In previous versions of PowerPoint the fade transition didn’t look [...]]]> A good use of animation is to show change or contrast. For example, you can make a winter scene disappear as a summer scene appears, to show the difference. At the bottom of this tip, I have some links to other tips on animation.

In previous versions of PowerPoint the fade transition didn’t look very good, so most people put both photos on one slide and faded the first out as the second came in. This still works well.

It’s worthwhile to try out all the animations to see what they do, especially with their variations. You never know when one will give you just the effect you want.

But PowerPoint 2010 has added some new transitions, including some 3D ones, that look much better. The 3D transitions let you watch the old slide exit as the new one enters, and so helps connect the two slides.

In this video, the first effect is a Split exit animation on a photo, which reveals a second photo beneath it. The second effect is on of the new 3D PowerPoint 2010 transitions, called Rotate.

Related tips

Dissolve one image into another

Animation for entertainment

Create a cascading animation effect

I asked co-owner and artist Art Holden a few questions about the new company and its products.

Q: Please tell [...]]]> PresenterMedia is a company newly created by some designers who’ve been around for a while. They create PowerPoint templates, animations, and 3D artwork. Here you see the page on their site that lists templates.

I asked co-owner and artist Art Holden a few questions about the new company and its products.

Q: Please tell me a little history of how you got started doing artwork for PowerPoint.

My artistic partners and I got our start working for a company called Animation Factory. We created a large portion of Animation Factory’s PowerPoint templates and 3D  animations. With changes in ownership at Animation Factory, we were given the opportunity to be both the artists and the owners of a new PowerPoint resource. We launched PresenterMedia.com in 2009 with the goal of providing affordable PowerPoint templates, animations and 3D clipart.

Q: What do you say to people (like me) who don’t want to use what’s usually called clipart?

Just as there are differences between snap shots and professional photos, there are differences in quality of clipart.

We actually struggled with what to call our 3D artwork when we created PresenterMedia. A better description would be 3D illustrations or presentation designs. Standard clipart tends to be very simply created, but we try to create high quality digital graphics which have a very polished photo-realistic look. Unlike a simple flat clipart, our images have every bit as much depth and vibrancy as a high quality photograph.

Q: In what types of situations do you think your products work better than photos?

Often times a presenter is faced with a need to convey an idea or concept in a simple yet impactful way. Several concepts are hard to illustrate with conventional photography. For example, cloud computing or social networking concepts are difficult to photograph.

In building our 3D clip art we are able to create situations that are impossible to photograph. The end-result is a photo-like quality, and it gives presenters a very clear and professional way to convey the message.

Also our popular 3D presentation figures allow presenters convey their message using generic figures free of stereotype or other bias. Sometimes the use of a photo of a person or group may introduce unwanted gender or racial undertones.

Q: You do a lot of animations! When are animations appropriate or valuable?

Yes, we love animations and often incorporate animated characters and elements into our PowerPoint templates. I like to call animations the spice of PowerPoint. Whether you are using animated transitions, adding a video background, or animated clipart to PowerPoint, it’s best to remember to use animations sparingly.

But, using the right animation at the right time can add impact, grab your audience’s attention, or increase your audience’s retention.

Q: What’s included in your templates and how customizable are they?

Our templates for PowerPoint include up to 19 pre-designed layout pages. They also include themed graphical elements which can be moved and reused in other presentations.

Our most popular offering is our animated PowerPoint templates. In addition to a traditional theme of static slide layouts, these templates come with a complete theme set of animated layouts. This often includes video and other 3D animated elements.

We have also begun creating special templates to take advantage of the enhanced video and animation features of PowerPoint 2010.

All our templates are very customizable. Each element in our templates can be repositioned or deleted. You can cut out portions of one template and paste it into another presentation.

Q: Explain how your products are sold and some of the prices.

PresenterMedia is set up as a subscription service. A one-time fee allow unlimited downloads from the PresenterMedia library of PowerPoint templates, animations and 3D presentation clipart.

Through July, readers of this blog can get 20% off using this link: http://www.presentermedia.com/p/75

You can now purchase the recording for $24.95, or buy all [...]]]> If you missed it, we had a great webinar last week on Animation and Video in PowerPoint—Advanced Techniques. It was jam packed with 10 techniques and attendees also got a 14-page handout with detailed instructions and the presentation itself, containing all the techniques!

You can now purchase the recording for $24.95, or buy all 5 webinars for the price of 4 for only $98. If you buy all 5, you’ll get the recording (plus the instructions and presentation) and access to the rest of the training webinars live.

Read more about the webinar. Scroll down to the bottom to find the Buy Now button for the 5 for the price of 4 option.

