learn to create an interesting animated roadmap that looks like a video. We use the PowerPoint 2016 ( Office 365 ) Morph Transition feature to create this effect. You can use this type of roadmap or timeline in almost any kind of presentation. Engage your audience by explaining and revealing the steps one by one. Link for Roadmap Image

[Advanced]  How Morph Transition Can Replace   Animation

In this video you will find how to use PowerPoint Morph Transition to replace Custom Animations. See how this can be done with this example of a slide with multiple pictures with text. You'll find how to mimic PowerPoint animation with Morph Transition and create the slides very quickly.

If you would like to learn about Morph Transition, PowerPoint Designer and other such features available in PowerPoint for Office 365, checkout the course below...

Complete PowerPoint Foundation Course

Master Fundamentals of PowerPoint from scratch. From Basics to Advanced. Includes special section on features of PowerPoint 365:

• 13.5 hours on-demand video
• For beginner & advanced users
• Online Access: Full lifetime access
• Practice Activities: Assignments & Quizzes

Animated PowerPoint Templates

Animations take time to visualize and create. You can save time by using ready to use PowerPoint Templates. In this section you will find resources and links for Animated PowerPoint Templates.

PowerPoint comes with some animated 3D templates. This includes sparkling picture frames, lively photograph albums, 3-D rotating photos, and elegant transitions between images. 

This page on Microsoft support site provides the link and details.

You can find more free animated PowerPoint Templates including for physics presentations at Presentation Magazine website. 

While these free templates are a good resource for student and non-critical presentations, business & training presentations require professional and creative animation effects. 

Ready-to-Use Professional Animation Templates

The 750+ Advanced PowerPoint Animation Templates Pack is specifically created for use in training and business presentations. It includes advanced animations for text, lists, pictures, concepts and metaphors. You can preview some of the templates from this pack below:

Animations for Bullet Points, Agenda, Terms & Definitions

Animations for Timelines, Roadmaps & Process Flows

Source:  750+ Advanced PowerPoint Animation Templates Pack

Animations for Pictures and Lists

Animations for Concepts, Metaphors, Business Ideas

And More Professionally Animated Templates to Engage Your Audience...

Make Your Presentations More Engaging without Spending Hours struggling with PowerPoint Animations...

Download 750+ Advanced PowerPoint Animation Templates Pack. Tell your story with 750+ Ready to Use & Easy to Customize Powerful Animations in PowerPoint. 

Pramod Naik

Ceo, tianjin tianshi india pvt ltd.

These ready to use animated slides are very classy and ready to use , these are very thoughtfully done .

When I have to put a point across to the team or to a larger audience , these slides greatly benefit me to make my slides sharper and to the point … one just has to visualize as to what is that you need to share to the audience and how , if you can visualize , you are bound to find that slide in this pack , if not similar , better . Secondly when you scan through the slides , the way they are made you also get ideas as to what to share to the team and audience .

Tips for Professional Animation

Here are some quick tips when using PowerPoint Animations. These will help you save time and create your animations more professionally. 

[Tip]  How to remove Custom Animations from All Slides in 1 click

When you don't want any custom animation at all in your presentation - how do you go about it? Usually you will have to go to every single slide and remove the animations. However if you wish to have on-click control on whether animations are present or now - then use this trick and get complete control over your slides!

5 Irritating Ways to Use Custom Animation

Some presenters have the habit of applying animations the wrong way. Such animations have no purpose and end up irritating the audience. Watch the video below to learn the common mistake presenters make when using custom animations feature. 

Time-Saving Tip: Using Animation Painter

Animations take a lot of time to create. Learn how to easily reuse animations applied to an object using Animation Painter tool. This video is part of the bonus tutorial videos provided with purchase of Advanced Animations Pack. 

Good PowerPoint animation makes your audience focus on the message not the animation.

Turn Presentations Into Videos

When you make a recording of a presentation, all its elements (narration, animation, pointer movements, timings, and so on) are saved in the presentation itself. In essence, the presentation becomes a video that your audience can watch in PowerPoint.  Learn the step by step process in this Microsoft support article .

