Transitions, Animations, and Interactivity
Domain focus: using motion to control attention and pacing, and navigation that lets a presenter move through a non-linear deck safely.
Transitions
Transitions govern how a slide enters. Fade, Push and Wipe are unobtrusive; keep duration around 0.5–1 second and use Apply To All for a uniform deck. Morph animates between consecutive slides by matching objects, and works best when the same shapes appear on both slides with identical names set in the Selection Pane. Under Transitions you also control advance: On Mouse Click, After a set time, and whether recorded timings are used.
Animations
The four categories are Entrance, Emphasis, Exit and Motion Path, with Start options of On Click, With Previous and After Previous. Use the Animation Pane to check order and to add Delay for chained builds. Animate for progressive disclosure only - revealing one comparison at a time, or walking through a process step-by-step. Trigger lets an object start an animation when clicked. For non-linear delivery use hyperlinks, action buttons, and Slide, Section or Summary Zoom, which return to the calling slide when you tick that option.
Worked example
A three-step process diagram built with separate clicks feels slow. Fix: give step one On Click, steps two and three After Previous with a 0.5-second delay, so one click completes the build in sequence. Reasoning: the presenter controls when the build starts but does not have to click three times while talking.
Traps that cost marks
Animation on every bullet; motion paths that leave objects off-slide; Morph failing because slides use different layouts; hyperlinks that break when the file is moved; timed advances firing during questions; animations that change reading order.