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15 CHAPTER In this chapter by Patrice-Anne Rutledge and Jim Grey Working with Animation In this chapter Understanding Animation 320 Setting Slide Transitions 321 Using Animation Schemes 323 Creating Custom Animations 324 Using Action Settings 333 Using Action Buttons 334 Troubleshooting 336 Design Corner: Spicing Up Your Presentation 336

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15CHAPTER

In this chapter by Patrice-Anne Rutledge and Jim Grey

Working with Animation

In this chapter

Understanding Animation 320

Setting Slide Transitions 321

Using Animation Schemes 323

Creating Custom Animations 324

Using Action Settings 333

Using Action Buttons 334

Troubleshooting 336

Design Corner: Spicing Up Your Presentation 336

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Understanding AnimationPowerPoint includes a number of ways to animate your slides. You can animate the transi-tion from one slide to another or animate how objects and text appear on a slide. You canalso customize these basic animations in a variety of ways. You can have action buttons orother objects perform a specific action in your presentation, such as opening a Web page onthe Internet.

Like most of PowerPoint’s capabilities, animation can be either very simple or detailed andcomplex. It all depends on how creative and sophisticated you want to make your presenta-tion. Animation can definitely enliven any presentation, but as with any special effect, becareful not to overdo. Too much animation can actually detract from your presentation.Animation also increases a file’s size.

➔ To learn more about animation and visual design, see Chapter 25, “The Media—Designing VisualSupport,” p. 535.

Depending on what you want to animate (slide, text, drawing object, chart, media clip, andso forth) and what kind of animation you want to use (a direction or an action), you haveseveral ways to create an animation effect in PowerPoint. Your basic choices include the fol-lowing:

■ Slide transitions—Let you determine how to change from one slide to the next in yourpresentation. By default, when you move from one slide to another, the next slideimmediately appears. With animation, you can make the old slide fade away to revealthe new slide or make the new slide move down from the top of the screen to cover theold slide.

■ Animation schemes—Let you animate PowerPoint objects, such as text or drawingobjects, using directional effects similar to slide transitions. For example, you can use ananimation scheme to dissolve or wipe title text into your presentation.

■ Custom animation—Lets you set more sophisticated animation options, such as theorder and timing of multiple animation objects in one slide. You can also use customanimation on charts and media clips such as sound and movie files.

■ Action settings—Let you attach an action to a PowerPoint object. For example, youcan open a Web page, go to another slide, or start an external program by clicking themouse on—or even by just passing the mouse pointer over—the object. An action set-ting differs from the previous kinds of animation in that it performs an action ratherthan defines how to introduce an object or slide.

■ Action buttons—Let you attach an action to a specific button. An action button is apredefined object that includes an action setting. You can attach an action setting to anobject you create, or you can use an action button instead.

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Setting Slide TransitionsSetting slide transitions is one of the most common animation effects. You can apply a slidetransition to the entire presentation or just to the current slide. PowerPoint offers a varietyof transition options, including the capability to fade, dissolve, wipe, or even display items asa newsflash. Within each of these main categories, you can choose a direction. For example,you can wipe up, down, left, or right.

As with so many PowerPoint features, use restraint with slide transitions. For the most pro-fessional results, choose one transition to use for every slide in a presentation. Or, if youwant to highlight one or two particular slides, you can apply just the right transition tothose, but apply no transition to the rest. Too many different transitions can make your pre-sentation confusing and inconsistent, detracting from your message.

You can set slide transitions in either Normal view or Slide Sorter view. Follow these steps:

1. Choose Slide Show, Slide Transition. The Slide Transition task pane appears, as shownin Figure 15.1.

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Figure 15.1You can specify howyou want to movefrom one slide toanother slide during apresentation.

2. Select the slide or slides to which you want to apply the transition in either Slide Sorterview or in the Slides tab of Normal view. To select all slides, press Ctrl+A.

3. From the Apply to Selected Slides list, select the transition you want to apply.

T I PIf you already have a task pane open, you can click the down arrow at the top of thepane and select Slide Transition from the menu that appears.

