Quickest way to animate PowerPoint 2010 bullets

When used effectively and in moderation, animations can improve a slideshow by adding some visual interest and offering the presenter more control over the rate at which new points are displayed to the audience.

I’m new to PowerPoint 2010, so I’m making more of an effort to learn how to use it efficiently than I did with PowerPoint 2007 (which we’re still using at the office). I was making some slides in a hurry this afternoon and wanted to make a set of bullets “Fly In” one after the other. I knew how to do this manually, by animating each one in turn, but I’ve worked out how to do this with a few group selections, so here goes:

  1. Write all your bullets.
  2. Group select all bullets to be animated (i.e. left-click on the first bullet, hold down the “Shift” key, then left-click on the last bullet).
  3. Click the “Animations” tab in the Ribbon, then click on “Fly In”.
  4. Show the “Animation Pane” by clicking the button of that name in the Ribbon.
  5. All animation steps in the “Animation Pane” are already selected by default. Simply right-click on one of them and select “Start On Click” from the context menu.
Screenshot of the PowerPoint 2010 "Animation Pane"

They are now set to animate one after the other, rather than all together. The exact same technique will work with any other Entrance animation, e.g. “Appear” or “Fade”.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Clare Macrae

    Hmmm. I’m not sure that this is a feature! Lots of these on multiple slides adds minutes to a presentation, for no added value.

    1. swarley

      A classic problem with slides is that the audience reads ahead to the forthcoming points while you’re still talking through the first one. I guess making subsequent points appear as and when you cover them ensures people focus on what you’re actually saying. But you’re right – too many animations can induce motion sickness. I think “Appear” is probably the least offensive!

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