Once you have an animation applied to a particular slide object, the need to change that animation may arise for several reasons:
- You realize that another animation effect would work better.
- You want to make all animations across the entire presentation consistent.
- You want to use a more subtle or exciting animation effect.
Typically, in the situations like above, users just
remove the animation and
apply another one. But,
PowerPoint's Change Animation option makes this a one-click step. Follow these steps to learn more:
- Before you start, make a duplicate copy of your slide that contains the animated slide object, this is easily achieved by pressing
Command+Shift+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 you need!
- Now, access the Animations tab of the Ribbon, then click the Reorder button
(highlighted in red within Figure 1, below).
Figure 1: Reorder button within Animations tab
- This brings up the Custom Animation tab of
the Toolbox as shown in Figure 2 below.
Within the Animation order section, select the animation which you want to change. In Figure 2, you can
see that we have selected an
Entrance Effect animation type
(indicated by the green color within the Animation order section).

Figure 2: Animation selected
- Now, you have to select a new animation which you want to replace the existing animation with. If you look at the various
types of animation within the
Animations tab (see Figure 3, below), you'll see that all other types of animation have been grayed out
except the Entrance Effects. This is because PowerPoint 2011
allows you to replace an animation only with another effect
of the same animation type. That means, you can change an Entrance Effect only into another
Entrance Effect, and not into an
Emphasis Effect, or
Exit Effect, or
Motion Path animation.

Figure 3: Only Entrance Effects group is active with the Animations tab
- Hover your cursor over the preview thumbnails in the available animation's group to bring up a down-arrow button
(More button), which has been shown highlighted in red within Figure 3,
above. Click this button to open the respective animation's drop-down gallery. In Figure 4 below, you can see the
Entrance Effects drop-down gallery. Note that the slide object has been applied with the Peek In
effect. Click on any other Entrance Effect to replace the existing animation. For this tutorial we have chosen the
Zoom effect, highlighted in red within Figure 4. This changes the selected
animation.

Figure 4: New effect selected within the Entrance Effects drop-down gallery
- Play your slide in Slide Show view to preview the
changed animation effect.
- Once you are done, don't forget to save your presentation.
See Also:
Change an Animation in PowerPoint 2016 for
Windows
Change an Animation in PowerPoint 2013 for
Windows
Changing an Animation in PowerPoint 2010
for Windows
Changing an Animation in PowerPoint 2002, 2003,
and 2007 for Windows