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4. Choose a transition speed of Slow, Medium, or Fast, depending on how quickly youwant the transition to occur in a slideshow.

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T I PMake sure that the AutoPreview check box is selected so that you can preview transitionsas you choose them in the Apply to Selected Slides list. Depending on your screen reso-lution and whether your PowerPoint window is maximized, this check box might be hid-den. If it is, pause your mouse over the small arrow at the bottom of the task pane, andthe pane will scroll up so that you can see the hidden fields.

5. To add a sound effect to your transition, select a sound from the Sound drop-down list.If you want to use a sound elsewhere on your computer, choose Other Sound from thedrop-down list to open the Add Sound dialog box, navigate to the sound to use, selectit, and click OK. If you want the sound to continue playing until the presentationencounters another sound file, click the Loop Until Next Sound check box.

C A U T I O NIf your presentation is to be fast paced, choose a fast or medium transition. A slow tran-sition might be too slow for you, especially if your computer is a few years old or more.

Can’t hear your sound files? See the “Troubleshooting” section near the end of this chapter.

➔ To learn how to add WAV and other sound files, see “Inserting Sounds or Movies” in Chapter 13,“Working with Pictures, Movies, Sounds, and the Clip Organizer,” p. 262.

6. Select the On Mouse Click check box to advance to the next slide when you click themouse or press a key such as the spacebar, Enter, Page Up, or Page Down. This isselected by default.

7. If you would rather have PowerPoint automatically change to the next slide after aspecified amount of time, select the Automatically After check box and enter a specifictime, in minutes and seconds, in the field beside it. Any timings you’ve already added toyour slideshow appear in this box.

8. Click the Apply to All Slides button to apply the transitions to all slides in your presen-tation.

9. To preview your transitions, either click the Play button to preview within your currentview (or preview it again if you selected the AutoPreview check box), or click the SlideShow button to start a slideshow.

➔ To learn more about running slideshows, see Chapter 9, “Presenting a Slideshow,” p. 175.

C A U T I O NUse sounds sparingly on slide transitions. They can unintentionally generate laughter oreven annoyance in your audience.

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323Using Animation Schemes

Using Animation SchemesYou can apply preset animation to slide text using animation schemes that provide optionsranging from subtle to highly creative animations. Pinwheel, Neutron, and Boomerang andExit are just a few examples of PowerPoint animation schemes. To preview their effects, tryout a few to find the one that’s right for your presentation.

To apply an animation scheme to one or more selected slides, follow these steps:

1. Choose Slide Show, Animation Schemes. The Slide Design task pane, shown inFigure 15.2, opens with the Animation Schemes option selected.

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Figure 15.2Animation Schemesoffers a fast and sim-ple way to animateyour slides.

Animation Schemes option

2. Choose the animation you want from the Apply to Selected Slides list. The list displaysthe Recently Used animation schemes first and then divides the remaining schemes intothe Subtle, Moderate, and Exciting categories.

T I PIf you already have a task pane open, you can click the down arrow at the top of thepane and choose Slide Design—Animation Schemes from the menu that appears.

T I PMake sure that the AutoPreview check box is selected so that you can preview your ani-mations as you apply them.

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3. To preview what this animation effect looks like within the current view (or preview itagain if you selected the AutoPreview check box), click the Play button. To start aslideshow, click the Slide Show button.

➔ To learn more about running slideshows, see Chapter 9, p. 175.

4. To apply the animation scheme to the entire presentation, click the Apply to All Slidesbutton.

If you later decide you don’t want a particular animation scheme, choose the No Animationoption in the Apply to Selected Slides list in the Slide Design—Animation Schemes taskpane.

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N O T EWhen you run a slideshow of your presentation, only the title appears at first when aslide appears. To make each bullet point appear, click the mouse.

Creating Custom AnimationsIf animation schemes don’t provide the flexibility you need, try custom animation. TheCustom Animation task pane offers more advanced animation options, such as the ability toset order and timings and to animate certain parts of a slide. You also use this task pane toset animation effects for charts, diagrams, organization charts, and media clips.