[Easy]  Convert PowerPoint to Video

In this tutorial, you will find how to use save your PowerPoint file as a video. When you save the file as a video, all the animations and transitions you have used will get saved along with the file.  You would use this option of saving your presentation as videos to: - Showcase photos in a video format online/ offline - Summary or review of keys points in a presentation or training - Create a booth or kiosk presentation etc.

Free Ultimate Guide to PowerPoint Animations for tutorials, tips & more. #PowerPoint #Presentations

More Ideas for PowerPoint Animation

How to create sparkling text effect for pictures.

Learn to create a Sparkling Text Effect in PowerPoint with this step by step tutorial. You can use this effect for title animation or to highlight an important quote in a presentation.

How to create Clock Needle Animation effect

Learn how to Create Clock Needle Animation Effect in PowerPoint 2013 This is a useful animation effect to show a list, agenda items, steps in a process and more. 

Create Motion Graphics with Animation

Learn how to convert Static Pictures into Animated images in PowerPoint. Tell your story with creatively animated PowerPoint slides. The effect looks like motion graphics created in an advanced software. However, this effect uses simple custom animation effects that you can follow in any version of PowerPoint. 

Related Posts

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How to Make Animation or Movies with Microsoft PowerPoint

Last Updated: May 4, 2023

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jack Lloyd . Jack Lloyd is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. He has over two years of experience writing and editing technology-related articles. He is technology enthusiast and an English teacher. This article has been viewed 496,111 times. Learn more...

This wikiHow teaches you how to animate items in PowerPoint. By animating several items or text in a sequence, you can create a movie-like presentation.

• If you want to open an existing PowerPoint file, double-click the file in question and skip the next step.

• Images — Click Insert , click Pictures , select a photo, and click Insert .
• Text — Click Insert , click Text Box , click and drag your mouse across the area in which you want to create the text box, and enter text.

• If the selected animation doesn't have any available options, Effect Options will be greyed out.
• For example, many animations (such as the "Fly In" animation) can be edited to enter the presentation from a different side of the frame.

• Select the item you want to animate.
• Click Add Animation
• Scroll down and click one of the "Motion Paths" options.
• Click and drag the line which appears to reposition it, or click and drag one of the points on the line to change its shape.

• Clicking a number will demonstrate the animation to which it pertains.
• You can change an animation by clicking the number next to an animated item and then selecting a new animation.

• The "Duration" text box dictates how long the animation lasts, while the "Delay" text box determines how much time will pass between the animation's trigger and the animation beginning.
• You can also change what triggers the animation by clicking the "Start" drop-down menu in the upper-right corner and then selecting On Click , With Previous , or After Previous .

• If the Animation Painter button is greyed out or unavailable, first make sure that you've fully selected an animated item to copy.

• Windows — Click File , click the Export tab, click Create Video in the middle of the page, enter a file name, select a save location, and click Save .
• Mac — Click File , click Save As Movie... , enter a file name, select a save location, and click Save .

Community Q&A

• You can save your PowerPoint presentation by pressing either Ctrl + S (Windows) or ⌘ Command + S (Mac) and, if you started with a blank presentation, entering the file details when prompted. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1
• To add audio to your PowerPoint presentation, click the Insert tab, click Audio , select a location on your computer, and click an audio file to add. You can also select the Record option after clicking Audio to record a narration with your computer's microphone. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Consider testing your presentation in slideshow mode before saving. You can do this by clicking the T -shaped "Slideshow" icon in the lower-right side of the window and pressing the right arrow key to prompt each of your animations. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Clip Art is not available in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp9EYXErle4
• ↑ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/animate-text-or-objects-305a1c94-83b1-4778-8df5-fcf7a9b7b7c6
• ↑ https://24slides.com/presentbetter/tutorial-save-your-powerpoint-as-a-video/

About This Article

1. Open PowerPoint with images or text you want to animate. 2. Click the object you want to animate. 3. Click the Animations tab and select an animation. 4. Change animation options in the toolbar. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Make Animated PowerPoint Presentations With PPT Templates

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In this tutorial, we'll look at how to make animated PowerPoint presentation designs from a template. This includes how to create animated slides in PowerPoint, as well as other animation in PowerPoint presentation designs. 

Animations in PowerPoint can really draw your audience's attention to elements of a presentation. You don't have to use separate apps to create animation effects. PowerPoint offers some of the easiest, point and click tools to add animation to your presentations.

