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PowerPoint Animations: Animate Text, Objects, and Slides in Your Presentations

Working with graphic assets can bring a degree of expectancy when delivering a presentation, such as in the case of PowerPoint animations. They can help add emphasis to slide content and reveal parts of the slide gradually to help presenters discuss topics sequentially. 

As a presenting software, PowerPoint provides all kinds of animations for emphasis, entrance, exit, and to create a set motion. Join us today to learn all about animations in PowerPoint and unleash your creative potential.

Table of Contents

How PowerPoint Animations Can Benefit Presentation Design

Understanding powerpoint animation basics, types of animations in powerpoint, how to animate text on powerpoint, animating objects for visual impact, crafting seamless slide transitions in powerpoint, mastering advanced animation techniques in powerpoint, dos and don’ts of powerpoint animations, real-world use cases of animated presentation slides, recommended animated powerpoint templates, enhanced engagement and understanding through animations.

Dynamic presentations can have many benefits. The importance of such animations is often only realized by people familiar with PowerPoint. As we’ve seen in our guide on visual communication , graphical elements can make concepts more understandable. In the case of animations, we can use the transitions between slides or elements to split concepts and make them clearer.

Audience engagement is another factor, as eye-catching slides often include surprise elements hidden behind animations. These elements attract the audience’s interest and increase retention rate. In this case, animations serve as powerful presentation aids for the speaker.

Capturing Audience Attention

PowerPoint animations are more likely to capture the audience’s attention than static slides. The moving objects on-screen are the type of visuals people are likely to find attention-grabbing instead of trying to read through static slides or looking at static images. On this behalf, storytelling techniques boost their efficacy in connecting with the audience by implementing animations and transitions rather than sticking to static slides. 

Emphasizing Relationships Between Elements

Whenever we work with contrasting values, like pros and cons slides , animations help the presenter highlight areas of interest or disclose the opposite values section by section. This, in turn, structures the speech for real-time interaction with the graphical assets rather than having the audience read the slide and lose focus on the speech. 

Interactive Presentations

As mentioned before, presenters can craft compelling stories through the careful use of animations in PPT. What is often overlooked is the link between interactive presentations and animations. For instance, a speaker can deliver different outcomes of the presentation by selecting one path whose outcome is revealed through an animation. This “wow” factor induces surprise and creatively presents case scenarios.

Another option is when introducing your team in presentations. Rather than using static slides, incorporating animations gives more rhythm to the presentation and invites the public to interact with the speaker.

Getting Started with Animation in PowerPoint

To start with animations in PowerPoint, select an object you wish to animate and go to the Animations tab to choose an animation to add to the slide element. When adding animations to multiple objects in a slide, you should consider the sequence you wish to use to animate objects.

Accessing Animation Features

When accessing animation features, you will come across various animation types. By expanding the Animations menu, you can select animations for entrance, exit, emphasis, and motion paths to create a path for your animated sequence. You can also click to instantly preview an animation for the selected object or switch to slideshow mode to see how the animation will appear.

Adding Animations to Text and Objects

Once an animation is added to a text or object, a number is assigned. This number shows the sequence in which the object will be presented. For example, the object will be the first to be animated on screen, followed by two, three, and so on.

You can adjust the sequence of animations, triggers, and other settings from the Animation Pane in PowerPoint.

Timing and Sequence in Animations

The Timing menu in the Animations pane provides options to set the duration of the animation, the time to delay the animation on the screen (if necessary), and to assess if the animation starts on click, with the previous or after the last animation. How you select these animations will help you adjust the time and sequence of the animations. For example, you can use ‘ with previous’ option to show two animated objects simultaneously.

Entrance, Exit, and Emphasis Animations

Some of the most commonly used animation types fall under three categories: entrance, exit, and emphasis animations.

Entrance Animations

The Entrance Animations are meant to start or introduce objects. You can explore all entrance-related animations by going to Animations -> Animation (menu) -> More Entrance Effects . This will reveal all entrance animations you can click to preview for a selected object. These often consist of basic animations with effects like appear, fly-in, float-in, strips, wheel, circle, box, dissolve-in, split, wedge, wipe, plus, diamond, checkerboard, blinds, etc. The animations can be divided into three categories: basic, subtle, and moderate. These categories help identify the type of effects in each category according to how prominent they might be on screen.

Exit Animations

The Exit Animations are meant to help exit a slide or animated sequence to close a topic or subtopic, or to conclude the on-screen animations for a slide. These animations are similar to the Entrance Animations with the same effects. You can use these animation types for an exit sequence using effects like blinds, circles, checkerboard, box, plus, split, wedge, wipe, diamond, dissolve out, contract, swivel, fade, zoom, basic zoom, collapse, float up, etc.

Like the Entrance Animations, you can go to  Animations -> Animation (menu) -> More Exit Effects to preview the animations and to see the three categories for basic, subtle, or moderate animations.

Emphasis Animations

Other than basic, subtle, and moderate, the Emphasis Animations come with an additional category, ‘exciting.’ Emphasis animations in PowerPoint provide visual aids for emphasizing content within slides. The effects for these animation types in PowerPoint are also quite different from the entrance and exit-themed effects. Effects like fill color, grow/shrink, transparency, line color, teeter, color pulse, object color, desaturate, darken, lighten, blink, wave, and others can help emphasize an object within a slide to make it pop out before the audience.

Exploring Motion Path Animations

If primary effects aren’t what you want, it’s time to switch to Motion Paths . These are animated effects in PowerPoint that showcase objects across a specific path. In other words, these are elaborate animations that drag objects on the screen based on a particular shape or path, such as a 4,5, 6, or 8-point star, crescent moon, circle, diamond, football, heart, octagon, pentagon, square, trapezoid, teardrop, right triangle, arc (down, right, left, up), curvy right, bounce right, etc.

Motion Paths are divided into four categories. The basic effects consist of shapes, whereas, Line Curves provide lines and curves to animated objects. Similarly, the special category contains more elaborate effects such as inverted square, loop de loop, peanut, bean, curved square, etc.

Choosing Appropriate Animation Styles

When choosing animation styles, picking a style that best resonates with your presentation slides is important. The animations’ names and categories can help you identify what might work for you. Furthermore, after adding an animation, you can go to Effect Options to view the various directions and options used to refine the animation to build your sequence further. Depending on the animation type, you can pick variations of the animation, directions, colors, transparency, points to edit or lock, or other options for selected effects. The image below shows the variations for the Wheel animation in PowerPoint via Effect Options .

Similarly, if you select Transparency from Emphasis Effects, you can choose how transparent the object will appear on the screen. Likewise, many color-themed effects enable picking a custom color to animate an object.

Since Motion Paths are unique, you will get options to edit points, lock paths, reverse the direction of the default animated sequence, etc.

Now that you know how to animate in PowerPoint, it’s time to explore making written content more interesting using animations.

Start by opening a blank PPT file and adding a placeholder text. The idea is to learn how text interacts with animation effects without working with complex graphic layouts.

Select the text and switch to the Animations tab. In there, pick an animation effect of your preference. You will get a preview of the effect applied – which will show the number of the animation order once completed.

Animations for text, like any other animation, can be controlled in terms of behavior by accessing the panel at the right-most section of the Ribbon.

Additionally, we can expand the animations panel to select from the different effects offered by PowerPoint.

Animating Text Elements on PPT Templates

Animating text elements to highlight key aspects of your slides can be a great way to create engaging presentations. The Animated 3D 4 Steps & Core PowerPoint Template shown below are among the Animated PowerPoint templates at SlideModel that animate objects and text elements for emphasis while retaining a clear layout.

As visible from the animated sequence from the Animation Pane in the image below, the slide deck uses animated text boxes with a mix of other slide elements to create a sequence where a four-step diagram is highlighted with supported text to help elaborate each part of the diagram in an animated sequence. We can add, remove, or modify the included effects via the Animation Pane.

Balancing Text Animations for Impact

By balancing text animations, you can have maximum impact when highlighting content for your slides. The animations can be triggered to start simultaneously to reveal all the text after a sequence of objects, before objects appear, or one by one to reveal the diagram contents gradually.

Animating Images, Shapes, and Charts

When animating shapes and images, you can use a variety of animation types for entrance, exit, and emphasis, and to make the content pop out. However, charts require subtle animations, and it’s best to use basic effects to reveal charts, such as Appear and Disappear .

The Animated Network Diagram PowerPoint Template is an example of how to animate shapes.

The template’s title slide reveals shapes and icons in the form of a diagram in an animated sequence.

You can also include images in such a template to customize the given diagram and animate it to reveal the image simultaneously or after a set of objects has already been revealed.

If you are including a chart in your slide that is to be animated, make sure the animation corresponds to other elements that might also be animated. For example, you can trigger the chart to be revealed after the slide title with a simple Appear effect. In such a case, the chart can be displayed altogether or gradually, in animated form.

Applying Object Animations Strategically

When placing slide objects, you must apply the animations strategically to avoid revealing information out of sequence. Furthermore, it is also worth considering how your effects appear. For example, in the image of the diagram below, would you prefer the diagram to appear floating upward or downward? Such considerations and other vital elements, such as your branding needs, are important to ponder when setting your animated sequence.

Enhancing Presentation Flow with Transitions

While Animations for PowerPoint are one way of making your slides engaging, PowerPoint Transitions is another. You can access them via the Transitions tab in PowerPoint and apply transitions between slides.