I usually recommend restraint when using animation, but when the purpose is entertainment, you have a lot more [...]]]> Occasionally, you may want to use PowerPoint animation for its entertainment value. An introduction that loops as the audience arrives is one good use. Another is to build excitement at the launch of a new product.

I usually recommend restraint when using animation, but when the purpose is entertainment, you have a lot more leeway. Insert an image and try out all the animation effects, one after another, just to see what they do. It’s fun! Then choose one that you like.

Here, I explain one way to use the Rise Up animation, which introduces an object by raising it up from the bottom, and ends with a little bounce. To make the transition from image to image seamless, I put three on one slide and added a delay. The result is a slide show effect, as you see here. I used photos of winter scenes, but you could use product photos instead.

Animation for Entertainment

Here are the steps:

1. On the Drawing toolbar, click Insert Picture. (In 2007, go to Insert tab> Illustrations group> Picture.) Insert a picture that you want to use. Repeat to insert a total of 3 to 5 pictures. It’s helpful to use photos that are all the same size and orientation.
2. Drag the top picture down and to the right. Drag the next picture in the same direction, but slightly less. Continue until the images are offset from each other enough so you can select the picture you want easily.

1. You can use the Rise Up animation with photos that take up the entire slide, but I felt that the effect was more interesting when the photos were smaller than the slide. To resize the photos, right-click the bottom-most one, and choose Format Picture. Click the Size tab. (In PowerPoint 2007, right-click and choose Size and Position, and choose the Size tab.) I set the width to 7.5, which is 3/4 of the default slide width. You can just click OK (Close in 2007), because by default, the photo maintains its aspect ratio (proportion), and the height adjusts automatically. Repeat with the other photos.
2. To add the animation, select the bottom-most photo, and choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, choose Animations tab> Custom Animation.) In the Custom Animation task pane, choose Add Effect> Entrance> More Effects> Rise Up. Set the Speed to Medium.
3. Select the next photo, and add the same animation, but set the Start to After Previous. Then, click the animation’s item in the task pane, click the down arrow, and choose Timing. Set the Delay to 1.5 seconds. Repeat for the rest of the photos. Go into Slide Show view and test the animation.
4. If you want, you can add a shadow or other effect to your photos. I added a shadow.

Note: For a shortcut to adding the animation one by one, see the link below to my tip, “Duplicate animation.” For information on shadows, see the link below to my tip, “Create soft shadows.”

1. To center all of the photos, one on top of the other, select them all. On the Drawing toolbar, choose Draw> Align or Distribute> Relative to Slide. Then choose Draw> Align or Distribute> Align Center. Finally, choose Draw> Align or Distribute> Align Middle. (In 2007, go to Format tab> Arrange group> Align drop-down arrow> Align to Slide. Then go to Format tab> Arrange group> Align drop-down arrow> Align Center. Finally, go to Format tab> Arrange group> Align drop-down arrow> Align Middle.)
2. If you want, you can add a background or other decoration.

Contest!

Send in your own animation for entertainment example! Anything goes! The deadline is Friday, April 3, 2009. I’ll choose the 2 best entries. You’ll get your choice of 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know (for 2002, 2003 & 2007) or my upcoming e-book, The Lost Art of Persuasion, about persuasive presentations. Click here to open an e-mail and attach the presentation. Please indicate your prize choice.

Related tips:

• Create a looping introduction
• Tutorial on animation and best practices
• Duplicate animation
• Create soft shadows

She has created a stunning [...]]]> Julie Terberg is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) and one of the top presentation designers around. She is well-known for her incredible animations and special effects, which look as if they were done in Adobe Flash or a high-end animation program. They’re all done in PowerPoint.

Of course, the easy way is to insert a circle, and use the Appear or Fade entrance animation. Be sure to format the circle with no fill. I like to use a red outline and [...]]]> A great way to emphasize and draw attention to an object on a slide is to circle it.

Of course, the easy way is to insert a circle, and use the Appear or Fade entrance animation. Be sure to format the circle with no fill. I like to use a red outline and give it a weight of at least 2 pt. To format the circle, right-click and choose Format AutoShape (in 2007, Format Shape). In the Fill section, choose No Fill from the drop-down list. In the Line section, choose a red color and change the Weight. To add the animation, select the circle, and choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, choose Animation tab> Custom Animation.) Choose Add Effect> Entrance> Appear or Fade.

