Adding Animation, Sound, and Movies to Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007

  • 1/3/2007

Adding Transition Effects

As you work your way through the slides in an electronic presentation, you can avoid the abrupt break between one slide and the next by employing transitions that control the way successive slides move into view. Transitions include such effects as sliding in, dissolving in from the outer edges or the center, and opening like a vertical blind.

Each slide can have only one transition. You set transitions in Normal view or Slide Sorter view, for one slide at a time, for a group of slides, or for an entire presentation. In addition to selecting the type of transition, you can specify the following:

  • The sound

  • The speed

  • When the transition occurs

In this exercise, you will apply a transition to a single slide, apply the same transition to all the slides in the presentation, add sound to the transition, and then set the transition speed.

  1. Display Slide 2 in Normal view. Then on the Animations tab, in the Transition to This Slide group, click the More button.

    The Transition gallery opens.

  2. In the lower-right corner of the gallery, point to the dotted handle, and when the pointer changes to a two-headed arrow, drag up until you can see a single row of the Wipes thumbnails that stretches almost to the right edge of the screen.

    By changing the shape of the gallery, you will have a better view of transition live previews on the slide.

  3. In the gallery, point to various thumbnails to see the live preview of the transition, scrolling the gallery as necessary.

  4. Under Push and Cover, click the third thumbnail from the end (Cover Left-Up).

    PowerPoint demonstrates the Cover Left-Up transition effect on Slide 2 and indicates that the transition has been applied by placing an animation symbol below the slide number on the Slides tab of the Overview pane. (There is no indication on the slide itself.)

  5. In the Transition to This Slide group, click the Apply To All button.

    An animation symbol appears below each slide number.

  6. On the Slides tab, click the animation symbol below Slide 4.

    The Slide pane turns black, and then PowerPoint demonstrates the Cover Left-Up transition to Slide 4, followed by the Fly In animation effect that was already applied to the picture on the slide.

  7. Display Slide 1. In the Transition to This Slide group, click the More button, and then in the gallery, click the No Transition thumbnail.

  8. On the View toolbar at the right end of the status bar, click the Slide Show button.

    PowerPoint switches to Slide Show view and displays Slide 1.

  9. Click the mouse button or press to see the transitions of the first few slides of the presentation, and then press to end the slide show.

  10. On the View toolbar, click the Slide Sorter button, and then change the Zoom percentage to 60%.

  11. In Slide Sorter view, click Slide 2, hold down the key, and then click Slide 16 to select all the slides that have transitions.

  12. In the Transition to This Slide group, click the Transition Sound arrow, and then click Wind.

  13. In the Transition to This Slide group, click the Transition Speed arrow, and then click Slow.

  14. PowerPoint demonstrates the transition of each selected slide with the sound specified in step 12.

  15. On the View toolbar, click the Slide Show button, and then click the mouse button to advance through the presentation, pressing when you have finished viewing the transition effects.