Animations are always numbered in the order as you
apply them.
So if you first animate a shape and then add animation to the text placeholder -- then that's going to be the sequence
in which they will animate. However, it is possible to reorder your animations as needed. You may want to consider
reordering of animations so that the sequencing happens as per some aesthetics and logic -- also
Entrance and
Exit animations, if
applied need to be the first and last animations for any slide object. PowerPoint's Reorder options
for animations let you play with this sequencing.
Note: Obviously, reordering is possible only when there is more than one animation on your slide.
Follow these steps to reorder existing animations:
- 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 also PowerPoint 2011 Views) or within the
Slides pane, and pressing
Command+D. This duplicates the slide, and it's good to have a copy of the slide that
you can go back to, just in case you want to cancel everything and start from the scratch!
- Now, click the Reorder button within the Animations tab of the
Ribbon, as shown highlighted in
red within Figure 1.
Figure 1: Reorder button within the Animations tab
- This summons the Custom Animation
tab of the Toolbox as you can see highlighted
in blue within Figure 2, below. Within this tab, the
Animation order list includes all animations applied to various objects on the active slide, as shown in
Figure 2. Note that all animations are shown in the sequence they occur from top to bottom.
Figure 2: Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox
- Select any animation that you want to reorder, as shown in Figure 3. You can also select
multiple animations. We chose the animation added to 5-Point Star shape as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Animation selected within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox
- To change the order of the selected animation(s), use the Reorder up-arrow or down-arrow buttons
(highlighted in red within Figure 3, above) located at the bottom of the
Animation order list. In Figure 4, you can see that we have changed the order of the
selected animation from 4th to 2nd, within the Animation order list.
Figure 4: Animation reordered
Note: If there are plenty of animations listed within the Animation order list,
it may take lot of time to reorder them using the Reorder up-arrow or down-arrow buttons. In such
a situation, first select the animation that you want to change the order for, and then just drag it to the new position
within Animation order list.
- Once you have reordered your animations, preview them to make sure that the results look like what you intended.
You might have to tweak the
animation events a little if reordering made some changes to how they play.
- Save your presentation.
See Also:
Reorder Animations in PowerPoint
2016 for Windows
Reorder Animations in
PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Reorder Animations in
PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
Reordering Animation in PowerPoint
2007 for Windows
