Transitions

Now we’ll add some pizzazz to our presentation. When you viewed your slide show, a few moments ago, it was simply like “flopping down” plastic transparencies on an overhead projector. Nothing really fantastic. Now we’ll add some motion, animation, sound, and color and really make our presentation something to view.

Go to the Slide Sorter button at the bottom left area of your screen. Click on the button with four white squares.

You can now see all nine slides (as shown below). Notice that Slide 9 (the one with the flying bee) does not show the path of the bee. This is because of the motion path – not a big deal. Lightly, click once on the first slide to highlight the slide (a heavy blue border will surround the slide – see arrow below). Now point in the MIDDLE of Slide 1 and click on your RIGHT mouse button.

If you accidentally quick twice on Slide 1, this will take you to the Slide View, again. If this happens, simply click on the Slide Sorter View button at the bottom of the screen.

The right click will “always bring up” a menu that is “tailored” to the “place” where you click. This will work in any Microsoft Office product. You can always tell “where” you click the right mouse button because the cursor arrow will always be in a corner of the menu that appears. From the menu that appears, select Slide Transition (click-on it – see arrow below).

To the Left, you will see the new Slide Transition Task Pane that appears on the right side of the PowerPoint screen. This Slide Transition Task Pane will allow us to create “transitions” as we go from one slide to the next. Transitions are neat, visual movements, as we go from slide to slide in our show.

For PowerPoint 97 and 2000 users, this is another “totally new” screen. It takes the place of the “old dog and key screen.”

So, let’s get started in creating some movement (transitions) as we enhance our PowerPoint slide show. Remember that we clicked-on Slide 1 to begin this process.

Notice, in the image to the right, that you have a lot of transition choices under Apply to selected slides. Go ahead and click-on one of the choices. Notice that there is an “elevator bar” on the right side of Apply to selected slides – many more choices are below.

When you click, keep your eyes on Slide 1 (on the left of the Power Point screen). Each time you make another selection, you will see that transition effect on Slide 1.

Also notice that there is a Modify transition area below the transition choices. You may change your transition from Fast to Slow (as we have done). You may also add a Sound (as we have done – a Chime).

Finally, notice at the bottom of the Apply to selected slides area, there are three additional choices.

If you like your transition, you can move to Slide 2 and repeat this process. As you select a transition, it will become the transition for that slide. Or, you can Apply to All Slides. We used the elevator bar to move to the bottom of all the selections and chose Random Transition. We then chose Apply to All Slides. So, when we show our slides, each slide will transition with a different effect and they will all “Chime” as they transition.

Note: Many audiences do not like a lot of “sound” when watching a PowerPoint presentation. So, you may desire to use sound “sparingly” in your presentation.

When you look at the Slide Sorter View, you will notice a small box with a star at the lower left corner of each slide. This indicates that a slide will transition. If you want to see how a certain slide will transition, click-on that slide and then click-on Play, and you will see the effect each time you click Play. You can also click-on the small star to see the transition.

Go ahead and run/play your slide show again. See how you like the transitions and sounds. Adjust as you desire.

Building is a term indicating how each line of the text, on a slide, will enter the screen. The lines, words, letters, pictures and charts can move in or appear from almost any direction. To Build the text on each slide, follow these directions.

Go back to Normal View. You can do this in Slide Sorter View by double clicking-on the first slide or by Clicking on the Normal View button on the lower left corner of the screen. When the Normal View screen appears, click-on the first line of text. The “box” you saw, when you first typed text in this box, will appear. This indicates that the box is “active.” It will appear as below.

The following screen will appear on the right side of your screen (very similar to the one we used for Slide 9). When this screen appears, first click-on Add Effect, then click-on Entrance, and finally click-on More Effects (because we want ALL of the effects).

The Add Entrance Effect menu screen will now appear (like the one on the left).

Move your cursor over the blue Add Entrance Effect “bar” at the top of the menu screen. Click and hold down the left mouse button and drag the screen to the right of your screen so that you can see the text in the Title text box. After you have moved this box raise your finger from the left mouse button.

Now, choose one of the effects by clicking-on it. You will now be able to see the animation effect in the text box. You may hear a Chime sound that is “part” of the Slide Transition. We’ll show you how to put in sounds for your text in a little while.

Try a lot of different effects. Notice that there is an elevator bar on the right side of this menu. As you move down the Add Entrance Effects menu screen you will notice that there are “groups” of effects – Basic, Subtle, Moderate, and Exciting. Try a “bunch” of these to see how they work. When you have an effect you like, click-on the OK button at the bottom of the Add Entrance Effect screen.

Notice – on the right side of the screen - under Custom Animation – that the Titles (on which we added effects) are shown as a part of this screen (just like when we created our flying bee on Slide 9).

Also notice that under our second title there is a small, down pointing arrow. If you click-on this arrow it will show you each line of text that you animated in the lower sub-title box.

Now we’ll enhance our text some more.

Move your cursor over the first title and click the left mouse button. Next click-on the small down arrow on the right side of this box. You will see a menu screen appear that will let you enhance your title (just like you did in Slide 9). Choose (click-on) Effect Options and the menu screen below will appear.

This screen is similar to the one in Slide 9, but a little different. Notice that we chose Magnify for our text effect and then chose Laser for our sound.

We’ll cover Dimming and All at once when we animate text in Slide 2.

Go ahead and experiment with Entrance Effects and Sounds for your first Slide.