Annotations and animations

Why?

Help yourself animate PowerPoint objects using annotations in a slideshow.

Before we begin. You would normally do this by grouping an object to the end of the rectangle. However, that would lock the object, which would not suit if you wanted to add another animation to it, such as a spin Emphasis. Anyway...

Sometimes you need a more precise idea of where objects will move on your screen. For example, I have a rectangle that spins 90 degrees (number 1 in the example) with a Spin Emphasis, as well as moves to the right with a Motion Path (number 2).

I want to place an object at the top of the rectangle and have it move with the end of the rectangle. That is easy if it is a simple arc, but what if the object also moves location on the slide? One help is to use annotations. Put simply, you run your animated slideshow very slow and use annotations to draw where things will be at certain times.

First, we set our animated slideshow to run very slow. That will give us time to annotate our animations.

The trick is then, in our slideshow, to get the felt tip pen. In PowerPoint 2003, this is available from the slideshow menu or by hitting <Control + p>.

Before I start the animation (set to commence on mouse click), I draw an  point with the felt pen at the start of the edge.

Then, when I hit the <Enter> key to start the animation process, I draw a new point as time goes by.

When you exit the slideshow, you will be prompted (unless you bypassed this in the options settings) to keep annotations. Do this.

I then get an idea of where the edge moves. Once you get the hang of this, you can use it to help you design some powerful stuff with a bit more ease.