If you’ve already applied an animation scheme to a slide, these animation events appear inthe Custom Animation list on the Custom Animation task pane. You can either delete theseanimations and start over with custom animation by clicking the Remove button on the taskpane or add more enhancements to your animation schemes.

➔ To learn more about animation schemes, see “Setting Special Animation Effects” later in this chapter,p. 327.

N O T EApplying a custom animation is far more complicated than applying an animationscheme. Be sure that you really need the power offered by custom animations beforeyou spend the time to set them up.

To apply a custom animation to text or an object, follow these steps:

1. Choose Slide Show, Custom Animation to open the Custom Animation task pane, asshown in Figure 15.3.

T I PIf you already have a task pane open, you can click the down arrow at the top of thepane and select the Custom Animation task pane from the menu that appears.

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2. Select the text or object to animate.

3. Click the Add Effect button to display a menu of additional options:

• Entrance—Determines how the text or object enters the slide. Options includeBlinds, Box, Checkerboard, Diamonds, and Fly In.

• Emphasis—Adds emphasis to the text or object. Options include Change Font,Change Font Size, Change Font Style, Grow/Shrink, and Spin.

• Exit—Determines how the text or object exits the slide. Options include Blinds,Box, Checkerboard, Diamonds, Fly Out, and Whip.

• Motion Paths—Sets a path that the selected text or object follows. Optionsinclude Diagonal Down Right, Diagonal Up Right, Down, Left, Right, and Up.You can also draw a custom path based on a line, curve, freeform, or scribbleshape.

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Figure 15.3Custom Animationoffers more complexoptions.

N O T ENot all options are always available, depending on what you select to animate. Forexample, text-based animation options such as Change Font or Change Font Size areonly available if you select text.

4. Click the type of effect you want and choose from the submenu of additional options. Itappears in the Custom Animation list.

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The effects in these dialog boxes are grouped by style—basic, subtle, moderate, orexciting, for example. If the Preview Effect check box is selected, you can see the effecton your slide when you click it in the dialog box. If you want to use one of these effects,select it and click OK to close the dialog box.

6. From the Start drop-down list in the Custom Animation task pane, choose when youwant the animation to start. Some choices might not appear in the drop-down list,depending on the sequence of the animation.

7. Depending on which custom animation you choose, additional drop-down lists mightappear, such as Direction, Speed, Font Style, Duration, and so forth. Select the optionsyou prefer.

8. Click the Play button to see the animations in your current view, or click the SlideShow button to see the animations in a slideshow.

➔ To learn more about running slideshows, see Chapter 9, p. 175.

Each animation event you add appears in the Custom Animation list in the order you enterit. The icon that precedes it tells you what kind of animation it is and corresponds to the

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5. To see a complete list of effects, choose the More Effects menu option, which opens adialog box of related effects, such as the Add Entrance Effect or Add Emphasis Effectdialog box (see Figure 15.4).

T I PVerify that the AutoPreview check box is selected so that you can preview your transi-tions as you apply them.

Figure 15.4Additional customeffects are available,ranging from subtleto extravagant.

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icons that precede the choices on the Add Effect menu (Entrance, Emphasis, and so forth).Hover the mouse over the animation in the list to display more information, such as thestart option and effect type. If you have multiple animations in this list, the list is numberedand the numbers also appear on your slide to show where the animations are located. Thesenumbers don’t appear in print or during a slideshow, however. Figure 15.5 shows a list ofanimation options.

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Figure 15.5PowerPoint lists yourcustom animations insequence.

Sequence number – Slide Sequence number – Custom Animation list

Setting Special Animation EffectsThe Custom Animation task pane also offers the option to add more animation effects, settimings, reorder animation events, and animate parts of diagrams, organization charts,media clips, or other charts you’ve added to your slides.

Setting Additional Effects

To add effects to an animation event in the Custom Animation list—such as directional,sound, text, and color enhancements—click the down arrow to the right of an animation inthe list and choose Effect Options from the menu that appears. A dialog box opens with theEffect tab selected (see Figure 15.6).