While many legacy transitions provide basic effects when switching between slides, some of the more recent additions to this menu, such as Morph Transition , enable the creation of elaborate animations by using Transitions to animate your slides. The below example shows a slide with the Morph transition, giving an animated effect to the diagram.

Maintaining Coherence Between Slides

When applying Transitions, it is essential to maintain coherence between slides by ensuring they don’t overlap with any added Animations. To do this, you should preview your slide deck to see how it might appear once all the animated effects have been included in your slides. Like PowerPoint Animations, you can also use Effect Options for Transitions to set a sequence or direction that best suits your needs.

Layering for Complex Animation Effects

Using layers of multiple objects and slides can easily create advanced animation effects. This can be done using not only PowerPoint animations but also transitions. The Animated Pendulum Swing PowerPoint Templates from the SlideModel archive of animated templates use Transitions like Morph to create animated sequences. The below example shows a swinging pendulum created using Morph.

Combining and Triggering Animations

Depending on the number of elements within a slide and the animations used, you can use triggers to customize and set sequences for slide elements to animate. The example below shows the selected pendulum’s various linking options for the on-click trigger. By placing your slide objects to be connected and triggered with different parts of your slide, you can create and customize animated sequences that can be pretty attention-grabbing. 

PowerPoint Animation Painter

If you thought you had to start from scratch to animate each slide of your presentation, you are sorely mistaken. Much like the Format Painter option in PowerPoint, we can find Animation Painter , which is accessible via the Ribbon under the Advanced Animation control options.

This tool helps us duplicate animations between elements of the same slide or copy animation effects from one slide to another. As a format copying tool, it requires at least one animation effect to be placed otherwise the option is grayed out.

Creative Experimentation

Experimenting with Animations in PowerPoint can be pretty helpful to avoid making monotonous presentations. Experimentation does not necessarily require making slides from scratch, but you can also use ready-made templates such as the 3D animation PowerPoint Templates at SlideModel. Alternatively, some slide deck templates offer a considerable range of animation effects intended for maximum audience engagement, which users can quickly customize by editing placeholder areas for text, images, and logos.

Below is a list of do’s and don’ts of PowerPoint Animations for making presentations that best use animated effects.

Maintain Animation Moderation

It is essential to maintain moderation when using animations, as the use of too many animations on a single slide or presentation can make the content confusing.

Use of Appropriate Animations

Try to use appropriate animations for slide objects. The animation should suitably show if the object is to enter, exit, be emphasized, or be highlighted using a motion path.

Avoid Animation Overload

Avoid flashy animated sequences unless your presentation is meant for an audience that might find engaging, such as children in a classroom session.

Subtle can be Just as Engaging

Sometimes, subtle animations can be just as engaging as an animation with an elaborate effect. This can, in fact, be a better option than using animations that might be visually overpowering or difficult to follow due to elaborate effects.

Ensure Visual Consistency

As discussed earlier, it is vital to maintain consistency in using animated effects. Be it Animations or Transitions, using flashy effects or too many diverse effects can hurt how the audience perceives your content, as it might become confusing, visually overpowering, or unprofessional. In such a case, the audience might quickly lose interest in the presentation, leading to Death by PowerPoint.

Less is More

The design language of visual designs over the past decade or more has been intended to use fewer effects and graphical elements with ample space to make the interface look clean. Be it Modern UI or Material design apps, this design language has been evident across desktop and mobile UIs. Using the same concept, you can design your slides with fewer animations and graphical elements to make your content more visually appealing.

Turning PowerPoints into Millions

Courtney Allen, a professional PowerPoint designer who came out of a BFA in graphic design from Boise State University, had all but PowerPoint as a part of her portfolio. She started her freelancing career via Upwork, making over a thousand PowerPoints for clients, bringing in as many as $2 million. She suggests using simple designs and animations to make the most out of PowerPoint presentations. 

Guy Kawasaki Pitch Deck

Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee, whose famous 10-slide pitch deck has inspired a variety of PowerPoint templates. This rule was designed for startups and business presentations, focusing on pitching a concept to investors. While this isn’t directly related to using animations in presentations, it is an example of making the best use of minimalist content in a few slides. You can learn more about the Guy Kawasaki pitch deck from our article about the 10/20/30 rule for PowerPoint presentations .

How not to use an Animated PowerPoint Presentation in Court! 

Presentations with animations aren’t always a great idea. In 2014, a court in the United States criticized a PowerPoint presentation by the prosecutor, which led to the court throwing the case out. The presentation was made with sound effects and animations, with flashy elements like the bullseye. Some of the significant mistakes made by the prosecutor included ‘visual advocacy,’ where the defendant was marked with the word ‘guilt’ in the slide deck. Not to mention, the animated presentation seemed to be aimed at influencing the court using visual aids. Something that did not sit well with the court.

Use of PowerPoint by the US Military

The US Military has often been accused of Death by PowerPoint for preparing what some call the worst PowerPoint slides ever created. The issue became so profound that in 2011, it was revealed that an executive communications manager at Microsoft, Dave Karle, was tasked with ensuring that the US military could finally start using the software properly. After discussions with top military officials, an updated military presentation method was created, consisting of a number of presentation templates, tips, and graphics and more than 6000 map symbols. 

In this section, you can check some ready-made templates that can be easily customized for your presentation’s purposes. All these templates feature professionally made animation effects with native PowerPoint tools.

1. Multi-Purpose Animated PowerPoint Slide Deck

Those looking for how to animate in PowerPoint now have a ready-made solution to create mind-blowing presentations in a couple of minutes. This slide deck contains 26 slides in a broad selection of topics. We can present facts, introduce our team, our company, display charts with animated effects, and so much more. Check it out now!

Use This Template

2. Animated 8-Step Social Media Carousel PowerPoint Template

Bring dynamism to your social media posts by implementing this vivid social media carousel template. With eye-catching animated effects, this template emulates the typical carousel posts we can find on platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram.

3. Problem Solving Animated PowerPoint Template

Bring professional graphics to troubleshooting sessions with your team. This template, filled with PowerPoint animations, offers a user-friendly approach to conventional problem-solving situations in which the team has to observe the Issue Matrix, suggest possible solutions, and prepare an implementation plan and its corresponding process flow diagram. Thanks to its high-quality animation effects, the speaker can introduce the facts individually, without diverting attention from the speech.

4. Animated Company Profile Presentation Template for PowerPoint

We’ve seen this template as one of the examples of animations for PowerPoint. It is a 21-slide solution offering all the tools required for a corporate-styled company profile presentation, specifically tailored for service businesses.

5. Corporate Company Profile Animated PowerPoint Template

An alternative option for company profile presentations, featuring a minimalistic graphic layout with a broad variety of animation effects. Check these 12 slides and customize them with information relevant to your organization – we bring complex animation effects in a ready-made format. Colors and placeholder images can also be replaced.

6. Animated Roadmap PowerPoint Template

Bring more action to any planning meeting using this animated PowerPoint roadmap template. After a clear path overview, each milestone slide contains animation effects to introduce relevant information to the topic. It is a new take on traditional roadmap presentations that allows the speaker to pace themselves regarding how to disclose the information about the strategy to embark on.

7. Animated Pros & Cons Comparison Slide Template for PowerPoint

We mentioned the advantages of using PowerPoint animations to discuss contrasting values of a situation. Well, this animated Pros & Cons slide is the ideal tool for that purpose, offering a generalist view, then two accompanying slides for Pros & Cons, respectively, with animated effects to introduce additional information per point.

Using animations to make visually appealing and engaging presentations requires ensuring that your content corresponds with your added animated effects. It is always best to use animations in moderation and to keep your slides minimalist while unleashing your creativity as a presenter. Using ready-made PowerPoint templates can also help give you a good starting point to begin experimenting with animations and effects. This can also be useful for people new to PowerPoint Animations to explore what is doable with an animated slide deck, using animated sequences tailored for customization. 

Whether you’re using an animated template or making one from scratch, a preview in slideshow mode can save you a lot of trouble with potential issues tied to animated effects. Last but not least, using animations in PowerPoint isn’t always necessary, and you can even go for a simple slide deck with a handful of slides. What matters is that you should be aware of the information being presented, and the visual aids should be just to aid your slides and not meant to be the whole package on their own.

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• Slide Design Fundamentals
• Presentation Fundamentals
• App Tips & Tricks

PowerPoint Animation Tutorial (2022) – Step-by-Step

July 27, 2022

Introduction

Animation in your slide deck is a great way to add visual interest. And when done well it can WOW your audience. This in-depth, step-by-step tutorial covers how to animate in PowerPoint showing the fundamentals of adding and modifying animations and then demonstrates advanced strategies like customizing timings, adding triggers, using morph, and creating animations with 3D objects.

Types of Animation Effects

Before you begin applying animation in PowerPoint, it helps to know how they are categorized and how these categories affect the function of the animation. These categories or types are also referred to as effects.

The first effect category is Enter. With this animation objects are not visible initially and appear based on a specific action by the presenter like a click of a mouse.

The second effect category is Emphasis. Here an object is visible on the slide and will animate to draw attention to it such as pulse.

The third effect category is Exit. Here an object is visible on the slide and then will exit from view based on an action like a mouse click.

