If you would like WordArt text to appear on a slide one
letter at a time, just create each letter separately. For example, if you'd like
to use WordArt to create the word
Sell
you can
choose Insert, Picture, WordArt and choose the style you want. When the Edit
WordArt Text dialog box appears, enter only the S. Repeat the procedure for the
e, l, and l. If you want all the letters to appear on the same line as though
you had generated the word all at once, rather than as individual letters, click
one of the letters and then press and hold the Shift key while you click the
remaining letters. This will select all the letters.
Next, choose Draw, Align or Distribute, Align Bottom. This will set all the letters to the level of the lowest letter. To animate the letters, first right-click the last letter in the word and choose Custom Animation. When the Custom Animation dialog box opens, click the Effects tab. Click the arrow at the right of the Entry Animation list box to expand the list. Select the effect you want to use and click OK (we chose Appear). Repeat this process for each of the letters.
After you've chosen some animation for each letter, right-click one of the letters and choose Custom Animation. When the Custom animation dialog box opens, click the Timing tab. Now, select each of the objects and select a timing. After you select a timing for each letter, click OK.
You're ready to test your slide animation now. To do this, choose Slide Show, View Show.
Most of the animation tricks deal with objects on the slides. Another useful approach is to animate the background. If you change the background from one slide to the next, you can approximate some of the techniques used in TV commercials.
Run PowerPoint, open a slide show and right-click the first slide. Open the Background dialog box using Format - Background or right click - Background. Click the drop-down arrow in the Background Fill list box. When the list expands, click More Colors and then click the Custom tab. Choose a color and click OK. Back in the Background dialog box, click Apply.
Now, move to the next slide and repeat, this time choosing a different shade of the same color. Continue for as many slides as needed. When you run the slide show, the background will progressively change shades. Of course, the more slides you use, the more subtle the change will be between each one.
Remember the first time you saw the Wizard of Oz? Remember how striking it was when the film suddenly went from black and white to color? Well, you can use the same technique in PowerPoint slide shows. Open a blank PowerPoint slide and choose Insert, Picture, ClipArt. Select a picture and double-click to insert it. Use the mouse to size the picture and locate it where you want it to appear on the slide.
Now, make sure the picture is selected and press Ctrl-C to copy it. Next, press Ctrl-M to insert a blank slide. Press Ctrl-V to paste the picture onto the new slide.
Go back to the first slide now and select the picture by clicking it. The Picture toolbar will open when you select the picture. (If it doesn't appear, simply right-click on the image when it is highlighted, then click Show Picture Toolbar. Click the Image Control button (its icon is two bars--one grayscale and one black and white) and choose Grayscale.
Now, choose Slide Show, View Show. When the first slide appears, click the mouse to move to the second slide. The picture will remain in place, but will suddenly appear in color.
You can greatly enhance such animation if you set the timing between slides to zero. When you do this, the slides will run at the maximum speed of the computer.
You can ungroup a ClipArt picture and then place a different view of the picture on a series of slides to produce animation. Let's say you insert a picture (choose Insert, Picture, ClipArt). Select the picture and then choose Draw, Ungroup. Now, click away from the picture and then press Ctrl-A to select everything on the slide. Press Ctrl-C to copy the selection and then press Ctrl-M to insert a new slide. Once the new slide is in place, press Ctrl-V to copy the ClipArt to the new slide.
Now, select a portion of the picture and move it slightly away from the remainder of the picture. Press Ctrl-A again and then press Ctrl-C to make a copy. Press Ctrl-M to insert a new slide, and then press Ctrl-V to copy the picture. Now, select the same portion of the picture and move it a bit farther away from the main picture. Repeat this process for as many new slides as you need to produce reasonably smooth animation.
You now choose Slide Show, Slide Transition and then select the check box labeled Automatically After. Then you enter zero (0) into the Seconds entry box. Click Apply to All to set the timing to zero on all the slides in the show and close the dialog box. Now, choose Slide Show, View Show, and you'll see that the animation is very quick.
You should give this a try to see if you like the effect. However, the speed depends on the computer's clock speed and a number of other factors. The animation may appear rather jerky at times because the computer is doing another job. You'll have to judge for yourself whether this technique is useful to you in any given show. Also, when you take your slide show out on the road, you may not know how the effect will work on whatever computer you'll be using.
