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You are here: Home / Design / Animation & transitions / 3 text animation techniques

3 text animation techniques

July 3, 2002 by Ellen Finkelstein 17 Comments

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A subscriber asked me to write up some text animation techniques, so here are two that you might like to use. These work best when the text plays center screen and your slide doesn’t contain too much else. You wouldn’t use these techniques a lot, or with too much text.

1. Fade in variations of text, one on top of the other

This technique fades in and out three sizes and shades of a word, one after the other. You can see how it looks here.

http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/pptip_text_anim-11.mp4

To create this animation, follow these steps:

    1. Insert a text box from the Drawing toolbar (in PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, go to Insert tab> Text Box), and type your text. Center justify the text by clicking Center on the Formatting toolbar. (In PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, right-click the text box and choose Center from the mini toolbar.)
    2. Click the text box’s outline and copy it to the Clipboard. Paste it two times onto the slide.
    3. Drag the three text boxes apart from each other. Eventually, you’ll place them on top of each other, but it’s much easier to select them when they’re separated. Notice that I have a plain white slide and one word.
    4. Change the properties of the text to create variations. I used 96, 72, and 48 point text, with light gray, dark gray, and black colors. Of course, if you want a different effect, you can do something different.

sample animation

    1. In PowerPoint 2003, choose Slide Show > Custom Animation; in PowerPoint 2007, Animations tab> Custom Animation to display the Custom Animation task pane. In 2010, click the Animations tab.
    2. Select the first text box and choose Add Effect> Entrance> Fade. (If you don’t see the Fade animation, click More Effects to find it.) Set the Speed to fast. Leave the Start as On Click (the default). In PowerPoint 2010, click Add Animation to find the entrance fade animation.
    3. Select the second text box and choose Add Effect> Entrance> Fade. Again set the Speed to fast, but this time set the Start to After Previous.
    4. As soon as the second text box comes in, you want the first one to fade out. So select the first text box again, and choose Add Effect> Exit> Fade. (You may need to choose More Effects to find it.) In 2010, choose it from the Add Animation drop-down list. Set the Speed to Very Fast and the Start to After Previous. (I discovered by trial and error that I wanted the Speed set to Very Fast; otherwise, you wait too long for the third text box to come in.)
    5. Next, you want the third text box to fade in so select it and choose Add Effect> Entrance> Fade. Set the Start to After Previous and the Speed to Very Fast.
    6. Finally, you want the second text box to fade out, leaving just the third text box. Select it, and choose Add Effect (or Add Animation)> Exit> Fade. Set the Start to After Previous and the Speed to Fast.

Note: You can always change the order of your animations by selecting an item in the Custom Animation task pane and dragging it to a new location or using the Re-order buttons at the bottom. To display the task pane in PowerPoint 2010, click the Animation Pane button on the Animations tab.

  1. Save your work and test the animation to see what it looks like. Either go into slide show view or click the Play button in the task pane.
  2. To center the three text boxes on top of each other, select all three text boxes. From the Draw toolbar, choose Draw> Align or Distribute> Relative to Slide. (In PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, choose Format tab> Arrange group> Align drop-down list> Align to Slide.)
  3. Now choose Draw> Align or Distribute> Align Center. (In PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, choose Format tab> Arrange group> Align drop-down list> Align Center.)
  4. Choose Draw> Align or Distribute> Align Middle. (In PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, choose Format tab> Arrange group> Align drop-down list> Align Middle.)

Save and try out your animation!

2. Fade in variations of text, one on top of the other plus magnify

You can add another animation to your objects to increase the intensity of the animation. For example, try adding a Magnify entrance effect to all three text boxes. Set the speed the same as the Fade In animation and place the animation in the task pane right after the Fade In. Set the Start to With Previous. You can see how it looks.

http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/wp-content/uploads/2002/07/pptip_text_anim-5-fadein.mp4

 

3. Typewriter text

You can make text appear letter by letter; to add to the effect, you can add a typewriter sound. You can see the animation here.

http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/wp-content/uploads/2002/07/pptip_text_anim-3-typewriter.mp4

Follow these steps:

  1. In PowerPoint 2003, add a text box from the Drawing toolbar (in PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, go to Insert tab> Text Box), and type the text.
  2. Select the text box.
  3. On the Custom Animation task pane, choose Add Effect > Entrance > Appear. In 2010, choose the animation from the Add Animation drop-down list.
  4. In 2010, click the Animation Panebutton. Click the animation item in the task pane. Click the down arrow and choose Effect Options.
  5. On the Effect tab, choose By Letter from the Animate Text drop-down list.
  6. Set the delay between letters. I chose 0.3 seconds.
  7. From the Sound drop-down list, choose Typewriter and click OK.

The Sound drop-down list

Try the animation. I had the following problem — there was no clicking sound for the last letter. That might not bother you, but it bothered me. I solved the problem by adding another letter at the end of the word and making it the same color as the background (so that it was invisible). This worked!

“101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know” is for everyone who never took a course or read a book about PowerPoint! These tips will fill in the gaps, speed up your work, make presentations easier, and help you get better results. Now updated through PowerPoint 2016 and Office 365. Learn more at http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/101-tips/

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Filed Under: Animation & transitions, Text & fonts Tagged With: animation, PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2007

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penian4
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penian4

Thank you soooooooooooooooooo much

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11 years ago
Kuldeep singh
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Kuldeep singh

Thank you so much, I tried it in powerpoint 2010 and did great.
Kuldeep

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11 years ago
safi
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safi

thank you very much it was very helpful for me when I was looking for help on getting text word by word animated

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11 years ago
Aaron Galindo
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Aaron Galindo

They are so interesting.

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11 years ago
belle
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belle

I did not follow how to do this attt allll!!!! sorry, is still need help xx

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10 years ago
Ellen
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Ellen

I offer 1-on-1 coaching at http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/estore/1-on-1-coaching.html. If you contact me, we could work out a rate for fewer sessions.

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10 years ago
MIKE
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MIKE

No problem animating my first text box, but cannot animate more the one on each slide.

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10 years ago
Ellen
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Ellen

You should be able to add animation to multiple objects and also more than one animation to any single object. Which version of PowerPoint are you using and what happens when you try to animate another object?

This was an old tip, so I just updated it to include instructions for PowerPoint 2010.

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10 years ago
Maliha
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Maliha

Thanks a lot 😀 it helped me to get the typewriter animation.

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10 years ago
Ellen Finkelstein
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Ellen Finkelstein

Glad to help. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for my weekly newsletter, so you won’t miss the new tips I write every week!

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10 years ago
Lyka Alodee Medina
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Lyka Alodee Medina

This is great! Thank you so much. 🙂

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9 years ago
JOHARAH
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JOHARAH

Didn’t understand how to do the typewriter effect. Also when i looked at the slide show the text variations weren’t showing up. When I left and looked at the slides the text variations were there.

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8 years ago
Pisee
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Pisee

Thank you so much for the tutorial. It’s very helpful! :))))

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8 years ago
Timmy Somogyi
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Timmy Somogyi

very interesting points you have remarked, appreciate it for posting.

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7 years ago
google
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google

It’s actually a nice and useful piece of information. I am glad
that you shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this.
Thanks for sharing.

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6 years ago
Clovis
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Clovis

Hi

I would like to animate a text letter by letter but not using a pre-defined time, that is, I would like each letter appears when I click … Is it possible ? Thanks

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3 years ago
Ellen Finkelstein
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Ellen Finkelstein

I’m hoping this is for a game! You would have to make each letter a separate text box, as far as I can tell.

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3 years ago
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