Adding an animation

To apply an animation on a slide you need at least one object on the slide. An object is any type of content that can be added to a slide such as a shape, text, icon, picture, etc. In this example, I’ll use a shape on blank slide. The location of the object will be where the animation either ends or begins. You want to select the object. Click the Animations tab and click the animation you want to apply. You can scroll through the gallery or click the small drop-down arrow to display more options all at once. When you select an animation, the object will show what the animation looks like. You can also use the Preview button on the Animations tab to see what the animation looks like. You will notice that the object now has a small box with a number next to it. That is a visual indicator noting an animation has been applied to the object. The number indicates the order the animations occur if you have more than one object animating on the slide. In Windows if you select a new animation from the gallery, it will override the previous selection. For instance, if I apply an Emphasis animation the Enter fly-in is replaced. The same with applying an Exit Fly-out the Emphasis effect is replaced. To remove an animation, just choose None in the Gallery.

Some animations like the Fly In are pre-set to animate from a specific direction. To change the direction, click the Effects Option button after applying the animation. From the drop-down options choose the direction you want. If the Effects Option isn’t active, then that effect you selected can’t be changed in any way.

Motion Path animation

The next effect I want to touch on is the Motion Path option. You can choose a basic effect like moving in a straight line. Or something highly custom like drawing your own path. With the Motion Path, the small green dot is the starting point, and the red dot is the ending location. To extend the path, you can drag and drop the red dot to a new spot on the slide. With motion path the animation possibilities are quite extensive, especially if you use it with other effects.

Applying an animation to similar objects

If you have several objects that you want to add animation to, here are some strategies I use to save time. If you want to animation multiples of the same object in the same way first add the shape then add the animation to that shape and then press Control D to duplicate that shape.

Rearrange as needed and you will notice that all of the objects have a number indicator next to them. The different numbers indicate the order the objects will animate. Let's click the Preview button to see what it looks like.

Copying the shape and pasting is another option Either on the same slide or another slide. To copy either use Control C, Right-click and copy, or click the Copy button on the Home tab. Then paste either using Control V, Right-click and paste, or click the Paste button on the Home tab. Just like with Duplicate, there is an indication number.

If you want the same object to animation on a different slide, you can duplicate the slide Select the slide in the Thumbnail Pressing Control D or Right-click and choose Duplicate

Looking at the second slide, you can see the object has an animation indicator I will change the object's color so you can see what it looks like. I'll go into Presentation Mode and here is what the animation looks like.

If you have several different objects and you want them all to have the same animation, you have a couple of options. You can select them all. And click the animation type in the Animations tab. You will see they all have the same animation indicator next to them. As the Preview shows, this option sets the animation for all objects to start at the same time.

You can also use the Animation Painter. Once you’ve added an animation to an object, select it. Click the Animation Painter button. Then click on the object you want to apply the animation to.

With this option, it sets the animations to start one after the other. If you double click the Painter option, you can apply the animation to multiple objects without having to click the Painter button for each object.

Adjusting Start, Duration, and Delay

Once you’ve added an animation to an object, often the next step is modifying the timing of the animation. To the far right on the animation tab, there are three timing settings: Start, Duration, and Delay.

Modifying Start

The Start timing determines how the animation will start. The default is On Click. So when you click your mouse the animation begins.

The next option is With Previous. The object with this setting will animate at the same time as the previous animation. In this example the Triangle animates with the circle.

The third start setting is After Previous. Here an object animates after the previous animation is complete. In this example the triangle animates once the circle animation is done.

Changing Duration

The next timing is the Duration or speed of the animation. The default setting is typically Very Fast at half a second (0.5). You can use the up and down arrows to speed up or slow down the animation by quarter intervals. Or you can type in the duration.

In this example, you can see the Triangle fly in is much slower than the previous examples. As a side note, the duration can’t be changed for some animations.

Adding Delay

The last timing is Delay. This a slightly more advanced setting and this setting delays the start of an animation. The default setting is zero. Meaning there is no delay. In the example, the Triangle is set to start after previous with a one second delay.

Applying Multiple Animations

Now that you know how to modify a single animation, we can move on to apply multiple animations to one object. As I mentioned in Video 1 of this 3-part series, clicking a different animation in the gallery replaces the previous animation.

In this example, I will set the object to fly-in, pulse, and then fly-out. Do do this, I select the object. I choose the Fly in animation. Then I click the Add Animation button. Choose Pulse as an emphasis. I'll add the third animation, clicking the Add animation button and then choosing Fly-out. And the Preview shows what that will look like.

In Video 1 of this series, I demonstrated the Animation Painter, when you have multiple animations, this option comes in handy.

Using the Animation Pane

Once you start adding multiple animations to objects, using the Animation Pane can help you keep track. To display the pane either click the Animations Pane button or click one of the animation indicators by an object.

From the animation pane, you can see the order of the animations. They are listed from beginning to end. A mouse means it is an On Click start animation. No icon means that it is set to With Previous. And a clock indicates that the Start is After Previous.

The color of the star indicates the type of effect: green for enter, yellow for emphasis, and red for exit. If you can’t see color very well, the lines Indicate whether it is an Enter, an Emphasis, or an Exit.

If you want to change the order of the animations, you can use the up and down arrows. Or just drag and drop. You can select more than one by holding down the Shift key and then moving them all at the same time.

Deleting animations from the Animation Pane is quite easy. Select the animation and press the Delete key.

The animation pane also shows the timeline of the animations. The placement of the bar on the timeline indicates when the animation begins and end. You can drag and drop the bar to change the delay. You can resize the bar to change the duration of the animation.

Effects and Timing Dialog Box

When you mouse over or select an animation, To the far right of each animation is a small down arrow. Clicking the arrow provides options to show more settings for the effects and timings. Let’s take a look.

You will notice there are three tabs Effect, Timing, and Text Animation The added options in the Effects tab, is that you can add a Dim after animation setting. I usually apply this to content that I have as part of a list. So, when I am done discussing one bullet point, I dim that option and then display the next option.

If you don’t want to apply an exit animation, you can also make content disappear right after the animation or hide on the next mouse click.

The Timing tab, provides the same options as on the Animation tab for Start, Duration, and Delay.

You can also add a repeat loop. You can set specific times or until the next animation or until the end of the slide show. The speed of the animation will determine how the effect looks such as a rapid pulse or slow flash.

The trigger setting lets you set an On Click to a specific object. When you click the object with your mouse, it activates the animation for a different object. This differs from a typical On Click animation because the object itself must be clicked for the animation to work.

To do this, apply each animation to the specific object Then select the animation in animation pane Click the trigger button in the Animations tab and choose the object from the menu options Repeat this process for each object.

Renaming objects in the Selection Pane helps if you have several objects to trigger. One reason I like this option, is because it allows me to animate in any order.

Text Animation Strategies

With all of the examples so far, I’ve worked with shapes and other objects. Text can be animated just like any other object on the slide. But here are some things to keep in mind.

Selecting the text box will animate each line separately Selecting all of the text in the text box will animate all of the text at once. To change the setting, highlight the line or lines and change the Start to On Click. Selecting each paragraph or line in a bullet and then choosing your effect, will animate each line separately.

Morph Transition

A more advanced animation people like to use is called morphing. Within PowerPoint, morphing is a transition and not an animation. That means you apply the effect to the entire slide and not an individual object. Morphing as its name implies is an object that is changed into something different. This can be a simple effect like moving and changing in color.

For this effect, I will duplicate the slide with the circle. On the second slide I’ll move the circle to the right side and changed the color fill. With the second slide selected in the thumbnail pane, I click the Transitions tab and select Morph.

The Preview shows you what it'll look like. As you can see, unlike a fly in type of animation, the object appears to be changing with a slight fade.

Advanced Morph Transition

An advanced morph transition can be used to make an object change into a different object. Like this example of a circle morphing into a star. To apply an advanced morph, create the two slides with the different objects.

Before applying the transition to the second slide, open the Selection Pane. Select the object on the first slide, then click the Selection Pane button either on the Home tab or in the Shape Format tab.

Within the Selection Pane, you can rename objects to help keep track of multiple objects. For this animation to work, the objects on each slide need to have the same name starting with 2 exclamation points. I will rename this object to !!morph1. And copy the name. And then press Enter to set the new name of the object.

Now I need to select the second slide. In the Selection Pane, double click in the name of the star object. And paste in the name of the first object. Then I will press Enter to set the new name.

Now with the second slide selected, I can apply the Morph transition. And it will show what the morph will looks like. This is one of my favorite tricks to add some pizazz to a slide deck.

Animating 3D objects

The last animation I want to show you is animating a 3D object, like this example. Many people aren’t aware that they have access to 3D objects within their 365 subscription.

To add a 3D object, click the Insert tab. Then click the 3D object button and choose from Stock 3D Models. Or if you have a model on your device, choose that option. Search and select the object you want. In this example, I will insert a Monarch Butterfly.

To view the different sides of the model, click the center button with the multiple arrows. And then just drag your mouse to view the object. With the model selected, click the Animations Tab. And you'll notice that the Gallery now has 3D animations added.

These will be cubes with arrows around them. For this example, I will use the turntable effect. With the Effects option button, I can make some adjustments like the direction and amount of spine as well as the spin axis.

Using the Morph transition with a 3D object can add an extra visual element. Using the butterfly again, I will duplicate the slide. For the first slide, I will delete the turntable animation and change it to top view.

