Design presentations

Add transitions between slides


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Slide transitions are the animation-like effects that happen when you move from one slide to the next during a presentation. Add slide transitions to bring your presentation to life.

Add a transition to a slide

  1. Select a slide.

  2. Select the Transitions tab, and then choose a transition in the Transition gallery.

    After you choose a transition, you'll see a preview of how it will look.

  3. To change how the transition looks, select Effect Options.

    Note: Not every transition has effect options.

  4. To speed up or slow down the transition, change the number in the Duration box.

    Tip: To see your changes in action, select Preview.

  5. To add a sound, choose one in the Sound box.

  6. To make your presentation automatically go to the next slide after a certain amount of time, select the After checkbox, and enter the time you want.

  7. To add this transition to all slides, select Apply to All.

Change or remove a transition

  • Select Transitions > None.

    If you'd like to remove all transitions from your slide, select Transitions > None > Apply to All.

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Add, change, or remove transitions between slides

Set the speed and timing of transitions

Animate text or objects

Slide transitions are a classic element in PowerPoint that goes way back to its earliest versions.

Slide transitions are the animations that happen between each slide as one slide moves to the next.

The timing and animations are all flexible.

You can have a different transition for each slide, or apply it to every slide in your presentation.

Although keep in mind that if a transition is slow and you have a lot of slides, this can add a significant amount of time to your show.

Lets get started adding transitions.

I'll click on the Transitions ribbon tab.

Here I can see the transition options to the slide.

I can click the down arrow and view more transitions.

They're categorized by Subtle, Exciting, and Dynamic Content.

If I click on a particular transition, I'll get a preview of how it looks.

You'll quickly find that some transitions are much faster than others.

Also, certain transitions have what's called an Effect Option.

You'll notice that when I click on this transition, the slide pushes up from the bottom.

You can have it push in from any direction, left, right, or the top.

Not every transition has an Effect Option.

Once you find one you like, if the transition time is a little too fast or a little too slow for you, you can change the duration.

For example, this one is a little slow but I like the effect.

In the Duration area, I'm going to speed it up just a little bit.

I can preview what it's going to look like by clicking Preview on the left hand side.

That's much faster.

I can also choose whether I want a sound when I'm advancing slides.

After that, I need to choose how I want the slide to advance.

Is the slide going to advance when I click the mouse or after a designated amount of time?

Having transitions occur after a designated amount of time is great for an unattended presentation.

If you're presenting and you have your slides on a timer, you run the risk of your presentation falling out of sync if something unexpected happens.

Say, an audience member asking a question.

If you like a particular transition, you can move on to the next slide and pick a new transition or you can click Apply To All.

If you click Apply To All, it will apply this transition to every slide in your presentation.

Any slide that has a transition associated with it will have a star icon on the left-hand side in the Navigation pane.

At any time while you're planning your presentation, if you want to change a transition or you decide that you don't want one at all, and you don't have to have a transition, you can click Transitions, select None, and then Apply To All if you want to remove it from every slide.

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