Adding Special Effects
Even if you have created the world’s best-looking presentation, you have to know how to display it attractively. You can do this by adding special effects like add multimedia, animations, slide transitions and text preset animations to your slides.
Text Preset Animation
Get ready to think about TV again! This time think about commercials that you have seen—maybe about some new breath-freshening toothpaste or a brand of jeans. While they talk about the product, you might have seen words flying across the screen in some sort of dazzling way that makes you say “Wow!” In PowerPoint, you too have the ability to give special effects to your text. For example, you can configure your slide so that each bulleted line of text flies in from the right one by one. Or, you can have a picture crawl in from the bottom of the screen.
Text animations can be added easily in the Slide Sorter. In this view, on selecting a slide, you can use the Text Preset Animation Effects list box to choose the text animation effect.
When you add a text preset animation effect to a slide, a text animation icon appears below it (this icon can be viewed in Slide Sorter view only). For example, let us add the typewriter effect to text on your slide.
1. In Slide View, select the text you want to animate by clicking it.
2. On the Animation Effects toolbar, click the Color Typewriter Text Effect button.
3. The Color typewriter text effect is now added to the text.
Try not to overdo the effects. Too many effects can be counter-productive; they can draw too much attention to themselves and distract the audience from the actual point you are trying to make.
Timings and Transitions
With your presentation ready, you might be surprised to know that PowerPoint could help you rehearse your piece!
The Rehearse Timings option allows you to assign a time limit for slide transitions and text animations for each of the slides in your presentation. Then when you start the presentation, PowerPoint remembers the amount of time to display each slide or point, and automatically advances to the next one at the time you specified. So for example, if you set the first slide to stay on the screen for half a minute, after thirty seconds, PowerPoint displays the second slide.
The Rehearse Timings feature keeps speakers on track, and keeps them from digressing from the topic while speaking. If you want your slide show to run automatically, you must add timing to the slides. When you add timing to a slide, you specify the number of seconds to remain on each slide. Here's how you add timing to your slides:
1. Select the Rehearse Timings option in the Slide Show menu
2. Or click the Rehearse Timings button in Slide Sorter view.
3. To edit or fix the amount of time for a particular slide,
1. Select the Slide Transition option in the Slide Show menu.
TIP: It is best to use this feature for a self-playing presentation that you will not be monitoring, but is best avoided if you plan to speak along with the presentation.
1. Allowing too much time between each object coming onto the screen will make people sleep during your presentations.
2. Not allowing enough time for people to read lengthy information will make them wonder if they missed something because the information went by so quickly.