Would you like to place text on all the visible sides of
a PowerPoint AutoShape object. No problem. To see how this works, run PowerPoint
and then open a blank slide. Now click the AutoShape button and choose one of
the 3-D shapes--perhaps a box. Once the box is in place, click the Text Box
button and draw a text box on the new shape. Type in
BOX
and then click away from the text box. Now,
how about a vertical text box? Just click Text Box and draw a vertical box of
one of the shape's sides. Type in
BOX
again and you
have vertical lettering that's aligned with the shape sides. Aha, you say, what
if I decide to rotate the shape? Then I have no way to place a text box on an
angle. Maybe so, but if you place the text first, then you can rotate the shape.
Here's how to rotate the shape, text and all. Add the text to your new shape as we described above. Now, select the shape and the press and hold down Shift while you select the text boxes. Choose Draw, Group. Now, select the shape and click the Rotate button. As you'll see, you can now rotate the shape, and the text will stay parallel to the sides.
To print the slides along with their associated notes, choose File, Print. When the Print dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Print What list box and select Notes Pages. Click OK to continue. This will print one slide per page, along with the attached notes.
You can attain some very striking animation using PowerPoint's
custom animation feature. Use custom animation on a single looping slide before
the actual slide show begins.
Start with a blank slide and choose
Insert, Picture, ClipArt. Select a picture and click Insert. Now, right-click
the picture and choose Custom Animation. When the Custom Animation dialog box
opens, click the Effects tab. Click the arrow at the right side of the Entry
Animation list box and select Dissolve from the list.
Click the Timing
tab. Select the radio button labeled Automatically. Enter zero (0) seconds and
click OK to close the dialog box and continue. Next, choose Slide Show, Set Up
Show. When the Set Up Show dialog box opens, select the check box labeled Loop
Continuously Until Esc. Next, select the radio button labeled Using Timings, if
present. Click OK to close the dialog box and continue. To view the show, choose
View, Slide Show.
You can experiment with various animation types for
the effect you need. Don't forget that you can further enhance your slide by
adding other clip art and applying different effects to each picture.
"I often use an animation I create by changing the colors in a
doughnut chart. I place a doughnut chart on a slide and then reduce the data so
there's only one doughnut with four colors. I then set the colors to red, blue,
green, and violet. I copy the doughnut and paste it onto a new slide. Then I
change the colors so that red moves to where blue was, blue moves to where green
was, and so forth. I copy the new doughnut and paste it to a new slide, then
repeat this for four slides. When you run the slides continuously, the doughnut
appears to rotate because of the changing color position."
Let's run
through an example of Dan's animated doughnut. Open a blank slide and choose
Insert, Chart. Click the chart to select it (if necessary). Right-click the
selected chart and choose Chart Type. Select Doughnut and click OK. Click one of
the doughnuts to select it, then press Delete. Repeat this process with a second
doughnut.
At this point, you should have only one doughnut remaining.
Double-click the doughnut to select it. Now, click once on one of the doughnut
segments to select it. Double-click the segment to open the Format Data Point
dialog box. In this dialog box, select red and click OK. Move to each of the
segments in succession and set the colors to blue, green, and violet. When
you've colored all segments, click on the slide away from the chart to deselect
it. Next, press Ctrl-A to select the chart. Press Ctrl-C to copy the chart. Now,
press Ctrl-M to create a new slide. On the new slide, press Ctrl-V to paste your
colored chart.
Now, you need to change the colors again. Use the
procedure already described to recolor the segments so that red goes where blue
is now, blue goes where green is now, and so on. After you recolor the segments,
click away from the chart and then press Ctrl-A followed by Ctrl-C to copy the
slide.
Repeat this process for two more slides. When all four slides are
finished, choose View, Slide Sorter. Right-click the first slide and choose
Slide Transition. When the Slide Transition dialog box opens, select the check
box labeled Automatically After and enter 1 second. Click Apply to All to close
the dialog box and apply your selection to all four slides.
Now, choose
Slide Show, Set Up Show. When the Set Up Show dialog box opens, select the check
box labeled Loop Continuously Until Esc. Click OK to continue.
To view
the slide show, choose Slide Show, View Show.
"I'm currently designing a presentation Web page using PowerPoint 97. My
problem is that I can't get any of the animated GIFs to work. Is there a way to
import animated GIFs into PowerPoint and make them work? All I get is a still
picture."