But wouldn’t it be more effective for the animation to circle the object? In other words, your audience would see the circle draw itself around the object. You can do this using the Wheel animation. Follow these steps:

1. Insert a circle over an object. Format the object as just described so that it has no fill.
2. Select the circle.
3. Choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, choose Animation tab>
   Custom Animation.)
4. Choose Add Effect> Entrance> Wheel.
5. In the Custom Animation task pane, change the number in the Spokes text box to 1.
6. Play the animation. You’ll see the circle drawn around the object.

Let’s go even further. We might want the circle to have more character than an AutoShape. Instead, wouldn’t it be interesting if the circle were drawn with crayon or lipstick?

Here’s how I did it:

1. I drew circles with lipstick on a white sheet of paper.
2. I photographed them with my digital camera and uploaded the photo to my computer.
3. I inserted the photo onto a slide and cropped it to the bottom circle. Use the Crop button on the Picture toolbar. (In 2007, use the Picture Tools Format tab> Size group> Crop button.)
4. I made the background transparent. On the Picture toolbar, click the Set Transparent Color button. (In 2007, Picture Tools Format tab> Adjust group> Recolor drop-down> Set Transparent Color. Click on the background.
5. I moved and resized the circle to encircle the object, a photo of a peacock feather.
6. To add the animation, I chose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, choose Animation tab> Custom Animation.)
7. I chose Add Effect> Entrance> Wheel.
8. In the Custom Animation task pane, I changed the number in the Spokes text box to 1.
9. The animation always starts at the top and this meant that a little of the left end of
   the circle showed at the beginning of the animation. To counteract that, I rotated
   the circle slightly counterclockwise.

Click here for a workaround to this animation always starting at the top.

Here’s how the technique looks:

(Note that “Jeopardy” is a trademark of Sony Pictures, and shouldn’t be used without permission.)

You can use exit animation and a trigger to create the quiz so that when you click [...]]]> Whether for work or play, quiz games are fun. Jeopardy-like games or just quizzes can teach and entertain at the same time.

(Note that “Jeopardy” is a trademark of Sony Pictures, and shouldn’t be used without permission.)

You can use exit animation and a trigger to create the quiz so that when you click a box containing a question (or the answer if you start with answers), the box beneath it is revealed.

Using this technique, you can create the entire game on one slide. It’s slick but a little complicated to create and there’s also a bug that I’ll describe later that sometimes spoils the fun. The basic idea is to have 2 or 3 AutoShapes on top of each other. You click the top one and it exits (disappears with some animation effect), so you see the second one. You can go to a third level as well. For example, in a Jeopardy-like game, you’d have a dollar amount (or number of points) on top, the answer next, and the question on the bottom.

In the steps below, to avoid copying Jeopardy too much and for the sake of simplicity, I use two layers of AutoShapes. My questions are on top and the answers are underneath. I chose a safety quiz theme. You could give 10 points for each right answer.

Disclaimer: I took my questions and answers from various sources, but I’m not responsible for the information on the quiz. Don’t rely on the answers in this quiz!
1. Create your slide and add titles, and topics, and graphics around the edges.

2. Draw a rectangle or other AutoShape and place it just under the leftmost topic. (I used the Bevel basic shape.) Format it however you want.
3. Copy and paste the AutoShape. (Paste it twice if you want three levels.) The two shapes will overlap. Drag the top shape so that it overlaps the first shape only slightly.

4. Right-click the top shape and choose Add Text. Enter the text for the top layer. Do the same for the bottom layer.

5. Select the top AutoShape and choose Slide Show>Custom Animation. Click Add Effect and choose Exit>Blinds (or whatever effect you want). I set the direction to Horizontal and the speed to Fast.
6. Find where the AutoShape is listed in the Custom Animation pane. Note its “Custom” number. Click it’s down arrow and choose Timing.
7. Click the Triggers button if nothing appears below it. You should now see two options. Choose Start Effect on Click of and choose the selected AutoShape (listed by “Custom” number) from the drop-down list. If you have 3 layers, do the same for the middle layer.

8. Select both AutoShapes, choose Draw>Align or Distribute>Align Center and do it again for Align Middle to place them exactly on top of each other. If necessary, move them together into the proper place on the slide. (Hint: Press Ctrl and use the arrow keys to nudge them slightly.)

Go into Slide Show view and test your animation. If it works, repeat steps 2-8 for the rest of the questions.

Test everything before you use it. Have fun!

The bug is that if you have 3 or more layers, the hot spot where you can click the AutoShape seems to get smaller as you click through the layers and you sometimes go to the next slide instead of triggering the animation.

Thanks to Echo’s Jeopardy page for the concept.

Purchase this presentation!

PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects has a complete chapter on creating games in PowerPoint and two chapters on creating quizzes.