Apply transitions and animations
What the exam expects
Transitions apply between slides; animations apply to objects on a slide. On the Transitions tab know Effect Options, Duration, Sound, Advance Slide (On Mouse Click vs After a set time) and Apply To All - which copies the current transition and its settings to every slide. Morph is the modern transition that animates objects between two slides; matching improves when the same object appears on both slides, and objects whose names in the Selection Pane begin with “!!” are forced to match.
On the Animations tab, distinguish the four families - Entrance, Emphasis, Exit and Motion Paths. Add Animation adds a second effect; clicking the gallery directly replaces the first. Use the Animation Pane to reorder, and set Start (On Click, With Previous, After Previous), Duration and Delay. Effect Options control direction, text sequence (By Paragraph, By 1 Level, All at Once) and chart sequencing. Smooth Start/End, Auto-reverse, Repeat and Triggers live in the effect’s dialog or the Pane’s menu, and Animation Painter copies a whole animation setup to another object.
Traps
- After Previous begins after the preceding animation ends, then waits Delay; With Previous starts in parallel. Reading these two backwards is the most common error.
- Animations added on the Slide Master play on every slide using that layout - a frequent “why is this animating?” cause.
- Motion paths can be reversed and edited by dragging end points; the default path is straight.
- Animating grouped objects animates the group as one unit unless you use Effect Options > Group graphic.
Worked example
To reveal bullet points one at a time: select the placeholder, Animations > Fade, then Effect Options > Sequence > By Paragraph, and set Start to On Click for the first item with After Previous for the remainder.