How to Add Transitions and Animations in PowerPoint
Movement in a presentation can be brilliant — revealing points one at a time keeps your audience with you — or it can be distracting, with text spinning and bouncing across the screen. Here's how to add both kinds of movement, and how to keep them tasteful.
• Transitions are effects between slides.
• Animations are effects on things on a slide — text, pictures, shapes.
• Animations are effects on things on a slide — text, pictures, shapes.
Add a slide transition
1. Select a slide in the thumbnails on the left.
2. Go to the Transitions tab.
3. Click a transition to preview it — Fade and Push are good, subtle choices.
4. Use Effect Options to change the direction.
5. Adjust Duration to make it faster or slower.
2. Go to the Transitions tab.
3. Click a transition to preview it — Fade and Push are good, subtle choices.
4. Use Effect Options to change the direction.
5. Adjust Duration to make it faster or slower.
To use the same transition throughout, click Apply To All.
Tip: Under Advance Slide, On Mouse Click is ticked by default. Tick After and set a time if you want slides to move on automatically — good for a looping display.
Animate text or a picture
1. Click the object you want to animate — a text box, picture or shape.
2. Go to the Animations tab.
3. Choose an effect. They're colour-coded:
• Green — Entrance (e.g. Appear, Fade, Wipe)
• Yellow — Emphasis (e.g. Pulse, Grow/Shrink)
• Red — Exit (e.g. Disappear, Fade out)
4. Use Effect Options to change the direction or sequence.
2. Go to the Animations tab.
3. Choose an effect. They're colour-coded:
• Green — Entrance (e.g. Appear, Fade, Wipe)
• Yellow — Emphasis (e.g. Pulse, Grow/Shrink)
• Red — Exit (e.g. Disappear, Fade out)
4. Use Effect Options to change the direction or sequence.
A small number appears next to the object showing the order animations will play.
Make bullet points appear one at a time
1. Click the border of the text box containing your bullets.
2. Choose Fade or Appear on the Animations tab.
3. Click Effect Options and make sure By Paragraph is selected.
2. Choose Fade or Appear on the Animations tab.
3. Click Effect Options and make sure By Paragraph is selected.
Now each bullet appears when you click — so your audience reads along with you rather than skipping ahead.
Control when animations play
In the Timing group on the Animations tab, set Start:
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| On Click | Plays when you click or press a key |
| With Previous | Plays at the same time as the previous animation |
| After Previous | Plays automatically when the previous one finishes |
You can also set a Duration and a Delay.
The Animation Pane
For anything more than one or two animations, click Animations > Animation Pane. It lists every animation on the slide, and you can:
• Drag them to change the order.
• Click Play From to preview.
• Click the arrow on an item for timing and effect options.
• Click Play From to preview.
• Click the arrow on an item for timing and effect options.
Try Morph for smooth movement
Morph is the transition that makes presentations look professionally produced. It smoothly moves, resizes and recolours objects between two slides.
1. Right-click a slide and choose Duplicate Slide.
2. On the new slide, move, resize or recolour things — make a picture bigger, slide a shape across, zoom into part of a chart.
3. With the second slide selected, go to Transitions and choose Morph.
2. On the new slide, move, resize or recolour things — make a picture bigger, slide a shape across, zoom into part of a chart.
3. With the second slide selected, go to Transitions and choose Morph.
Play it and PowerPoint animates everything between the two positions automatically. Morph is available in Microsoft 365 and PowerPoint 2019 or later.
Remove animations and transitions
• Transition: select the slide and choose None on the Transitions tab (click Apply To All to remove from every slide).
• Animation: select the object and choose None on the Animations tab, or delete it from the Animation Pane.
• Animation: select the object and choose None on the Animations tab, or delete it from the Animation Pane.
Keep it tasteful
• Use one transition style for the whole presentation.
• Stick to Fade, Appear and Wipe for most animations.
• Keep durations short — under half a second feels snappy.
• Ask yourself: does this movement help people follow what I'm saying?
• Stick to Fade, Appear and Wipe for most animations.
• Keep durations short — under half a second feels snappy.
• Ask yourself: does this movement help people follow what I'm saying?
Wrapping up
Transitions tab for between slides, Animations tab for things on a slide. Use By Paragraph to reveal bullets one at a time, try Morph for polish, and keep everything subtle.