The dialog box’s name and content depend on the kind of animation event you’re customiz-ing. For example, if you choose the Box entrance effect, the Box dialog box appears. We willuse the Box dialog box to explore the range of customizations you can make, but rememberthat depending on the effect you choose, this dialog box would have different fields or tabs.

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The Effect tab on the Box dialog box has the following options:

■ Direction—Specify a direction for the selected animation, such as In, Out, Horizontal,or Vertical.

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Figure 15.6Continue to cus-tomize your customanimation with theoptions in thisdialog box.

N O T EOnly those directions that apply to the selected animation event will appear in this drop-down list.

■ Sound—If you want a sound effect to accompany the effect, select a sound from thedrop-down list. If you don’t want to include a sound, choose No Sound, which is thedefault option. For even more sounds, choose Other Sound to open the Add Sounddialog box.

➔ To learn how to add sound files, see “Inserting Sounds or Movies” in Chap-ter 13, “Working with Pictures, Movies, Sounds, and the Clip Organizer,” p. 262.

■ Volume—Click the Volume button to raise or lower the sound effect’s volume level.You can also choose to mute the effect here.

■ After Animation—Specify how to end your animation in this drop-down list, such asdisplaying the object in a new color or hiding it after animation. Options include

• Standard Colors—Let you apply a color from the default palette, which changesthe object’s color after the animation finishes.

• More Colors—Displays the Colors dialog box from which you can choose anycolor. The object changes to this color after the animation finishes.

➔ To learn more about the Colors dialog box, see “Specifying Colors” in Chapter 14, “Creating andFormatting Objects,” p. 290

C A U T I O NUse sounds sparingly—they can quickly annoy your audience.

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• Don’t Dim—Continues to display a static image of the object after animation.

• Hide After Animation—Hides the object after animation.

• Hide on Next Mouse Click—Hides the object when you click the mouse.

■ Animate Text—From the drop-down list, choose a method for introducing text: All atOnce (the default), By Word, or By Letter.

■ % Delay Between—If you choose the By Word or By Letter option, you can set howlong PowerPoint waits after starting to display one word or letter before starting to dis-play the next word or letter. 50% means that the previous word is 50% displayed whenthe next word begins to display.

Setting Timings

To set exact timing effects for your custom animations, click the down arrow next to an ani-mation in the Custom Animation list and choose Timing from the menu that appears. Adialog box opens with the Timing tab selected, as shown in Figure 15.7.

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Figure 15.7Make additional tim-ing modifications onthe Timing tab.

Remember that the name of this dialog box reflects the type of animation effect whose tim-ing you want to customize. On the Timing tab, you can set the following options:

■ Start—Specify when to start the animation:

• On Click—When you click the mouse

• With Previous—As soon as the previous animation in the list starts

• After Previous—After the previous animation in the list finishes

■ Delay—Enter the delay in seconds.

■ Speed—Choose a speed level—from very slow to very fast.

■ Repeat—Indicate how many times you want the animation to repeat. Options includenone (which means that it plays once); two, three, four, five, or ten times; until the nextmouse click; or until the next slide.

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■ Rewind when Done Playing—Click this check box if you want to return the anima-tion to its original position when it finishes playing.

■ Triggers—Click the Triggers button to display two more fields on this tab that let youdetermine what triggers this animation to start:

• Animate as Part of Click Sequence—Click this radio button to animate as partof the click sequence in the Custom Animation list.

• Start Effect on Click Of—Click this radio button and then choose a specific ani-mation from the drop-down list on which to trigger this animation.

You can also display the Advanced Timeline, which lets you further customize timings bydragging the timeline’s scrollbar. To open this timeline, right-click the Custom Animationlist and choose Show Advanced Timeline. Figure 15.8 illustrates this timeline.

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Figure 15.8Define specific tim-ings to give yourpresentation aprofessional polish.

Advanced timeline

To close the timeline, right-click again and choose Hide Advanced Timeline.

