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PowerPoint 2010: Animation and Slide Transitions

Benefits of adding animation and slide transitions:

Adding Slide Transitions

Slide transitions control how your presentation moves from slide to slide.


You do not have to add slide transitions to your presentation. If you do not add transitions, your presentation will move from slide to slide with a click of the left mouse button or by pressing Enter or the right arrow key. If you want the presentation to play on its own, you must set slide transitions.

  1. In either the Slide Sorter or Normal view, select the slide or slides which you want to apply the transition to.
  2. From the menu ribbon, select the Transitions tab.
  3. The most commonly used animations will appear in the center. To preview more transition options, click the down arrow.
  4. Tip

    To preview a transition, click on the Preview button in the upper-left hand corner of the window.

  5. Select a transition from the list.   Clicking it will apply the transition to the slide.   You can also select Apply to All to apply the same transition to all your slides.
  6. In the Duration option, enter the speed at which you want the transition to play.
  7. In the Sound field, use the drop-down menu to select a sound to play during a slide transition, if desired.


The first time you select a sound, a box may appear prompting you to install the Sound Effects feature.

  1. Indicate how you want the slide transition to occur by selecting an option under the Advance Slide heading.
    Select On mouse Click if you want the transition to take place when you click the left mouse button.
    Select Automatically After if you want the transition to occur after a specified time. Use the up and down arrow keys in the blank box to specify the number of seconds which should pass before the transition takes place.

Applying an Animation to an Object

Animation refers to how individual options on your slide move onto or off of the slide.

  1. In either the Slide Sorter or Normal view, select the objects within a slide that you want to apply the animations to.
  2. From the menu ribbon, select the Animations tab.
  3. Select an animation, customize your play speed, and set your sound preferences.
  4. Click Preview to play the animations.

Creating Custom Animations

You can create custom animations to specify exactly what you want to animate and how it should be done.

  1. Select the slide which you want to apply the animation to.
  2. From the menu bar, select the Animations tab and the Animation Pane button. The Animation Pane appears on the right side of the screen.


If you previously selected an animation for an element on the page, the animation for it will be shown.

  1. Click on an element of the slide that you want to animate. For example, you could select a title, bulleted list, or graphic.
  2. Click Add Effect. A menu appears with a list of effect categories. Entrance effects control how the element enters the slide. Emphasis effects make the element do something after it enters the slide. Exit effects control how it leaves the slide. Motion paths allow you to specify where the element travels on the slide.
  3. Select one of the effects. Details about the effect appear in the Animation Pane.
  4. In the Start field, use the drop-down menu to select an event which will trigger the animation.

    With Previous means the animation will occur at the same time as the previous animation on the slide or it will occur when the slide appears if there are no previous animations.
    After Previous means the animation will occur after the previous animation.
  5. Use the lists in the Animation Pane to adjuct options such as animation speed and direction.


Reorder animations using the up and down arrows at the bottom of the Animation Pane. Delete an animation by selecting the animation you want to delete, right-clicking, and selecting the Remove option.

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Last modified: Jun 23, 2011, 17:05 EDT