There are two key types of animation in Microsoft PowerPoint that you'll learn to use in this tutorial:

• Object animations , which are individual items like, text or shapes going in motion on a slide.
• Animated transitions , the effects that play when you move from one slide to the next in PowerPoint.

In this tutorial, we'll learn how to create an animated PowerPoint presentation with a template. You'll learn how to add both key types of animations to a presentation. We'll also look at how to make animated slides  in PowerPoint from a template.  

You can find more great animated PowerPoint templates on Envato Elements. Or browse through this curated selection:  

Inspiration: Working With the Best Animated PowerPoint Templates (Video)

It's important to use PowerPoint animations the right way in your presentation. In this video, learn how to use pro templates to add powerful animated slide designs to PowerPoint quickly.  Also, see some premium animated PowerPoint templates from Envato Elements in action. 

Guide to Making Great Presentations (Free eBook Download)

Also, before you read on, be sure to grab our free eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It will help you master the presentation process, from: initial idea, through to writing, design, and delivering with impact.

Now let's get into how to create an animated PowerPoint presentation, beginning with helpful tips: 

Tips and Tricks for Making Animations in PowerPoint

Not sure which animations are best for your project? When making animations in PowerPoint, it's important to know when to add them and when to keep it simple. Check out these simple tips and tricks for your next PowerPoint presentation.

1. General Tips for Using Animation in PowerPoint

Just because you  can  animate everything in PowerPoint doesn't mean that you should. We've all sat through presentations with distracting animations. When making animations in PowerPoint, be strategic.

Animations serve to complement the content and draw the user's eye to key elements. The PowerPoint animation effects shouldn't be the focus of a slide. Your content should be. Here are key tips to add animations to your PowerPoint presentations tastefully:

• Limit yourself to one to two key PowerPoint animations on each slide to avoid distracting the audience.
• Use animations to draw attention to key points on the slide instead of applying them to random elements.
• Use simple PowerPoint animation effects like fade or dissolve animations that are less distracting than flashier options.

With that in mind, let's dive into adding PowerPoint animations in a presentation:

2. Add PowerPoint Object Animations

Object animations  bring elements onto or off a PowerPoint slide. They're a big part of making animations in PowerPoint. You can use these effects to reveal key points or draw attention to a specific part of the slide. Imagine leaving the conclusion for each slide hidden until you press a button on your remote, for example.

Let's explore how to make animated PPT presentation designs stand out with object animations.

To experiment with how to create animated PPT object animations, we'll use this PowerPoint template. Download it now if you'd like to follow along. Otherwise, these steps will apply to any existing PowerPoint presentation or template.

To get started with object animations, start off by clicking on an element on your slide. You can choose an element like a text box, image, or even a shape you've drawn on the slide.

Now, click on the  Animations  tab. This menu makes it easy to choose an animation to add to an object.

Click on the part of the slide that you want to animate. Again, this could be a text box, image, chart, or any object that you can select on the slide.

Once you've got an object selected, simply click on one of the animation thumbnails. PowerPoint will play a preview of the selected animation and you'll see the object come onto the slide.

Now, simply click on the PowerPoint animation that you want to add to an object. I recommend choosing a simple animation effect like Fade  or  Appear.  Keeping an animation simple will bring it onto a slide naturally and not distract the audience.

3. Sequence Object Animations in PowerPoint

If you've added many PowerPoint animations to the same slide, you might want to re-order the object animations. For instance, your images might come onto a slide before the title appears.

In this case, it helps to resequence animations . To reorder animations, switch to the  Animations  tab on PowerPoint's ribbon. Then, find the  Animation  Pane  button and click on it to open a panel that shows all the animations on the slide.

On the right side, you'll see the  Animation Pane  open. In it you'll see a list of animations that'll play on the slide.

In the example below, you can see two animations on the side, each of which represents an object's animation.

To reorder the animations, simply drag and drop them in the list on the Animation Pane . Click Play All  to preview the animations once they're reordered.

4. Add PowerPoint Slide Transitions

Now, let's talk about how to create animated slides in PowerPoint. Slide transitions show as effects when you move from one slide to the next. These are another form of PowerPoint animation you can apply with relative ease. 