On the second slide I will keep the side view and the turntable animation. Then I will apply the Morph transition to the second slide. The preview shows the butterfly smoothly transitions from the top view to the side view. and then the turntable animation begins.

About the Author

Jennifer Sharkey is known as the Virtual Presentation Specialist. Being passionate about seeing people shine and be heard, she leans into her 20+ years of public speaking experience and uses what she has learned from presenting, both in-person and virtually, to small groups all the way up to 5000 people. Jennifer draws from her experience as an associate professor, academic librarian, and coach to help holistic coaches master virtual presentations to grow their business. Her unique immersive program provides practical strategies and methods to build confidence, engage audiences, and generate authenticity and authority.

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Ultimate Guide to PowerPoint Animations: Tutorials, Templates, Tips & Tricks

Animations in powerpoint.

We have put together a massive collection of resources for PowerPoint Animations. This includes free & premium tips, tricks, tutorials and templates that you can access online to polish your slides and engage your audience.

We will cover both Custom Animations and Transitions feature in PowerPoint. This includes the new Morph Transition introduced in PowerPoint for Office 365

About PowerPoint Custom Animations

Custom Animation is a useful feature in PowerPoint. You can use it to add interaction to your slides and make the presentation more engaging for your audience. Almost any element in your slide - text, photos, graphs, shapes, audio and video can be animated.  

You can add PowerPoint animations to any of these elements in just three steps: (1) Select the object to animate (2) apply an animation, and (3) customize the effects.

Let us see how to apply animation to different parts of a presentation.

Custom animation, when used correctly can enhance the effectiveness of your message in your business presentations. #PowerPoint #Tips

4 Types of Animations 

PowerPoint offers 4 types of Animations:

• Entrance animation: Animations to make elements enter the slide.
• Exit Animation : Animations to make elements exit the slide.
• Emphasis Animation :   Animations to highlight elements on the slide and direct attention
• Motion Path Animation : Animations that make elements on the slide move from one place to another along predefined paths. 

You can add more than one animation to the same object. With this feature, it is possible to create a variety of custom animations to suit your specific requirement.

Animation can help make a PowerPoint presentation more dynamic, and the information more memorable. The most common types of animation effects include entrances and exits. 

Learn how to set up basic animations with these tutorials on Microsoft website. 

[Basic] Add Animations in PowerPoint 2016

In this easy to follow video, learn how to add animation in PowerPoint 2016. This video shows how to get started and is a primer.

Customizing Animation Effects

Once you add an animation to an object, PowerPoint offers further options to customize the animation. Each Animation effect can be controlled using the following additional settings:

Option 1: Preview Animations

Animations in PowerPoint can be normally viewed only in Slideshow mode. So if you want to preview the animations you added on a slide, PowerPoint allows you to view them using the Preview option.

Option 2: Effect Options

Some effects in PowerPoint like Fly In have additional options available. For example, Fly In animation can be set to Flyin from Left, Right, Top or Bottom of the slide. 

In addition to this, text animation can be further set to: As One Object, All at One or By Paragraph.

Option 3: Advanced Animation Effects

These options help you fine tune your animation further. You can: 

Add Animation: Add more animation effects to an object

Animation Pane: View Animation Pane to view list of animations applied on the slide and modify them.

Trigger:   Start animation on a trigger like on click of a button/text etc. to make your slide more interactive.

Animation Painter: This lesser known tool can be used to copy all the animations applied to one object and "paint" or replicate the animation to another object. This is a very useful tool to reduce the time taken to create animation effects.

Option 4: Animation Timing

The Animation timing tools allow you to control when and how the animations play. 

Start: Animations can start On Click, With Previous and After Previous

Duration: Controls how long the animation should play for. 

Delay: This feature controls how long after the previous animation the current animation should be played.

Reorder Animation: When the Animation Pane is open, you can reorder the animations and move them up or down with these tools.

5. About Animation Pane

The Animation Pane provides the list of all the animations applied to a slide in once place. You can do the following actions in the Pane:

• Change the Start option
• Edit the Effect options
• Change the Timings
• Remove the animations 
• Preview the animations

You can find out more about Animation Panes in this post from Tutsplus .

How To Preview Animations

When you put together a slide with multiple animation effects, you need to preview the animation periodically. Going to Slideshow mode every time takes a lot of time. In this video, you will find some quick ways to preview animations. All the options shared in this video allow you to preview the animation in the slide itself.

Text Animation Effects

PowerPoint animations are useful for text or bullet lists. You can make each point in your list appear one at a time as you present it.  In this section we'll explore some basic and advanced ways to present text.

Animations to Bullet Lists

When you present a list of bullet points, you can add animations to make each point exit the slide, after you finish covering it.  This post from Techrepublic shows how to add an exit strategy to bullet points in a slide. 

[Easy] Useful Animation Tricks for Bullet Points

Learn 3 useful PowerPoint Text animation tricks in the video below. The tricks you will learn are: 1. How to animate a bullet point list one by one 2. How to dim a bullet point after it is animated 3. How to make a bullet point disappear after the animation PLUS How to animate bullet points in reverse order These PowerPoint animation effects should help you make your next presentation more effective.

[Advanced] Animation Effect for Text 

Learn how to create a realistic looking effect of a hand writing text in PowerPoint. The animation looks like it was created by whiteboard animation software like Videoscribe. This popular video by Presentation Process has over 1200 Likes and 134K views. 

Find these videos useful? Please subscribe to Presentation Process YouTube channel for more:

Most people use animation only to make the bullet points appear one after another. Some advanced users make the points dim after animation. There is so much more to animation than this basic feature. In the following sections we'll see some advanced and creative uses of Animations in PowerPoint.

Picture Animation Effects

In this section you will find some creative ways to animate slides with photos. This includes photos in jpeg or png format as well as vector images in EMF, WMF or SVG format.

You can find video tutorials on how to animate Pictures and Shapes on Microsoft website.

[Advanced]  PowerPoint Zoom Animation

Sometimes when you present large pictures in your business presentation, you may be required to zoom in to your pictures to show the details. In such a situation this PowerPoint zoom effect comes in handy. You can use the animation effect to zoom into a certain step in a large multi step process, or you can use this custom animation trick to zoom in on an individual in a large group photo or zoom in on a country in a large world map etc.

[Advanced]  PowerPoint Animation to Create Videoscribe Effect

Learn to create an interesting Videoscribe effect with PowerPoint Animation within a few seconds. The effect you will learn is to have a base image and to animate it so that it looks like someone is completing a drawing on the slide. This is a great way to add engagement to your training slides.

If you would like to follow this tutorial, you can download a similar image here .

This kind of animation can be done with any wmf or emf file and can be used to explain business concepts like planning and execution or explanation of a step by step process.

Shapes & SmartArt  Animations

Autoshapes in PowerPoint can be used to create visuals for your presentation. In this section, we will see how to animate Autoshapes as well as SmartArt.

[Easy]  PowerPoint Timeline Animation

Learn to create a beautiful Animated PowerPoint Timeline Infographic with this step by step tutorial. Grab your audience attention with this easy to design slide with custom animation effect.

[Easy]  PowerPoint Animation for SmartArt Objects

When you add animation to a SmartArt graphic in PowerPoint , initially the entire graphic gets animated. But PowerPoint does provide some control over animating SmartArt shapes. To learn how to animate a SmartArt graphic with more control read this post on Indezine .

You can also see the process of animating a SmartArt diagram with the tutorial video below. The diagram we will be using is a core diagram with a circle relationship from the inbuilt PowerPoint SmartArt

The type of diagrams you can create and the animations you can apply, are only limited by your imagination. 

Watch the video above to know more

Creative Slide Design & Animation

Design 25 beautiful Slides to impress your boss & clients – using PowerPoint Tips & Tricks. Save time and improve your workflow efficiency. Suited for Beginner and Intermediate PowerPoint users.

Chart  Animations

Most business presentations have charts included in them. Many times PowerPoint charts can be overwhelming for the audience.  The reason for their overwhelm is - too much information hitting them too soon. If you learn to sequence the way you present your numbers, you make it easy for your business audience to understand your PowerPoint presentation.

This video in Microsoft support site  shows how to add animations to Charts and SmartArt. 

[Easy]  Guide to PowerPoint Chart Animation

Learn to animate your charts like a pro. In this short video tutorial, you will find how to apply custom animation to your PowerPoint charts and present information at your own pace.

[Easy]  Animate Excel in PowerPoint

Many presenters have the habit of creating charts in Excel first and then again in PowerPoint. This video shows how you can simply copy an existing chart from Excel and animate it to present your information clearly and in sequence.

Adding Interactivity 

PowerPoint animations has a trigger feature which can be used to add interactivity to your slides. These are specially useful for training and e-learning presentations.

Hyperlinks and Triggers

Triggers are like an internal hyperlink on your slide. The person viewing the presentation can control what happens next. This is useful for building multiple choice quizzes. This post from Brightcarbon provides an overview of setting up triggers & hyperlinks.

Creating Simple & Interactive PowerPoint Animated Slide

Engage your audience in training and information presentation with this beautiful slide. The slide has 4 images. On clicking on an image, the description or details relevant to that image appears next to it.

