Home | Products | PowerPoint | PowerPoint Tutorials | Animation and Transitions

Animation Speed in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: August 6th 2012
Last Updated: August 6th 2012

Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to set Animation Speed (Duration) in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Once you add animation to a slide object, you will want to change some of its parameters -- for instance, you might want to set the animation event so that the animation happens on a click or automatically. In addition, you can also set the speed of the animation. Every animation you add within PowerPoint 2011 has a fixed, default speed -- also known as its duration. This speed or duration is typically shown in seconds or part thereof, and differs from animation to animation. For example, the default duration of a Fade animation is half a second (00.50) whereas for the Wheel animation, it is two seconds (02.00). You can change these default timings as required to anything from a split second to a longer time by increasing or decreasing the animation speed.

Remember that animation speed is the actual time duration when any slide object animates in Slide Show view. Follow these steps to change the animation speed (duration) for any animation in PowerPoint 2011:

1. Select the slide object that has an animation applied. Then, click the Toolbox icon on the Standard Toolbar that you can see in Figure 1 (highlighted in red).
   
   
   Figure 1: Animation selected within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox
   
   
2. This opens the Toolbox -- make sure that the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox is active that you can see in Figure 1, above (highlighted in green). Within this tab, select the animation for which you want to change the Speed within the Animation order section, as shown in Figure 1, above.
   
   
3. Now, to change the Speed (Duration) of the selected animation, you can use either of these two options:
   
   
   • Locate the Duration box (highlighted in blue within Figure 1, above), within the Animations tab of the Ribbon. As you can see, the default option that reads is Auto, which indicates the default speed of the animation applied. If you want to change it, use the up and down arrows in same box -- otherwise, directly type in the exact duration value in seconds. Figure 2 shows the Duration box with the time set to 2 seconds.
     
     
     Figure 2: Duration box showing changed Speed
     
     
     Note: Animations in PowerPoint 2011 are timed to decimals, rather than using the typical 60 parts. So half a second is shown as 00.50 (centiseconds) rather than 00:30 (regular seconds).
   
   
   • Alternatively, you can select one of the preset Speed options for your animation. These are: Very Slow (5 seconds), Slow (3 seconds), Medium (2 seconds), Fast (1 second), and Very Fast (0.5 second). To select any of them, first open the Timing pane within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox, as shown in Figure 3, below. Then click the Speed drop-down list (highlighted in red, within Figure 3).
     
     
     Figure 3: Speed option within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox

   This opens the Speed drop-down list, as shown in Figure 4. This list includes Animation Speed presets mentioned earlier. Select any Speed preset you want.
   
   
   Figure 4: Speed drop-down list within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox

4. Thereafter, click the Play button within the Preview group (highlighted in red, within Figure 5 below) of the Animations tab to preview the changed animation speed.
   
   
   Figure 5: Play button within Preview group
   
   
5. Save your presentation.

See Also: Animation Speed in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows | Animation Speed in PowerPoint 2002, 2003, and 2007 for Windows