While working with Motion Paths, especially after drawing a
Custom Motion Path
to animate your slide object, you may feel that the path drawn is not very smooth. Or you may have used one of the
Preset Motion Paths
to animate your slide object, and now you want to make some changes. Maybe you want to extend the path, or use smoother corners
rather than the default pointed ones. In Figure 1 below, you can see that a custom Motion Path was drawn to
animate a Star shape. Drawing with a mouse typically results in paths that look more segmented than curved!
Figure 1: Custom Motion Path applied to a Star shape needs to be edited
Since Motion Paths are essentially lines drawn in PowerPoint, you can always edit them using the
Edit Points option, and reorient
them as required. Follow these steps to learn more:
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint 2011 and select the
shape, or any other slide object that has already been applied with a Motion Path, which you want to fine tune.
Alternatively, if you want to start from the begining, open a presentaion and
add a shape or any other slide object to a
Blank slide.
Now, apply a Motion Path animation to it, refer to our
Adding a Motion Path
or Drawing a Custom Motion
Path tutorials to get started.
- At this time, the Animations tab of the
Ribbon should be active. On the slide itself, you'll see the Motion Path, represented by a dashed line, you can now
select the motion path by clicking on this dashed line. Once selected, you will see selection handles on Motion Path, as
clearly visible in Figure 2. A straight line Motion Path may show just 2 selection handles, while any other
Motion Path will show 8 selection handles. For the rest of this tutorial, you must have a Motion Path that shows eight handles
when selected. Otherwise any of the options we explain hereafter will not work for you.
Right-click the selected Motion Path carefully to bring up a contextual menu with three options, as shown in
Figure 2. Choose the Edit Points option.
Figure 2: Edit Points option selected
- This activates the Edit Points mode, showing a number of vertexes (small pink circles) along the motion path,
as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Motion Path in Edit Points mode, with point editing options
Let us first explore how you will edit any of these vertexes. We will thereafter explore how you edit segments, the line area
between two vertexes.
- Click on any vertex to select it. Then, right-click (or ⌘+click) to bring a contextual
menu with options categorized into three sections. Let us explore the options within these sections, as marked in
Figure 3, above.
A. The Add Point option adds a new point (vertex) at the cursor position, and the Delete Point
option deletes the selected point. To learn more about these options explore our
Add or Delete Points (Vertexes)
tutorial. While that tutorial discusses editing vertexes on shapes, a Motion Path is also essentially a shape that you can
edit the same way. Note though that vertexes in shapes are black squares whereas vertexes in Motion Paths are pink circles.
The Close Curve option closes any open Motion Path by connecting its start and end points with a new line
segment. However, if your Motion Path is already closed, you will see the Open Curve option instead of the
Close Curve option, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Open Curve option to be selected
Selecting the Open Curve option will result in your closed motion path being opened at the exact point you
clicked. Notice that the same motion path you last saw in Figure 4 now has both green
and red arrow heads, as you can see in Figure 5, below.
Figure 5: Closed Motion Path changed into an open Motion Path
You can actually select any of the ends and drag them off to another location, as shown in Figure 6, below.
Figure 6: Start and End points of the opened motion path repositioned
You can learn more about Open Curve and Close Curve options in our
Edit Points: Open and Close Paths
tutorial.
B. Auto Point, Smooth Point, Straight Point, and Corner Point
are the various types of vertexes that help you to change the look of your Motion Paths. You can learn more about these various
points in our Types of Points (Vertexes)
tutorial.
C. Click the Exit Edit Point option to leave the Edit Points mode.
- In Edit Points mode, you can also edit the line segments (line connecting two vertexes) in your Motion Path.
To do that, make sure you are in Edit Points mode, and right-click on any line segment to bring up a contextual
menu with line segment editing options, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Motion Path in Edit Points mode with line segment editing options
Let us explore these line segment editing options as marked in Figure 7, above:
A. Add Point option adds a new vertex at the cursor position on the line segment. Close Curve
option closes the open Motion Paths by joining its starting and end point with a line segment. But, if your Motion Path is already
closed, you will see the Open Curve option in the place of Close Curve option as shown in
Figure 8.
Figure 8: Line segment editing options
At this point, if you select the Open Curve option, your closed motion path will be opened at the vertex which
is located just before this selected line segment in the motion path. Notice that the same motion path you last saw in
Figure 8 now has both green and red arrow heads, as you can see in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Motion Path opened
On the other hand, you can get rid of the segment altogether as well. In the same contextual menu, that you saw in
Figure 8, you will also find the Delete Segment option. Notice that this option is grayed out
for an Open Motion Path, as can be seen in Figure 7, earlier on this page. Choosing the
Delete Segment option removes the segment entirely, and thus results in a path that no longer includes the
deleted segment, as shown in Figure 10, below.
Figure 10: Selected segment deleted from the Motion Path
B. Straight Segment and Curved Segment options change the look of the selected line segment
making it straight or curvy. To learn more about these options, read our
Edit Points: Curved and Straight Line
Segments tutorial.
C. Click the Exit Edit Point option to leave the Edit Points mode.
- Edit the vertexes and line segments as required to fine-tune the Motion Path. In Figure 11 below, you can
see our motion path, after we fine-tuned it. Compare Figures 1 and 11 to see the difference.
Figure 11: Custom Motion Path fine-tuned in Edit Points mode
- Once you are happy with the results, save your presentation.
See Also:
Edit Points in Paths of Motion Path Animations in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Edit Points in Paths of Motion Path Animations in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Edit Points in Paths of Motion Path Animations
in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