Creating Interactive Buzzers with Sound in PowerPoint

Make your training more engaging and interesting with this creative PowerPoint idea. Follow this step by step tutorial video to create an interactive PowerPoint buzzer with sound effects. You can use this buzzer to run a quiz in your classroom.

45 PowerPoint Quiz Templates Pack

Create excitement & make learning fun with games in your classroom! Gamify your classroom & generate excitement with Ready To Use PowerPoint Quiz Templates.  

Quiz templates for any type of training: Corporate Training, Universities, Schools or Freelance Training. Includes complete instructions for customizing & playing each game

Video Animation Effects

You can insert and play videos in PowerPoint. You can insert these videos from YouTube, from your PC or Storage location like OneDrive.   This tutorial in Microsoft website covers how to insert video and audio in PowerPoint.

[Easy]  Insert YouTube Video in PowerPoint

Learn how to embed an online video into your next presentation. It is a fairly straightforward option in PowerPoint 2016.

[Advanced]  PowerPoint Movie Magic with Videos, Text and Animations 

Create PowerPoint Movie Magic by using the combo of videos, text and animations. Use this technique to create slides that engage your audience. The presentation shows a car moving along a road. The windshield wiper moves across the screen. Text appears and fades away in sync with the movement of the windshield wiper. We will use the Video Bookmark option, Text Entrance and Exit Animations, and Trigger animations options to create this effect.

Using Transitions Effectively

Slide transitions are the visual movements where one slide changes into another during a presentation. They add to the professional appearance of the slideshow in general and can draw attention to specific important slides. To know how to apply and remove transitions,  read this post on Lifewire.

[Easy]  5 Tricks to Use Transition Effects in PowerPoint

Learn how to use PowerPoint slide transition effects in an interesting way to make your presentations creative.

[Advanced]  The Power of Dynamic Pan Transition Effect

Sometimes the information you want to present spreads beyond one slide. For example, an excel spreadsheet you stuck on the slide has too many columns to fit into one slide.  A map you placed on the slide is too big to be shown on one slide. If you force yourself to show the image in one page (by shrinking the size of the map), the details get too small to be clearly visible to the audience in the last row.

Learn an easy trick to overcome this situation with the video below:

Using Morph Transition 

PowerPoint Morph is a revolutionary feature available for Office 365 users. It eliminates the need for complex animation. Technically speaking, PowerPoint Morph is a transition, but in reality it can be widely used a substitute/enhancement for complex animation. Read this post from Efficiency365 for a quick overview  of this feature.

[Easy]  Animated Roadmap with Morph Transition

Learn to create an interesting animated roadmap that looks like a video. We use the PowerPoint 2016 ( Office 365 ) Morph Transition feature to create this effect. You can use this type of roadmap or timeline in almost any kind of presentation. Engage your audience by explaining and revealing the steps one by one. Link for Roadmap Image

[Advanced]  How Morph Transition Can Replace   Animation

In this video you will find how to use PowerPoint Morph Transition to replace Custom Animations. See how this can be done with this example of a slide with multiple pictures with text. You'll find how to mimic PowerPoint animation with Morph Transition and create the slides very quickly.

If you would like to learn about Morph Transition, PowerPoint Designer and other such features available in PowerPoint for Office 365, checkout the course below...

Complete PowerPoint Foundation Course

Master Fundamentals of PowerPoint from scratch. From Basics to Advanced. Includes special section on features of PowerPoint 365:

• 13.5 hours on-demand video
• For beginner & advanced users
• Online Access: Full lifetime access
• Practice Activities: Assignments & Quizzes

Animated PowerPoint Templates

Animations take time to visualize and create. You can save time by using ready to use PowerPoint Templates. In this section you will find resources and links for Animated PowerPoint Templates.

PowerPoint comes with some animated 3D templates. This includes sparkling picture frames, lively photograph albums, 3-D rotating photos, and elegant transitions between images. 

This page on Microsoft support site provides the link and details.

You can find more free animated PowerPoint Templates including for physics presentations at Presentation Magazine website. 

While these free templates are a good resource for student and non-critical presentations, business & training presentations require professional and creative animation effects. 

Ready-to-Use Professional Animation Templates

The 750+ Advanced PowerPoint Animation Templates Pack is specifically created for use in training and business presentations. It includes advanced animations for text, lists, pictures, concepts and metaphors. You can preview some of the templates from this pack below:

Animations for Bullet Points, Agenda, Terms & Definitions

Animations for Timelines, Roadmaps & Process Flows

Source:  750+ Advanced PowerPoint Animation Templates Pack

Animations for Pictures and Lists

Animations for Concepts, Metaphors, Business Ideas

And More Professionally Animated Templates to Engage Your Audience...

Make Your Presentations More Engaging without Spending Hours struggling with PowerPoint Animations...

Download 750+ Advanced PowerPoint Animation Templates Pack. Tell your story with 750+ Ready to Use & Easy to Customize Powerful Animations in PowerPoint. 

Pramod Naik

Ceo, tianjin tianshi india pvt ltd.

These ready to use animated slides are very classy and ready to use , these are very thoughtfully done .

When I have to put a point across to the team or to a larger audience , these slides greatly benefit me to make my slides sharper and to the point … one just has to visualize as to what is that you need to share to the audience and how , if you can visualize , you are bound to find that slide in this pack , if not similar , better . Secondly when you scan through the slides , the way they are made you also get ideas as to what to share to the team and audience .

Tips for Professional Animation

Here are some quick tips when using PowerPoint Animations. These will help you save time and create your animations more professionally. 

[Tip]  How to remove Custom Animations from All Slides in 1 click

When you don't want any custom animation at all in your presentation - how do you go about it? Usually you will have to go to every single slide and remove the animations. However if you wish to have on-click control on whether animations are present or now - then use this trick and get complete control over your slides!

5 Irritating Ways to Use Custom Animation

Some presenters have the habit of applying animations the wrong way. Such animations have no purpose and end up irritating the audience. Watch the video below to learn the common mistake presenters make when using custom animations feature. 

Time-Saving Tip: Using Animation Painter

Animations take a lot of time to create. Learn how to easily reuse animations applied to an object using Animation Painter tool. This video is part of the bonus tutorial videos provided with purchase of Advanced Animations Pack. 

Good PowerPoint animation makes your audience focus on the message not the animation.

Turn Presentations Into Videos

When you make a recording of a presentation, all its elements (narration, animation, pointer movements, timings, and so on) are saved in the presentation itself. In essence, the presentation becomes a video that your audience can watch in PowerPoint.  Learn the step by step process in this Microsoft support article .

[Easy]  Convert PowerPoint to Video

In this tutorial, you will find how to use save your PowerPoint file as a video. When you save the file as a video, all the animations and transitions you have used will get saved along with the file.  You would use this option of saving your presentation as videos to: - Showcase photos in a video format online/ offline - Summary or review of keys points in a presentation or training - Create a booth or kiosk presentation etc.

Free Ultimate Guide to PowerPoint Animations for tutorials, tips & more. #PowerPoint #Presentations

More Ideas for PowerPoint Animation

How to create sparkling text effect for pictures.

Learn to create a Sparkling Text Effect in PowerPoint with this step by step tutorial. You can use this effect for title animation or to highlight an important quote in a presentation.

How to create Clock Needle Animation effect

Learn how to Create Clock Needle Animation Effect in PowerPoint 2013 This is a useful animation effect to show a list, agenda items, steps in a process and more. 

Create Motion Graphics with Animation

Learn how to convert Static Pictures into Animated images in PowerPoint. Tell your story with creatively animated PowerPoint slides. The effect looks like motion graphics created in an advanced software. However, this effect uses simple custom animation effects that you can follow in any version of PowerPoint. 

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How to Move an Object Across a PowerPoint Slide During a Slide Show

Move an Object Across a PowerPoint Slide Using Motion Path or Entrance Animations

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated May 28, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft ® PowerPoint ® 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365 (Windows)

You can move a shape, image or other object across a PowerPoint slide during a slide show using motion path or entrance animations. When you run a slide show, the object will move across the screen (on click or automatically).

Recommended article: How to Print PowerPoint Presentations with Notes

Do you want to learn more about PowerPoint?  Check out our virtual classroom or live classroom  PowerPoint courses >

To apply animations, use the Animations tab in the Ribbon:

You can use entrance or motion path animations to move an object across a slide but you'll need to expand the Animations Gallery to access motion path animations.

If you want to apply more than one animation to an object, you will need to use Add Animation in the Advanced Animation group.

Animations are typically added to objects in Normal View but can be applied in Slide Master View.

Adding a motion path animation to make an object move across a slide

To apply a motion path animation to make an object move across a slide on click:

• Select an object. For text objects, click in the text box or placeholder or click its edge.
• Click the Animations tab in the Ribbon.
• In the Animations group, click the More down arrow on the bottom right of the Animations Gallery.
• Click the Line motion path animation in the Motion Paths group. If you click More Motion Paths, you can choose another motion path animation such as Funnel. For some motion paths, such as Custom Path, drag on the slide to create the path and then double-click to end it (see below for more information on custom paths).
• Click Effect Options on the Animations tab and select a direction such as Up, Down, Left or Right. Effect Options change depending on the type of animation.
• Click the motion path and drag the starting point (green dot or green arrow) or ending point (red dot or red arrow) to change the beginning or end of the path. The starting point begins in the middle of the object and the ending point ends in the middle of the object. In 2013 and later versions, a "ghost copy" of the object at its ending location appears on screen. You can drag the "ghost copy" to change the end point of the path.
• Drag the sizing handles (white circles) to resize the path.