To apply a slide transition, start off by selecting a slide and clicking on Transitions on PowerPoint's ribbon. With a slide selected, simply click on one of the animation thumbnails on the ribbon to apply it to the current slide. You'll see a preview of the active transition animation play. 

Notice that slides that have animations show a small icon in the sidebar. So, you can easily identify the slides that you've applied transitions to.

There are three other key options that you can set on the ribbon for each slide's transition: 

• Sound . Choose a drop-down option to play a sound when the slide advances. 
• Duration . This describes the duration (speed) that the animation plays. You can set a longer duration in seconds for the animation to play more slowly or shorten it for a faster transition. 
• Advance Slide . Instead of advancing the slide by clicking through the presentation, tick the After option to automatically change slides after a certain amount of time. 

The principles of limiting PowerPoint animation and effects are the same for slide transitions. Use them sparingly and stick to the simple dissolve or fade effects.

How to Remove Animation From PowerPoint

Now that you’ve learned how to add animation in PowerPoint let’s learn how to remove animation from PowerPoint:

1. Open the Animation Pane

The first step in how to remove all animations from PowerPoint is to open the Animation Pane . First, click on the Animations tab. Next, click on the Animation Pane button in the toolbar.

2. Animation Pane

You’ll see a list of your current animations in the animation pane under the Animations section. Click on one of your animations and press the red X button above the list.

After you click the X button, you’ll have removed the animation from your slide. Keep repeating this step until you’ve deleted all the animations you want to remove.

3. Remove All Animations from Your Presentation at Once

Here’s how to quickly remove all animations from PowerPoint.

• Click on the Slide Show tab in the menu bar.
• Click on the Set Up Slide Show button.

4. Set Up Show Window

A Set Up Show window appear once you click on the Set Up Slide Show button. This window is how to remove all animations from PowerPoint.

Under the Show Options , click on the box next to the Show without animation option. Next, click on the OK button in the bottom right corner.

Make Better PowerPoint Animations and Presentations

So far, we've tackled the basics of PowerPoint animation and how to create animated PPT elements. Let's take these ideas and explore them in a customizable PowerPoint presentation. Here's the template design we'll use in this walkthrough:

You can download this template and follow along. Or apply these techniques to any PowerPoint template design you prefer. 

1. Start With a Strong Introduction

Above all, you'll want to start off by showcasing your organization. For example, if you're going to recruit employees to join your company, it helps to give them background on what it is that you do. Trying to sell an idea to investors? They'll need to know what you're about and why to trust you.

Take a look at this sample slide from this professional PowerPoint design template . Where do you think animation would be an appropriate addition? 

A simple fade in could be a classy addition here. Think about this in contrast to something overly busy, like every element here flying in from a different direction. That would be really distracting!

2. Introduce Your Topic Clearly and Concisely

Organization and clarity often go hand in hand. When considering how to make animated PowerPoint presentation designs, start with a simple layout. Less is often more. Once your content has been laid out in a clear and easy to understand way, you can consider making animations in PowerPoint.

Here's another example slide from this PowerPoint presentation. We could try some object animations here. For example, perhaps each of the three points here could fade or pan in, one by one. That could make sense and support the idea of progression here. 

3. Describe Your Progress Visually

Visuals can be very communicative. Consider trying an infographic or other visual element to help convey ideas.

For example, a 50% increase sounds like a big deal, but it's going to visually look like a big deal when we see a visualization of this information.

So, how about making animations in PowerPoint for this scenario?

We could use animations to reinforce the infographic, for example. Or maybe we could have the percentages fade in last, to emphasize their importance. When in doubt, pick one part to emphasize. Less is usually more.

4. Remember to List Your Contact Details

A strong PowerPoint presentation is typically designed to inform and engage an audience. We want our audience to connect with us, so make sure they're clear on how to do so. It's great to take questions during or after your presentation, but what about later? 

Again, when thinking about making animations in PowerPoint, keep these tips in mind:

• Where do you want to add emphasis? Use animation to enhance, not distract.
• Not sure? Then keep it simple with a clean transition into the slide.

So, in this slide, we could stick to a simple fade in, that could work just fine. No need to keep viewers waiting on any information here. 

You'll notice that not all these slide examples contain complex animations. When each slide is loaded with many animated objects, your audience is likely to become distracted and tune out. This is why we recommend that you be selective with including animations in your PowerPoint presentations.