Animating Charts

You can add more effects to a chart to which you’ve applied a custom animation. To do so,click the down arrow next to the chart in the Custom Animation list and choose EffectOptions from the menu. Figure 15.9 shows the dialog box that appears. (Remember that thedialog box name reflects the type of effect you’ve applied, such as Box or Spin.)

Click the Chart Animation tab and, from the Group chart drop-down list, indicate how youwant to introduce the chart elements. Options include As One Object, By Series, ByCategory, By Element in Series, and By Element in Category.

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Figure 15.9Animating a chart isanother possibility.

➔ To learn how to create a chart, see Chapter 11, “Working with Charts,” p. 217.

Animating Diagrams

Animating parts of diagrams or organization charts is another animation customization youcan apply. To do so, click the down arrow next to the diagram in the Custom Animation list,choose Effect Options from the menu, and click the Diagram Animation tab, shown inFigure 15.10.

T I PIf you choose any option other than As One Object, the Animate Grid and Legend checkbox activates, letting you include the chart grid and legend in the animation.

Figure 15.10Animating parts of adiagram is anothercustom animationoption.

From the Group Diagram drop-down list, choose the way you want to introduce the dia-gram onto the slide. The choices depend on the kind of diagram.

Animating Media Clips

You can also customize animations to media clips such as a sound or video file. For example,to customize a sound clip animation, click the down arrow next to the clip in the Custom

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Animation list and choose Effect Options from the menu. Figure 15.11 shows the Effect tabof the Play Sound dialog box that appears. This tab includes choices for starting and stop-ping the media clip.

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Figure 15.11The Effect tab addsfields for animatingmedia clips.

Reordering AnimationsThe animations in the Custom Animation list appear in the order you enter them, but youcan change this order if you prefer. To specify the order in which to animate multipleobjects on a single slide, select the object you want to reorder and click either the up ordown Re-Order button. Or you can drag an animation to another location in the list.

Modifying AnimationsAfter you apply custom animations to a slide, you might decide that you want to modifythem. For example, you might want to change the type of effect you applied from Box toDiamond or from Grow/Shrink to Spin. To do so, select the animation in the CustomAnimation list and click the Change button. Then select a new custom animation to apply.

N O T EThe Change button is the same as the Add Effect button. Its name changes when youmodify an existing animation rather than add a new one.

Deleting AnimationsTo delete a custom animation, select it in the Custom Animation list and click the Removebutton. To delete all animations, select the first animation in the list, press the Shift key,select the last animation in the list, and then click the Remove button.

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If you make a mistake and want to restore your deletions, click the Undo button on theStandard toolbar.

Using Action SettingsUse the Action Settings dialog box to start an action by clicking an object with the mouse orsimply by passing the mouse pointer over it.

For example, you can place an object, such as a rectangle, in your presentation and have itconnect to the Web, play a sound, run a macro, or open another program when you click itor pass the mouse over it. This can be useful when you want to demonstrate other applica-tions during your presentation, but don’t want to take the time to try to locate and openthem in the middle of a slideshow.

To add an action to a PowerPoint object, follow these steps:

1. Select the object to which you want to add an action.

2. Choose Slide Show, Action Settings to open the Action Settings dialog box, shown inFigure 15.12.

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Figure 15.12Use a mouse clickor mouse over toperform actions inyour presentation.

3. Choose the Mouse Click tab if you want to start the action with a mouse click; choosethe Mouse Over tab to start the action by passing the mouse over the object. TheMouse Click and Mouse Over tabs are nearly identical. The only real difference is themethod by which you start the action.

C A U T I O NPassing the mouse over an object to start an action is the easier method, but be carefulnot to get too close to the object too soon or you might start the action before youintend to.

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4. Choose the action to take when you click or hover over the object:

• None—No action occurs. Choose this option to remove a previously placedaction.

• Hyperlink To—Creates a hyperlink to a selected slide within your presentation,another PowerPoint presentation, another file on your computer, or a Web page.

➔ For further explanation about using hyperlinks in PowerPoint, see “Adding Hyperlinks” in Chapter 16,“Using PowerPoint’s Web Features,” p. 342.

• Run Program—Runs the program whose path you specify in the text box. Clickthe Browse button to open the Select a Program to Run dialog box, where youcan search for the program.