Actually, you need a browser to view animated GIF files, so
you can't import them into PowerPoint and have them work. However, this isn't a
catch-22 situation--there is a way to get those animated GIFs to work in your
PowerPoint-generated Web page.
To make the process easier to follow,
let's look at just one slide containing a single animated GIF file. Open
PowerPoint and then open a new blank slide. Choose Insert, Picture, From File
and select your animated GIF. Now choose File, Save as HTML and save your show.
After you save the Web page, open Windows Explorer and copy your
original GIF file to the Presentation folder. Next, locate and open Index.htm
via Notepad. To do this, click the Index.htm icon once. Hold down the Shift key
and right-click the icon. From the resulting menu, choose Open With. When the
Open With dialog box appears, select Notepad. Make sure the check box labeled
"Always use this program to open this type of file" is deselected--otherwise all
your HTML files will open in Notepad when double-clicked.
Locate the
animated GIF in the HTML source code. Ours was named img001.GIF. The original
file was named a-cbask.GIF (this is the file you just copied to the presentation
folder), so replace the name img001 with a-bask (your original file name). After
you make the change, choose File, Save and then File, Exit to close Notepad.
Next, double-click Index.htm to open it with your favorite browser. The
animated GIF should now begin to animate. If it's a snowman, perhaps--if you're
working very late into the night--it will even begin to sing in Jimmy Durante's
voice.
"I have often used an opening slide that shows the sun coming up over a clip
art picture of a city. Many of my audiences have responded quite well to this
effect, which I use primarily when my presentation begins first thing in the
morning.
"To produce a slide such as this, choose Insert, Picture,
ClipArt and choose a picture of the sun. Right-click the sun and choose Custom
Animation. When the dialog box opens, click the Effects tab and choose Crawl
From Bottom. Click the Timing tab and select the Automatically radio button.
Enter 0 in the spin box and click OK to close the dialog box and save your
selections.
"What you do next is insert the city picture and size it
(choose Insert, Picture, ClipArt). Then make a copy (click the picture to select
it, then press Ctrl-C to copy it). Next select the picture and use the
Brightness and Contrast controls in the Floating Picture toolbar to make the
picture look dim and washed out (as it would in the dark).
"Now press
Ctrl-V to paste the original picture onto the slide. Move the picture (if
necessary) to make it fit exactly over the dimmed picture. Right-click the
picture and choose Custom Animation. When the Custom Animation dialog box opens,
click the Effects tab and choose Dissolve. Click the Timings tab and select the
Automatically radio button. Enter 0 in the spin box and click OK to close the
dialog box.
"Finally, we need to have the sun in the background so the
buildings hide it. Click the sun to select it and choose Draw, Order, Send To
Back. Now place the sun just above the tallest building.
"To see how
your show looks, choose View, Slide Show. The slide should open with the picture
of the city dimmed. After a few seconds, the sun appears above the skyline and
the original picture dissolves in, displaying a daytime picture.
"I like
to play some appropriate music while waiting for the sun to appear. If you
decide to use music (highly recommended), try to synchronize it with the
sunrise."
Is it possible to have my star gif's blink on and off against a black
gackground?". As the stars blink on, a scrolling title moves from the
bottom to the top of the slide.
Yes, you can make the stars blink on and
off quite easily. This feature is part of PowerPoint 97. However, to make the
effect look right, you'll need to be careful how you animate the stars. You'll
also probably want some stars to appear and remain on.
Let's take a look
at how to make some blinking stars. To keep the explanation from becoming too
complex, let's make a single large star blink on and off.
Start
PowerPoint and open a blank slide. Right-click the slide and choose Background.
When the Background dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the
Color list box and select Black. Click Apply to apply the new background color
and close the dialog box.
Now click the Oval tool (its icon is an oval)
and use the mouse to draw a circle in the center of the slide. With the circle
still selected, click the arrow at the right side of the Fill Color button
(its icon is a bucket of paint in the process of pouring) and select White.
Since the circle is still selected at this point, press Ctrl-C to copy
it to the Clipboard. Click somewhere away from the circle to deselect the
object, then press Ctrl-V several times to paste a few new circles into the
slide. Press Ctrl-A to select all the circles. Next right-click one of the
selected circles and choose Custom Animation. When the Custom Animation dialog
box opens, click the Effects tab. Click the arrow at the right side of the Entry
Animation list box and choose Flash Once, Slow from the list. Now click the
Timings tab and select the Automatically radio button. Enter 1 second in the
spin box, then click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.
