How to Add an Animation in PowerPoint

You’ve got a big presentation coming up, and you want it to look good. Some simple animations can add extra polish to your slideshow – just make sure to keep it minimal. Too much movement can seem cartoonish, distracting your audience from the substance of the content.

Here’s how to add a simple animation to your presentation.

1. Click on the object you want to animate. It can be text, an image, a graph or a shape.
2. Click on the Animations tab. Click through different stars in the animation group to try out different types of animations. Find one that you like, or is at least close to what you want.





3. Click Effect Options to edit the effect. A drop-down menu will appear, in which you can select the Direction of the animation, as well as the Sequence in which different elements of the animation appear. For instance, if you’re animating a list of bullet points and want them to appear one line at a time, select By Paragraph.





4. Click the numbered tabs to tweak individual elements further. Little numbered tabs will appear on the slide next to each part of the animation (they won’t show during your presentation). Click one, and a sidebar will appear on the right. There, you can alter the way each bullet enters the slide, how fast it moves or how long it’s delayed. Under Timing, choose how you want to trigger the animation by selecting from the menu labeled Start:
• On Click will allow you to control the animation during your presentation with the keyboard or clicker.
• With Previous will cause the bullets to enter the slide at the same time as the previous one (which defeats the purpose of selecting By Paragraph in Step 3 – so don’t choose this one).
• After Previous will cause the bullets to enter the slide one at a time, but without any prompting from you.