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• Run Macro—Lets you choose from a list of PowerPoint macros you’ve created.➔ To learn how to create macros, see “Running a Macro from the Toolbar” in Chapter 20, “Working with

Macros,” p. 425.

• Object Action—Lets you open, edit, or play an embedded object. This optionis available only for objects that you can open, edit, or play, such as a media clipor something created with another application and embedded into yourpresentation.

• Play Sound—Lets you play a sound you select from the drop-down list. You canselect other sounds by choosing Other Sound from the drop-down list.

➔ To learn about sound files, see “Inserting Sounds or Movies” in Chapter 13, “Working with Pictures,Movies, Sounds, and the Clip Organizer,” p. 262.

• Highlight Click/Highlight When Mouse Over—Highlights the selected objectwhen you perform the mouse action.

5. Click OK to close the Action Settings dialog box.

Are your animation effects not working when using PowerPoint? See the “Troubleshooting”section near the end of the chapter.

Using Action ButtonsAction buttons are another way to use objects to perform certain actions. PowerPointincludes 12 different action buttons.

These buttons function in much the same way as applying an action setting to an existingobject. In fact, when you place an action button on a slide, the Action Settings dialog boxappears. You can then specify mouse actions for the action button. Many action buttons

T I PYou can also use this field to open a file in another program. For example, enteringc:\download\budget.xls opens Excel and the Budget worksheet that’s in theDownload folder.

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perform common tasks such as moving to a previous slide, so this action is defined bydefault in the Action Settings dialog box.

To place an action button on a PowerPoint slide, choose Slide Show, Action Buttons. TheAction Buttons palette appears, as shown in Figure 15.13.

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Figure 15.13This palette includesseveral ready-madeaction buttons.

To place an action button on a slide, click a button on the palette and then click and dragon the slide to create the button. As soon as you finish, the Action Settings dialog boxopens—in which you can accept the default action setting or specify the action to attach tothis button. Enter the required information and click OK. The action button now appearson your PowerPoint slide, as illustrated in Figure 15.14.

T I PYou can also create an action button from the Drawing toolbar by choosing AutoShapes,Action Buttons.

Figure 15.14Use action buttons inyour presentation foradded flexibility andconvenience inchanging to otherslides or applications.

You will probably want to resize and move the button on the slide.

➔ To learn how to move, resize, copy, delete, and format an object, such as an action button, seeChapter 14, p. 281.

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TroubleshootingResolving Sound File Problems

I can’t hear sound files I embedded in my presentation.

You must have a sound card and speakers to hear sounds that you add to your presentation.Also, verify that your volume is turned up sufficiently to hear the sounds.

Working with Previous Versions

I opened my presentation in an older version of PowerPoint, and the animations don’t work.

The features and functionality of PowerPoint aren’t always available in previous versions ofthe software. With animations, PowerPoint either converts animations to effects supportedby the software version you used to open the presentation or eliminates the animation effectentirely, depending on the animation you applied.

Design Corner: Spicing Up Your PresentationWith PowerPoint’s animation features, you can enliven presentations using transitions,action buttons, or preset animation. But before you apply animation to your presentation,have a plan. First, be sure that you understand PowerPoint’s animation options and how bestto use them. If you’re not sure, experiment a little. Trial and error can often be the bestteacher in learning what works and what doesn’t. Second, figure out how you will be inte-grating animation into your presentation—where, how much, what kind, and so forth. A lit-tle animation goes a long way; over-animating can clutter your presentation, detract fromyour message, and make the file size too large. Finally, implement your plan by adding theactual animations. (This is the easy part.) When you’re done, be sure to preview the entirepresentation to verify that what you’ve planned is truly effective.

In the example shown here, an informative slide is made more eye- and ear-catching byadding animation and sound effects.

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337Design Corner: Spicing Up Your Presentation

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Before

Figure 15.15

After

Figure 15.16

Include an action button toperform an action such aslinking to a Web page from

your presentation

Present each bulletseparately using an entryanimation such as Swivel

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