Motion Path Animations
The three basic animation types in PowerPoint: Entrance, Emphasis, and Exit animations are something we have already explored. The fourth animation type is called Motion Path animation, and this is something more advanced in nature than the basic animation types explored so far. Motion Path animation determines the route (path) and the direction in which the animated slide object moves across or around on the slide. For example, you can move the slide object up, down, right, or left -- and even on a preset or a created motion path.

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Getting Started with Motion Paths
Motion Path animations in PowerPoint enable you to make any slide object move within or outside the slide, and also make it move around on the slide in a particular path! PowerPoint provides dozens of Motion Path presets, in every shape that you can imagine. To add a Motion Path animation to any object on a PowerPoint slide, follow these steps.

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Animate Ungrouped Tables
Animating table components is something that you cannot do in PowerPoint. You can either set to animate the entire table at a time, or can't animate it at all. The solution is to first ungroup the table using the workaround explained in our Ungroup a Table in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows tutorial and then animate the ungrouped components as required.

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Drawing Custom Motion Paths
If none of the preset Motion Paths suit your needs, or if you cannot easily edit them to the way you want, you can easily create your own motion paths. In this tutorial you will learn how to use PowerPoint's Custom Path option to create your own motion path.

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Adjust the Chart Series Overlap
Your PowerPoint charts can look better if they are spaced apart well. You can increase the Gap width so that there is enough space between the categories. Also, you can adjust the space between the individual Data Series within a category.

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Reversing Motion Paths
Applying a Preset Motion Path or even drawing your own Custom Motion Path is not the high end of Motion Path excellence. There are several other tricks that can help you become a better PowerPoint animator. The simplest Motion Path trick is to reverse them! This option is very helpful if you want an object to animate using a Motion Path, and then animate it again from the end of the motion path to the beginning!

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Open and Closed Motion Paths
Motion paths are essentially the paths (or lines) through which slide objects animate. These motion paths are just like any other line with curves, points, etc. If you are familiar with the drawing tools in PowerPoint (Line, Curve, Scribble, and Freeform), you know that paths can be either open or closed. A circle is a good example of a closed path, whereas an arc is an open path. So, how is the concept of open and closed paths relevant to Motion Path animations in PowerPoint?

Format Cells as Text
In Excel, the cell type for most of the stuff you type is set to General by default. What does this General mean? This means that the content within the cell is generic and has not been identified as a number, some text, or a date. Depending upon what you are doing with the Excel sheet, it may really not matter if Excel just treats the cell content as General. However, your Excel content may be used to create a chart in PowerPoint, and the chart data may contain some labels that are all digits with no alphabets.