To try out other premium PowerPoint templates, check out Envato Elements popular PowerPoint themes. Subscribe to Elements and download unlimited creative files.

5. Tips on How to Create Animation in PowerPoint

Looking for a run through of some of the basics of how to make animated PPT presentation designs? Check out this helpful, free tutorial. It's a great primer for how to create animation in PowerPoint.

Download Customizable PowerPoint Templates (With Unlimited Use)

A PowerPoint template can help you get your project done quickly and efficiently. Remember, you can put animation in PowerPoint presentation design templates too. They're fully customizable.

So, what if you could have access to thousands of PowerPoint templates for one low price? Sounds like an awesome deal, right? Well, that's exactly what you get with Envato Elements.

Find PowerPoint Templates

And you also get access to a library of fonts, graphics, illustrations, audio, and much more too! Download a new business card template or even a template for your website. It's an ultimate resource for creative professionals. 

5 Trending PowerPoint Templates (From Envato Elements for 2021)

Check out some of the awesome PowerPoint design templates you can download right now, on Envato Elements. They're all included with unlimited downloads. Enjoy the design inspiration, or consider customizing one today:

1. Reyna PowerPoint Template

This template is clean and trendy, with fun pops of color. Prefer a different color scheme? This PowerPoint template is completely customizable. Try it out with any colors you prefer.

2. Hurley PowerPoint Template

A dark PowerPoint theme, like this one, can give your presentation an entirely different mood. It's got a lot of contrast too. Try this one out with your photos and content.

3. Process PowerPoint & Google Slides Template

Check out the fun, custom shaped used in this PowerPoint template design. Easily customize the content, add your own photos, and more. This one also comes with support for Google Slides.

4. Kemal – Business PowerPoint Template

Isn't this design classy? Sticking with a black and white aesthetic, as your overall look, can make for a classy design. This one could be a great choice for showcasing eye-catching photos. 

5. Clover Fashion - PowerPoint Design Template

A blocky look like this one could be pushed in so many directions. Love it colorful? Then simply insert your content. Prefer something softer? Jump right in and edit this PowerPoint presentation. It's yours to mix up as you like. 

Looking for Even More PowerPoint Templates?

There's even more design inspiration to check out on Envato Tuts+. If you're looking for more PowerPoint template designs, check out these collections. There are many different aesthetics and even some freebies to download right now:

Keep Learning More About PowerPoint & Making Great Presentations

This tutorial showcased how easy it is to add animations in Microsoft PowerPoint. Whether you use the built-in object animations or opt for a top PowerPoint presentation template, animation can draw attention at the right moment to your key points.

For a more comprehensive guide to building presentations, make sure and check out our Ultimate Guide to the Best PPT round-up.

Also, don't miss out on these specific Microsoft PowerPoint tutorials that'll help you learn animation in PowerPoint:

Need More Help? Grab Our Making Great Presentations eBook (Free)

We've got the perfect complement to this tutorial. You can find more information in our eBook on making great presentations . Download this PDF eBook now for FREE with your subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. 

It'll help you master the presentation process from initial creative ideas, through to writing, design, and delivering with impact.

Download a Template to Use Animation in Your Next PowerPoint Presentation

Now that you know how to make animated PowerPoint (PPT) presentations, download your favorite template. You can start making animations in PowerPoint today . 

Remember, many premium PowerPoint templates already have built-in animation effects.

Editorial Note : This post was originally published in October of 2017. It's been comprehensively updated with special help from Daisy Ein and Sarah Joy .

How-To Geek

How to use motion path animations in microsoft powerpoint.

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Add a motion path animation, customize the motion path.

Microsoft PowerPoint offers many types of animations . You can add effects to text , images, and shapes. But if you want to create your own, you can select a motion path animation to move your object wherever you like.

With motion path animations in PowerPoint, you can make your object zigzag, loop, spiral, or swoosh. Once you select the motion path you want to use, you can customize the points to create the exact path you want your object to take.

Open your PowerPoint presentation and select the slide where you want to create the animation. Either insert the object you want to animate or select it if you've already added it to the slide.

Related: How to Hide an Object Before Animation in PowerPoint

Go to the Animations tab and click the arrow at the bottom of the Animation selection box. This opens the full collection.