The expanded Animations Gallery appears when you click the More down arrow in the Animations group (note the Entrance and Motion Paths categories):

If you select More Motion Paths in the Animation Gallery, the following dialog box appears (scroll down for more options):

You can also apply a motion path animation by clicking Add Animation on the Animations tab in the Advanced Animation group.

Custom paths behave differently from simple line motion paths. Intially, if you click Custom Path, you can drag on the screen to create the path. However, to make straight lines, simply click once at each desired point in the path rather than dragging. If you later want to change to a freeform path, click once again to switch to freeform mode and drag to continue the path. Click once to return to drawing straight lines. When you are finished drawing the path, double-click to end it.

By default, the object will appear on click during a slide show and follow the path.

You can select other motion path options in Effect Options on the Animations tab in the Ribbon:

• Sequence options can be used with some objects such as text boxes or placeholders with multiple bullet points or paragraphs. For example, you can choose to move paragraphs or bullets one at a time or as one object.
• Locked, in the Origin category, can be selected when a motion path is unlocked (which is the default). If the path is unlocked, it will move with the object. If you lock the path or origin, when you move the object, the motion path will remain in the same location. You can unlock a motion path that is locked.
• Edit Points is available for all motion paths except Line. If you select Edit Points, points will appear along the motion path and you can drag them to change the path. You can Ctrl-click a point to delete it or Ctrl-click on the path to add a new point.
• Reverse Path Direction will switch the start and end point of the motion path.

You can also combine motion path animations with other animations like Grow / Shrink using Add Animation.

Adding an entrance animation to make an object move across a slide

To apply an entrance animation to make an object move across a slide on click:

• Click the Fly In entrance animation in the Entrance group. If you click More Entrance Effects, you can choose another animation such as Spiral In or Bounce.
• Click Effect Options on the Animations tab and select a direction such as From Top or From Left.

You can also apply an entrance animation by clicking Add Animation on the Animations tab in the Advanced Animation group.

By default, the object will appear on click during a slide show.

Using the Animation Pane

If you're going to work with animations, it's helpful to display the Animation Pane so you can easily select and edit the animations.

To use the Animation Pane:

• Click Animation Pane in the Advanced Animations group. The Animation Pane appears on the right side of the screen.
• Click the animation in the Animation Pane and then select other options on the Animations tab. You can also click the drop-down menu that appears and select Effect Options.

Changing the way an object starts during a slide show

Animations are set by default to start on click during a slide show. If you want an animation to start automatically, you will need to change the start setting.

To start an animation automatically, you can start:

• After Previous – the animation sequence will begin once a previous animation effect or effects is  completed. The start of a slide show is also a previous effect.
• With Previous – the animation sequence will begin at the same time as a previous animation effect or effects. The start of a slide show is also a previous effect.

To change the way an animation starts during a slide show:

• Select the animation effect in the Animation Pane.
• In the Timing group, select an option from the Start drop-down menu.

Setting timing

When you apply an animation, a timing is automatically set for the animation (in seconds). The default duration is different for each animation effect.

To set a speed or duration of an animation:

• In the Animations group, enter a time (in seconds) for the animation in the Duration area of the Timing group. You can click the up and down arrows to change the duration or type a duration.

Note the Duration on the Animations tab in the Ribbon below:

Viewing animations by running a slide show

You will need to run a slide show in order to see your object(s) move across the slide. Click the Slide Show button on the bottom right of the screen to run a show or press F5 (some users may need to press Fn + F5) to run the slide show from the beginning. Use the right and left arrows to move from slide to slide or start the animations.

In this article, we are using animations to make objects move across a slide. Check out the article How to Use Morph in PowerPoint to Design Engaging Presentations for other ways to make objects move on a slide during a slide show.

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More resources

PowerPoint Slide Show Shortcuts (50+ Shortcuts)

How to Get Design Ideas in PowerPoint Using Designer

How to Insert a Check Mark in PowerPoint (4 Ways with Shortcuts)

How to Use Morph in PowerPoint to Design Engaging Presentations

How to Crop an Image into a Circle in PowerPoint (Crop to Shape Method)

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How to Insert or Type E with an Accent Mark in PowerPoint (È, É, Ê, Ë, è, é, ê, or ë)

You can insert or type e with an accent mark in PowerPoint using built-in tools or keyboard shortcuts (including Alt code shortcuts). The letter e can be inserted with an accent in both upper or lower case in text boxes or placeholders on slides, the slide master or layouts. The following are common accents in upper or lower case – È, É, Ê, Ë, è, é, ê, or ë.

How to Fade a Picture or Part of a Picture in PowerPoint (Using a Gradient)

You can fade a picture in PowerPoint by drawing a rectangle shape on top of the picture and then filling the rectangle with a gradient from opaque to transparent. This technique is often used to fade an image into the background of a slide. Since the rectangle is placed on top of the image and then text may be placed on top of the rectangle, you may need to reorder the objects.

How to Lock an Image, Shape or Other Object in PowerPoint

You can now lock an image, shape or other object in PowerPoint. Objects can be locked in Normal View or Slide Master View. Only PowerPoint 365 users can lock objects to prevent moving and resizing. This is helpful if you want to select and move other objects on the slide or prevent others from moving or resizing an object. You can lock items using the context menu or the Selection Pane.

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• Cross-platform functionality for editing everywhere.

10 Awesome Moving Animation PowerPoint Techniques

An easy yet powerful editor

Numerous effects to choose from

Detailed tutorials provided by the official channel

PowerPoints can be quite dull without anything to spice it up. So, this question is more than 100% warranted. Fortunately, we were able to pull together a tutorial on creating moving animation PowerPoint presentations.

Complete with some templates that you can start off with (if you’d prefer to make it as simple as possible for yourself.)

In this article

Part 1 6 animated powerpoint templates with interactive features.

The default people tend to-go-to when it comes to presentations are videos. As they tend to be more engaging on their own. For that, you’ll see people gravitating towards software like Filmora, which can create beautiful, eye-catching presentations that you can easily and quickly share. Not just to an immediate audience, but also on social media and the like.

However, of course, sometimes a personal touch is important in a presentation — important to have a ‘voice’ attached to the image on the screen. But just because this is the case, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go all out on your presentation. Hence, why moving animation PowerPoint templates are such a big deal:

01 Company Presentation PowerPoint Template

For the first of the Moving Animation PowerPoint templates that we have to introduce, we chose the ‘Company Presentation PowerPoint Template.’ As you can perhaps guess from the name, it’s a very professional template. It comes with a total of 500 sample slides that you can choose from (50 of which are unique), and it’s set up with professional animations that can spice up your presentation without making it look gaudy or over-the-top.

02 Move Animated PowerPoint Template

Next is the modern, minimalistic template called "Move Animated." This one is a lot more versatile, with every single one of the 144 unique slides available suitably animated. The best part of it is definitely the easy way in which it can be used. With the modern, minimalistic style, it’s easy enough to remove the presets and replace them with suitable company or product images to promote your content, idea, or project.

03 40 Animated Conceptual Slides for PowerPoint

Again, we have another modern and minimalistic kind of PowerPoint template with ‘40 Animated Conceptual Slides for PowerPoint.’ It comes with 40 modern slides, all of which come fully animated are easy enough to customize with your own branding or content.

04 UNIGRAPH - Animated & Creative Template (PPTX)

For a bit more fun, our next template is "UNIGRAPH." This still definitely fits the description ‘minimalistic’ but the pop of color and effects that it brings to the table gives it a different kind of vibe from all the others. No less professional, but certainly more fun. Of course, most importantly, perhaps, is the fact that each slide is smoothly animated.

05 Graph & Charts PowerPoint Presentation

For this next one, we introduce a template set called "Graphs & Charts" for those who may want to present their products, projects, ideas, etc. in the shape of graphs and charts. It’s perfect for professionals, certainly. Especially with its clean look, brightened only by occasional pops of color that can be seen from the graphs and charts that it comes with.

06 Laststyle - PowerPoint Template

This next PowerPoint template is most suited for businesses looking to promote their products. The creator of the template has provided five different colored versions of the template, each with 30 unique slides that were carefully sectioned with suitable animations.

Part 2 How to Create a Moving Animation in PowerPoint

Now we come to the point of the article where we speak directly to those who may want to experiment more by personally creating a moving animation PowerPoint . For this example, we’ll be teaching you how to create a path animation PowerPoint with the available tools that the software offers under ‘Animation.’ Stick around if you want to learn more.

01 Step 1. Open Project.

First things first, of course. Start a new project. When you’ve started, move on to the Animation tab (which we’ve pointed out in the image below.)

02 Step 2. Add Animation.

Then, make sure to select the object or model that you want to animate (in this case, we’ve inserted a 2D model of a businessman), and then click the ‘Add Animation’ button (shown in the image below.)

03 Step 3. Choose Animation.

Under ‘Add Animation’ you’ll find several different options for animations that you can choose from. Of course, since our goal is to create a PowerPoint Motion Path Animation , we have selected one of the ‘Motion Path’ options.

04 Step 4. Choose Motion Path Animation

In order to make motion animation in PowerPoint , you must select one of the offered ‘Motion Paths’ (i.e., Bounce, Line, Arcs, etc.) and then use the motion path tool that appears to control the direction you wish to make your character move.

