Apply transitions and animations
Apply transitions and animations tests movement and timing: slide-to-slide transitions, object-level entrance, emphasis, exit, and motion-path effects, and the timing controls that make a sequence predictable. You need to distinguish transition settings from animation settings and use the Animation Pane to verify order.
Core rules
- Transitions apply to the whole slide and are set in Transitions. Effect Options changes direction or style; Duration controls speed; Advance Slide can be On Mouse Click or After a time.
- Morph is a transition that animates movement between similar objects on consecutive slides. It works best when objects are consistently named or positioned.
- Animations apply to objects and are grouped as Entrance, Emphasis, Exit, and Motion Paths. More effects are available from the Animation Pane or Add Animation.
- Start settings are On Click, With Previous, and After Previous. Delay waits after the start trigger; Duration controls how long the effect runs.
- The Animation Pane shows order and timing. Reorder by dragging or using the arrow buttons. Animation Painter copies animation settings to another object.
- Triggers start an animation when a specified object is clicked, which is different from starting on a slide click.
Worked example
Three bullet points must fade in one after another, each half a second after the previous. Select all three paragraphs, apply Fade, open the Animation Pane, and set the first to On Click and the others to After Previous with Delay 0.5. Reasoning: After Previous chains each effect to the end of the prior effect; With Previous would run them together. Preview and check the numbered order in the pane before presenting.
Traps
Applying a transition when an object animation was intended; expecting Effect Options to change duration; using With Previous for a sequence; forgetting that Delay is measured from the start trigger; and applying Animation Painter without checking copied timing.