Scroll toward the bottom and you'll see a few options in the Motion Paths section. If you want to use one of these, simply select it to apply it to your object. Notice you can choose Custom Path which allows you to draw the path yourself.

For additional options, click "More Motion Paths" at the bottom of the window.

In the Change Motion Path box, you'll see Basic, Lines and Curves, and Special paths. To see a preview before you apply it, check the box for Preview Effect at the bottom. Then, choose one to see it in action.

When you find the path you want to use, select it and click "OK."

If you want to combine motion paths so that your object ends in a certain spot, check out our how-to.

Related: How to Combine Motion Paths in Microsoft PowerPoint

After you apply the motion path, you may have options to change the direction. Select the animated object and go to the Animations tab. Click the Effect Options drop-down arrow to view your choices. Note that not all paths offer extra effects, but most let you reverse the path direction.

Along with changing the direction of your motion path, you can edit the points. Click the Effect Options drop-down arrow and pick "Edit Points."

You'll then see the motion path with the points as squares. Select and drag a point to move it.

You can also right-click a point for options like making it a smooth, straight, or corner point. Additionally, you can add more points or remove one.

If you want to change the start action or duration , or add a delay, select the animation and use the tools on the Animations tab.

Remember, you can preview your animation as you make edits to it using the Preview button on the left side of the ribbon on the Animations tab. This helps to see if you need more adjustments or want to reorder the animations .

Animations can spruce up your slideshow . So if a motion path animation is what you need, you have plenty of options in PowerPoint.

Related: 8 Tips to Make the Best PowerPoint Presentations

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft PowerPoint

Add a motion path animation effect

You can apply motion path animation effects to move slide objects in a sequence that tells an effective story.

For example, the plane on the right (below) shows the starting point of the plane, and the dotted line between the two planes shows the path it will take when the animation plays. The transparent image on the left is where the plane will end up when the motion path animation is done.

Microsoft 365 subscribers have a time-saving option for motion-based animation effects: Morph

Add a motion path to an object

Click the object you want to animate.

On the Animations tab, click Add Animation .

Scroll down to Motion Paths, and pick one.

Tip:    If you choose the Custom path option, you will draw the path that you want the object to take.

To stop drawing a custom path, press Esc.

Advanced motion path options

If you don’t see a motion path that you want, at the bottom of the gallery, click More Motion Paths .

Click an animation to see a preview of how the object will move on your slide.

Once you pick the motion path you want, click OK .

To remove and animation, on the slide, click the motion path (dotted line with arrow), and then press Delete.

Editing motion paths

To do things like change the direction of the motion path, edit the individual points of the motion path, or to lock (make it so others can’t change the animation) or unlock the animation, click Effect Options .

To preview the motion path, click the object on the slide, and then click Animations > Preview .

Tip:     Preview is located on the Animations tab, just below the File tab on the far left.

Using predefined paths

In most cases, using one of the basic path animations is a perfect choice for adding interest to your slide. In the following example, we'll apply a Turn path animation to a graphic, use Effect Options to change the direction of the path, and then we'll use Reverse Path Direction to get the final look we want.

Example: applying a predefined path animation to a graphic

On a blank slide, click Insert > Shapes > Rectangle (or another shape if you prefer), and then click in the upper-left corner of the slide to insert it.

With the rectangle still selected, click Animations > Path Animation , and then under Basic , click Turn .

After the animation preview is finished and click Effect Options on the Animations tab, and then click Down Right .

Move your cursor over the animation end-point until it changes to a double arrow with a line through it, and then click and drag to the lower-right corner of the slide.

Finally, click Effect Options > Reverse Path Direction .

The animation now moves the graphic from the least visible place on the slide (lower right) to the most visible (upper left).

Using custom paths

To draw a custom path animation, select the object you want to animate and click Animations > Path Animations , and then select an option under Custom . The drawing method is different depending on the type of path you choose.

Click the start point, and then click each time you want to begin a change of direction.

Double-click to finish.

Click and hold the mouse button to trace the shape you want, and then release the button when you're done.

To change a custom path once you've drawn it:

Control+click or right-click the custom path and click Edit Points .

Tip:  If you've never worked with editing paths in a graphics program before, you may find it easier to delete the effect and draw it again.

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