Remove Animations in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

Removing an animation in PowerPoint is a simple select-and-click option, but even before you remove any animation, do ascertain why you want to remove it. Here are some obvious scenarios to explore before removing animations:

Do you want to remove both the animation and the slide object that is animated?
Or do you want to just remove the animation, and let the slide object be?
Or maybe you don't want to remove the animation or the slide object -- you just want to change the animation?

Here are the answers:

If you choose 1, then you need not read the rest of this tutorial -- just delete the animated slide object such as a shape, and any animation added to that object is gone too.
If you chose 2, then you need to read the rest of this page.
If you chose 3, then look at our Change Animation tutorial.

Now that we have established what you want to do, removing an animation is very easy. Follow these steps to remove any existing animation:

Select the slide object that has an animation applied. Refer to our Adding an Animation in PowerPoint 2013 tutorial to learn how you can add animation.

Note: Although we are using a shape within this example, the same technique will work to add animation to any slide object within PowerPoint.
Access the Animations tab of the Ribbon, and within the Animation gallery, click the None option (shown highlighted in red within Figure 1).

Figure 1: None option to be selected to remove the animation
Do you have more than one animation assigned to the selected slide object (see the shape with multiple animations, highlighted in blue within Figure 2 below)? You can remove a particular animation from within the Animation Pane. To bring up the Animation Pane, first access the Animations tab of the Ribbon. Then click the Animation Pane button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.

Figure 2: Animation Pane button
This opens the Animation Pane (highlighted in red within Figure 3) within the PowerPoint 2013 interface.

Figure 3: Animation Pane within PowerPoint interface
Within the Animation Pane, select the animation you want to remove. Right-click the selected animation to bring up a drop-down list, and choose the Remove option (highlighted in red within Figure 4).

Figure 4: Remove option to be selected

Alternatively, select the animation to be removed in the Animation Pane and press the Delete key on the keyboard. If you removed the wrong animation by mistake, quickly press the Ctrl+Z shortcut key to undo.

Tip: Want more keyboard shortcuts? Get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts Ebook.
Save your presentation.

Tip: Do you want to remove all animations from your slides? Is there a magic button somewhere in PowerPoint that can get rid of all animations all together? Yes, you can do this easily in PowerPoint using some simple VBA code, says John Wilson -- read more.