In this example, we chose the ‘Lines’ motion path (1) and then used the line tool to create a path for our businessman model. To walk from the right side of the screen towards the left.

05 Step 5. Adjust Animation.

With path animation PowerPoint complete, you can adjust as needed with the tools provided. For example, you can have the character start moving as soon as the slide opens, or wait until a minute has passed, you can extend the animation by changing duration, etc.

Part 3 10 Moving Animation PowerPoint Techniques

For this last step, we break down some important PowerPoint 3D Animation need-to-knows. Including the specifics provided by each of the options made available to you and why it’s important to explore every single one to create better and more professional-looking presentations.

01 Transitions

When it comes to PowerPoint presentations, most people are no doubt the most familiar with ‘Transitions’ when talking in terms of adding animation into a presentation. This one decides whether you want to shift from one slide to another smoothly, or if you want the previous slide to break into splinters, or rotate into the next slide, and so on and so forth. It’s an ‘in-between’ animation that signals where one ends and the other begins.

02 Animations

Now, for the ‘Animations’ tab, we focus on animations that occur in the slide (not in-between like transitions). This can include a wide array of things. Whether it be characters moving (like shown in the tutorial we provided), text boxes appearing and disappearing in short order, images bouncing into view in dramatic fashion, and so on and so forth. There’s lots of potential here.

03 Animation - Start

We mentioned this previously in the tutorial, but PowerPoint (which does not offer the more advanced 3D customization options), does still give you the freedom to choose how you want certain animations to work.

In the case of the ‘Animations-Start’ option, the goal is to decide when an animation starts playing. Do you want it to start after a click? Or maybe you want it to start up immediately? Whatever the case may be, this function will let you choose the specifics.

04 4. Animation - Duration

Next, we decide how long you want the animation to last. For example, if you chose to add a PowerPoint 3D rotation animation into a character, how long do you want it to spin before it settles into place? Perhaps only a second? Perhaps more? Whatever you chose, this is the option that will let you finalize that.

05 Animation - Delay

This one is self-explanatory as well. But suffice to say, the ‘Delay’ option is for deciding how much an animation is delayed before starting. For example, if you chose to start it ‘On Click’ you can increase the delay to keep it from playing immediately on click.

06 Break Up Presentation into Sections

A lot of PowerPoint templates, you’ll find, are naturally broken into sections. This is because it is easier to consume it in that way. It’s also a good signal to your audience as to what point of the presentation you are on. Are you in the beginning? The middle? Near the end? Etc. In this case, the best option for showing it is transitions that separate the sections from one another.

07 Add Animation - Entrance

As promised earlier, we’ll be going through each type of animation is available under the ‘Add Animation’ option. The first is "Entrance" animations. This one is pretty easy to guess. It makes up a variety of animations that serve as its entrance animation. Here are some examples:

● Appear: To have objects appear without any other effect.

● Fade: To have objects fade into view.

● Bounce: To have objects bounce into view.

● Swivel: To have objects swivel into view.

08 Add Animation - Emphasis

This next animation style is to give emphasis to an already-present object. For example, at a click, you can have a text box ‘Pulse’ and become the center of attention. You can change ‘Object Color’ to make it stand out. And so on.

09 9. Add Animation - Exit

Opposite of the ‘Entrance’ animations are the ‘Exit’ animations. You’ll notice that the style of animations is the same here. The only difference is that the animations occur to exit the project out of the presentation. For example, an image exiting to reveal text. Or text flying out to be replaced with more text, etc.

10 Add Animation - Motion Path

We’ve already mentioned the PowerPoint Motion Path animation style previously, but just to reiterate some things, this is the most customizable animation feature on PowerPoint. One that allows you to move objects across the slide in whatever way you wish. In our example, we created a motion path animation that took the character from the center of the screen to the left of the screen.

● Key Takeaways from This Episode →

● While videos are the most popular way to share information, there are some presentations that require a heavier guiding hand.

● In these situations, a PowerPoint presentation, carefully animated, can serve in place of an edited video.

● There are templates available that you can take advantage of if you’d prefer to start with something to work from. We introduced some in this article that we think were particularly notable.

● But, of course, more careful personalization is sometimes necessary. In that case, we hope that you find our tutorial and our list of PowerPoint techniques helpful.

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How-To Geek

How to animate a still slide background in microsoft powerpoint.

Include a subtle moving background for some pizzazz.

Quick Links

Animate an image background in powerpoint.

It's easy to improve the appearance of your Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow by including an attractive background . You might use a color, gradient, or pattern, or insert an image . Another way to make your background appealing is by animating it.

If you use Microsoft PowerPoint on Mac, you have the option to animate a still slide background. This adds subtle movement to the image, so it doesn't distract from your slideshow or its message.

As of February 2022, this feature is only available in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac and PowerPoint 2021, 2019, and 2016 for Mac.

To set an image as an animated slide background in PowerPoint, you simply start by inserting the picture on your slide. If you already have an image on the slide you want to use, you can skip the first step below.

Related: How to Control When a Picture Appears in PowerPoint

Go to the Insert tab and select the Pictures drop-down box in the Images section of the ribbon. Choose where you'd like to add the image from: Photo Browser, Picture From File, Stock Images, or Online Pictures.

Select the image on the slide and head to the Picture Format tab.

Click "Animate as Background" on the right side of the ribbon.

A window will appear prompting you to select the important points on the image. These points determine the motion path for the animation.

Click to select each point. The path will move from the highest number to the lowest. When you finish, click "Apply."

The image will be automatically resized to cover the entire slide as the background. So if your image is portrait instead of landscape, you'll need to resize or crop it .

To view the animation, go to the Slide Show tab and pick "Play From Current Slide."

You'll see your image move very slowly, from your highest number point to your lowest. Again, this is a subtle animation which makes it nice if you have text or other elements you're speaking to on the slide.

To edit the motion path, select the image, return to the Picture Format tab, and pick "Animate as Background" as you did initially. Then, click the new path you want to use and hit "Apply" to save the change.

By adding a subtle animation to your slide background, you can give a little extra pizzazz to your slideshow or automatically move to a key part of the image.

Animate a picture on your slide

To add some spirit to your presentation, you can add an animation effect to a picture or to shapes on your slides.

In this example, we’ll animate two pictures:

Select the first picture.

On the Animations tab, select an animation effect. For example, select Fly In .

Click Effect Options , and then pick a direction for the animation. For example, From Left .

Select the second picture that you want to animate.

On the Animations tab, pick Fly In .

Click Effect Options and pick From Right .

Tip:  You can change the order of the animations by selecting a picture and, under Reorder Animation on the ribbon, clicking Move Earlier or Move Later .

To test the animations you just applied to the two pictures, select the Slide Show button located at the bottom-right corner of the browser window:

In slide show view, click a slide to start each animation.

Tip:  To remove an animation effect, in Normal view, select the picture, and on the Animations tab, click None .

More about animation:

Animate text or objects

Animation effects available in PowerPoint for the web

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How to Animate Pictures on Powerpoint: A Step-by-Step Guide

Animating pictures in PowerPoint is simpler than you might think! All you need to do is insert the picture you want to animate, choose an animation style from the animations tab, and customize the animation settings to your liking. Once you’ve done that, you can preview the animation and make any necessary adjustments. With these quick steps, you’ll have your pictures moving and grooving in no time!

Step by Step Tutorial on How to Animate Pictures on Powerpoint

Animating pictures can add a dynamic flair to your PowerPoint presentation, grabbing your audience’s attention and keeping them engaged. Let’s dive into the steps on how you can make your images come to life.

Step 1: Insert the picture you want to animate

First, click on the ‘Insert’ tab and select ‘Pictures’ to add your image to the slide.

After selecting your desired picture, it will appear on your slide. You can adjust the size and position of the image as needed before you start animating it.

Step 2: Choose an animation style

Next, click on the ‘Animations’ tab and select an animation style from the gallery.

PowerPoint offers a variety of animation styles, such as fade, fly-in, float, and more. Hover over each style to see a preview and decide which one best suits your presentation.

Step 3: Customize the animation

Once you’ve picked an animation style, click on ‘Effect Options’ to customize it further. You can change the direction, speed, and start timing of the animation.

Customizing your animation ensures that it aligns with your presentation’s pace and theme. You can make the animation as subtle or as dramatic as you like.

Step 4: Preview the animation

After setting up your animation, click on ‘Preview’ to see how it looks. Make sure it works as you intended.

If the animation doesn’t look right, don’t worry! You can always go back and tweak the settings until you’re satisfied with the result.

After you complete these steps, your picture will be animated in your PowerPoint presentation. The animation will play when you reach the slide in presentation mode, adding a professional touch to your slideshow.

Tips for Animating Pictures on Powerpoint

• Use animations sparingly to avoid overwhelming your audience.
• Keep your audience in mind – choose animations that enhance the message you’re trying to convey.
• Test your animations on different devices to ensure they work smoothly.
• Ensure your animations are timed well with the flow of your presentation.
• Remember that less is often more – a simple animation can be more effective than a complex one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of pictures can i animate in powerpoint.

You can animate most image formats in PowerPoint, including JPEG, PNG, and GIF.

Animations can add life to any picture, so feel free to get creative with the images you choose to animate. Just make sure they’re relevant to your presentation.

