Changing an Animation
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2002, 2003, and 2007
Date Created: June 5th 2009
Last Updated: June 5th 2009
Excerpt/Capsule: This tutorial shows how to change animations for a given slide object.
Many times, users just remove an animation and apply another one instead. The need to change an animation may arise for several reasons:
- You realize that another animation type would work better in a given slide
- You want to make all animations across the entire presentation consistent
- You want to use a more subtle or exciting animation.
Whatever your need may be, you need to remove an animation, and then add another one -- PowerPoint's Change animation option makes this a one-click step. Follow these steps to change an existing animation:
- Before you start, make a duplicate copy of your slide in the presentation -- this is easily achieved by selecting the slide in Slide Sorter view (see PowerPoint Views) or the Slides pane, and pressing Ctrl+D. This duplicates the slide, and it's good to know that you have a copy of the slide that you can go back to just in case!
- Next, make sure that the Custom Animation task pane is visible, as shown in Figure 1. If this task pane is not visible, you won't be able to see or select any animations.
For PowerPoint 2007 users, make sure that the shape is still selected, then activate the Animations tab of the Ribbon -- next click the Custom Animation button to bring up a task pane of the same name that you can see in Figure 1. Remember, this is a toggle option: click once to show the Custom Animation task pane, and click again to hide it!
Users of earlier PowerPoint versions (PowerPoint 2002 and 2003) can again make sure that the object is selected. Then they should choose Slide Show | Custom Animation to access a similar task pane (see Figure 1).
- Select the animation in the Custom Animation pane that you want to change, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Custom Animation
- As soon as you select an animation, the Add Effect button changes to the Change button, located at the top of the Custom Animation pane, as shown in Figure 2. Click this button.
Figure 2: Change
- This opens a fly-out menu that lets you select any of the four animation types that PowerPoint provides (see in Figure 3).
Figure 3: Change animation
- Choose any of the animations to replace the existing animation.
- Save your presentation.
Related Link: My book Cutting Edge PowerPoint 2007 For Dummies covers many aspects of PowerPoint 2007. A free chapter excerpt PowerPointing with the Best of Them is available on this site.
