Animating Text and Objects
Learn how to apply animation effects to text and objects, customize timing, use the Animation Pane, and control the order animations play.
Lesson Notes
Read through the key concepts before you try the challenge.
What Are Animations?
Animations in PowerPoint control how individual objects — text, images, and shapes — appear, move, or disappear on a slide.
Unlike transitions, which affect the entire slide, animations target specific objects. This makes them useful for revealing bullet points one at a time or drawing attention to a key graphic.
Animation Categories
PowerPoint organizes animations into four categories based on what they do to an object.
- Entrance — controls how an object appears on the slide (e.g., Fade, Fly In, Appear).
- Emphasis — draws attention to an object that is already visible (e.g., Pulse, Spin, Grow/Shrink).
- Exit — controls how an object leaves the slide (e.g., Fade Out, Fly Out).
- Motion Paths — moves an object along a defined path on the slide.
Applying an Animation
To apply an animation, select an object on the slide and open the Animations tab.
Click an effect from the Animation gallery. PowerPoint will immediately preview the animation on your slide.
A number badge appears next to the object, indicating its animation order on the slide.
Effect Options
Many animations offer additional variations through Effect Options. For example, a text box can fade in all at once, or paragraph by paragraph.
Click Effect Options on the Animations tab to see the available choices for the selected animation.
The Animation Pane
The Animation Pane gives you a detailed list of every animation on the current slide and the order in which they play.
To open it, click Animation Pane on the Animations tab.
You can drag items up or down in the pane to reorder them, and click the Play All button at the top to preview the full sequence.
Start, Duration, and Delay
Every animation has three timing settings that control when and how fast it plays.
- Start — On Click (default), With Previous (plays at the same time as the animation before it), or After Previous (plays automatically after the previous animation ends).
- Duration — how long the animation takes to complete.
- Delay — how many seconds to wait before the animation begins.
Reordering Animations
To change the order that animations play, select an animation in the Animation Pane and use the Move Earlier or Move Later buttons on the Animations tab.
Removing an Animation
To remove an animation, select the object on the slide or select the animation entry in the Animation Pane, then press the Delete key.
You can also select the object and choose None from the Animation gallery to clear all animations from that object.
Completed Slide Example
When animations are applied consistently and sequenced correctly, they guide the audience through your content in a controlled and professional way.
Knowledge Check
Which animation start setting causes an animation to play automatically after the previous one ends?
Practice File
Download this file and follow along with the lesson.
Challenge
Apply what you've learned in this lesson.
Open the practice presentation and complete the following tasks:
- Select the title text box on slide 2.
- Apply the Fly In entrance animation.
- Change the Effect Options so the text flies in From Left.
- Select the content placeholder on the same slide and apply the Fade entrance animation.
- Change the Start setting to After Previous so it plays automatically after the title.
- Open the Animation Pane to verify the sequence looks correct.
- Preview the animations by clicking Play All.