Can I animate multiple pictures at once?

Yes, you can select multiple pictures and apply the same animation to all of them simultaneously.

Selecting multiple images can save you time, especially if you want a uniform animation effect across several pictures.

Can I control the timing of the animation?

Absolutely! You can set when the animation starts, how long it lasts, and if it repeats.

Controlling the timing is crucial for ensuring your animations fit within the overall flow of your presentation.

Is it possible to add sound effects to my animation?

Yes, you can add sound effects to your animations by going to the ‘Animations’ tab and selecting ‘Animation Pane.’

Adding sound effects can enhance the impact of your animations, but use them judiciously to avoid distracting your audience.

Can I animate a picture to move across the slide?

Yes, you can use motion paths to animate a picture to move in a specific direction or path across the slide.

Motion paths can make your presentation more interactive and visually appealing, but make sure the movement makes sense in the context of your slide.

• Insert the picture you want to animate.
• Choose an animation style.
• Customize the animation.
• Preview the animation.

Animating pictures in PowerPoint is a fantastic way to spice up your presentations and keep your audience engaged. It’s a feature that, when used correctly, can emphasize key points, illustrate concepts, and add a professional polish to your slides. Remember, the key to effective animations is subtlety and relevance – they should enhance your presentation, not detract from it.

As you get more comfortable with PowerPoint’s animation features, feel free to experiment with different styles, timings, and effects. Keep in mind the tips provided to ensure your animated pictures have the desired impact. And if you ever find yourself stuck or in need of inspiration, there’s a wealth of resources and tutorials available online to help you master the art of PowerPoint animations.

Whether you’re presenting a business proposal, teaching a class, or sharing a personal story, animated pictures can help you leave a lasting impression on your audience. So go ahead and give it a try – you might be surprised at how much life a little motion can bring to your next presentation!

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

Read his full bio here.

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Gen z thinks the best kind of party is to make powerpoint presentations together.

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PowerPoints are all the rager.

Gen Z’s idea of “work-life balance” was stifled during the COVID-19 lockdown — and now their parties even feature PowerPoint presentations.

A PowerPoint party is pretty self-explanatory: People get together and show each other PP presentations on a topic of their choosing for “fun.”

The, um, point is for friends to get to know each other’s silly, niche interests and funny thoughts.

The get-togethers rose in popularity during the pandemic, but they’re still a big hit among Gen Z today — despite utilizing something seen regularly in corporate environments.

Searching for PowerPoint parties on TikTok will bring up an endless stream of examples, with topics including A-list actor Pedro Pascal , “ Things that give me the ick ” and a meta presentation of “guessing what PowerPoint everyone prepared.”

It’s such a common occurrence that Cosmopolitan even put out a list of “55 PowerPoint Night Ideas to Spice Up Your Next at-Home Hang.” Some examples include Disney Channel movie supremacy, the most iconic set of twins in history, and the best chain restaurant and why.

People tend to be quite split on whether they find PowerPoint parties fun.

McCall Mirabella told CNN that she asked all her friends to prepare a PowerPoint for her recent 21st birthday celebration — and she loved it.

“They’re so unserious,” she told the outlet of PP nights she’s attended and hosted. “Most of the time, people are left crying from laughing so hard, or bent over wheezing.”

Others disagree, thinking we should leave the PowerPoints in the office — and not bring them into the home.

“I love my friends, and also I absolutely do not want to do this with any of them,” Emily Stewart of Business Insider wrote about the “weird” craze. “Must we turn something we do at work into something we do in our personal lives? Just hanging out without a plan is fine and pleasant.”

Why Gen Z is so infatuated with PowerPoints as a fun pastime isn’t exactly clear.

Perhaps their work and personal lives are blurred due to remote work, or maybe they’re just used to interacting via technology rather than in person.

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How To Get Free Access To Microsoft PowerPoint

E very time you need to present an overview of a plan or a report to a whole room of people, chances are you turn to Microsoft PowerPoint. And who doesn't? It's popular for its wide array of features that make creating effective presentations a walk in the park. PowerPoint comes with a host of keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation, subtitles and video recordings for your audience's benefit, and a variety of transitions, animations, and designs for better engagement.

But with these nifty features comes a hefty price tag. At the moment, the personal plan — which includes other Office apps — is at $69.99 a year. This might be the most budget-friendly option, especially if you plan to use the other Microsoft Office apps, too. Unfortunately, you can't buy PowerPoint alone, but there are a few workarounds you can use to get access to PowerPoint at no cost to you at all.

Read more: The 20 Best Mac Apps That Will Improve Your Apple Experience

Method #1: Sign Up For A Free Microsoft Account On The Office Website

Microsoft offers a web-based version of PowerPoint completely free of charge to all users. Here's how you can access it:

• Visit the Microsoft 365 page .
• If you already have a free account with Microsoft, click Sign in. Otherwise, press "Sign up for the free version of Microsoft 365" to create a new account at no cost.
• On the Office home page, select PowerPoint from the side panel on the left.
• Click on "Blank presentation" to create your presentation from scratch, or pick your preferred free PowerPoint template from the options at the top (there's also a host of editable templates you can find on the Microsoft 365 Create site ).
• Create your presentation as normal. Your edits will be saved automatically to your Microsoft OneDrive as long as you're connected to the internet.

It's important to keep in mind, though, that while you're free to use this web version of PowerPoint to create your slides and edit templates, there are certain features it doesn't have that you can find on the paid version. For instance, you can access only a handful of font styles and stock elements like images, videos, icons, and stickers. Designer is also available for use on up to three presentations per month only (it's unlimited for premium subscribers). When presenting, you won't find the Present Live and Always Use Subtitles options present in the paid plans. The biggest caveat of the free version is that it won't get any newly released features, unlike its premium counterparts.

Method #2: Install Microsoft 365 (Office) To Your Windows

Don't fancy working on your presentation in a browser? If you have a Windows computer with the Office 365 apps pre-installed or downloaded from a previous Office 365 trial, you can use the Microsoft 365 (Office) app instead. Unlike the individual Microsoft apps that you need to buy from the Microsoft Store, this one is free to download and use. Here's how to get free PowerPoint on the Microsoft 365 (Office) app:

• Search for Microsoft 365 (Office) on the Microsoft Store app.
• Install and open it.
• Sign in with your Microsoft account. Alternatively, press "Create free account" if you don't have one yet.
• Click on Create on the left side panel.
• Select Presentation.
• In the PowerPoint window that opens, log in using your account.
• Press Accept on the "Free 5-day pass" section. This lets you use PowerPoint (and Word and Excel) for five days — free of charge and without having to input any payment information.
• Create your presentation as usual. As you're using the desktop version, you can access the full features of PowerPoint, including the ability to present in Teams, export the presentation as a video file, translate the slides' content to a different language, and even work offline.

The only downside of this method is the time limit. Once the five days are up, you can no longer open the PowerPoint desktop app. However, all your files will still be accessible to you. If you saved them to OneDrive, you can continue editing them on the web app. If you saved them to your computer, you can upload them to OneDrive and edit them from there.

Method #3: Download The Microsoft PowerPoint App On Your Android Or iOS Device

If you're always on the move and need the flexibility of creating and editing presentations on your Android or iOS device, you'll be glad to know that PowerPoint is free and available for offline use on your mobile phones. But — of course, there's a but — you can only access the free version if your device is under 10.1 inches. Anything bigger than that requires a premium subscription. If your phone fits the bill, then follow these steps to get free PowerPoint on your device:

• Install Microsoft PowerPoint from the App Store or Google Play Store .
• Log in using your existing Microsoft email or enter a new email address to create one if you don't already have an account.
• On the "Get Microsoft 365 Personal Plan" screen, press Skip For Now.
• If you're offered a free trial, select Try later (or enjoy the free 30-day trial if you're interested).
• To make a new presentation, tap the plus sign in the upper right corner.
• Change the "Create in" option from OneDrive - Personal to a folder on your device. This allows you to save the presentation to your local storage and make offline edits.
• Press "Set as default" to set your local folder as the default file storage location.
• Choose your template from the selection or use a blank presentation.
• Edit your presentation as needed.

Do note that PowerPoint mobile comes with some restrictions. There's no option to insert stock elements, change the slide size to a custom size, use the Designer feature, or display the presentation in Immersive Reader mode. However, you can use font styles considered premium on the web app.

Method #4: Use Your School Email Address

Office 365 Education is free for students and teachers, provided they have an email address from an eligible school. To check for your eligibility, here's what you need to do:

• Go to the Office 365 Education page .
• Type in your school email address in the empty text field.
• Press "Get Started."
• On the next screen, verify your eligibility. If you're eligible, you'll be asked to select whether you're a student or a teacher. If your school isn't recognized, however, you'll get a message telling you so.
• For those who are eligible, proceed with creating your Office 365 Education account. Make sure your school email can receive external mail, as Microsoft will send you a verification code for your account.
• Once you're done filling out the form, press "Start." This will open your Office 365 account page.

You can then start making your PowerPoint presentation using the web app. If your school's plan supports it, you can also install the Office 365 apps to your computer by clicking the "Install Office" button on your Office 365 account page and running the downloaded installation file. What sets the Office 365 Education account apart from the regular free account is that you have unlimited personal cloud storage and access to other Office apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook.

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