With the objects still selected, choose Draw, Align or Distribute, Align
Middle. Leave all the objects selected and choose Draw, Align or Distribute,
Align Center. This places all the circles in the same spot.
Let's see
how the show looks. Choose View, Slide Show. The single large star blinks on and
off (until you run out of stars).
You can repeat this process for as
many stars as you wish. We suggest you work with rather large clusters of stars
rather than individual ones--creating more than 10 or 15 blinking stars can
become rather tedious otherwise.
As many PowerPoint users have indicated, it isn't a bad idea to have
something on the screen before a show begins and again during an intermission.
"I like to use the Swivel effect on some WordArt text during an
intermission. What I do is put the title of the show on slide using WordArt.
Then I set the Custom Animation to Swivel and the slide timing to five seconds.
I then run the slide show continuously using just the one slide. The title
swivels and then remains still for a few seconds. The whole thing then starts
over.
"It's important to allow the title to remain static for a few
seconds to allow people a chance to read it. The animation grabs the attention,
but without the static portion of the show, the title would be difficult to
read."
If you'd like to test this effect for possible use in one of your
slide shows, open a blank slide and choose Insert, Picture, WordArt. When the
WordArt Gallery opens, select a style and click OK. Now, in the Edit WordArt
Text dialog box, type your title and click OK.
With the WordArt in
place, right-click it and choose Custom Animation. When the Custom Animation
dialog box opens, click the Effects tab. Next, click the arrow at the right side
of the top list box under Entry Animation and Sound. Locate Swivel in the list
and select it. Now click the Timing tab, select the Automatically radio button,
and enter zero seconds. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your
settings.
Now choose Slide Show, Slide Transition. When the Slide
Transition dialog box opens, select the check box labeled Automatically After
and enter five seconds. Click Apply to apply your settings to the current slide
and close the dialog box.
Next choose Slide Show, Set Up Show. When the
Set Up Show dialog box opens, click the Loop Continuously Until Esc check box.
Under Slides, select the All radio button. Finally, under Advance Slides, select
the radio button labeled Using Timings, If Present. Click OK to close the dialog
box and save your entries.
To view your new slide show, choose Slide
Show, View Show. The animation runs continuously until you press Esc (or move to
another slide).
"I would like to have an object appear on a slide as though it were being
scanned in. You often see the effect I'm after in movies. Rather than just
appear on the screen, the object appears a bit at a time. Is there a way to
duplicate this effect in PowerPoint?"
It sounds like a job for one of
PowerPoint's Wipe animations. Using Wipe, the object appears a bit at a time as
you describe. To see if it's what you need, open a blank slide and choose
Insert, Picture, ClipArt. Select any picture and click Insert. Size the picture
to suit yourself and then right-click it. When the menu opens, choose Custom
Animation. In the Custom Animation dialog box, click the Effects tab. Under
Entry Animation And Sound, click the arrow at the right side of the first entry
box. From the expanded list, choose Wipe Right. Click Preview to see if this is
the effect you need. You may also want to try Wipe Down, Wipe Up, and Wipe Left
to see if one of those effects fits your requirements better.
After you
make your selection, click OK to save the changes and close the dialog box.
Suppose you have to go on the road with a slide show. The show
is basically for all the sites you will visit, but site 1 needs to see one group
of slides and site 2, a slightly different group. You don't have to create two
or more slide shows. Just use PowerPoint's custom slide show feature.
Run PowerPoint and open a blank slide. Create three or four new slides and
Insert/Picture/ClipArt to place a ClipArt picture on each of the new slides to
help you see what is happening. In slide view, choose Slide Show/Custom Shows.
When the Custom Shows dialog box opens, click New. Type in a name for your new
custom show (anything you want).
You'll see the slides in your new show listed under "Slides in
presentation." Let's suppose that you created a show with four slides.
Click Slide 1 and then hold down Ctrl while you click Slide 3. After you select
the slides you want in your custom show, click Add. Now click OK to close the
dialog box and apply your selections. Back in Custom Shows, click Close to close
the dialog box.
To start your custom presentation. Choose Slide Show, Custom Shows. When the
Custom Shows dialog box opens, select the custom show you just created and click
Show. PowerPoint will run the slide show using only the slides that you added to
the custom show. When you choose Slide Show, View Show, PowerPoint will display
all the slides in your original show. And, of course, you can create more
than one custom slide show.