Animation properties in detail

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Animation properties in detail

You can subsequently edit the animations for objects on the current slide in detail at any time.

To do so, select the object whose animation effect you want to adjust and choose one of the following methods to open the dialog box Animation properties:

On the ribbon tab Animation, choose the command Properties (not possible for multiple effects on the same object).

Alternatively, click on the Edit button in the sidebar (Animation pane).

Even faster: Simply double-click on the animation effect in the side bar.

Alternatively, right-click on the object to open the context menu and choose the command Animations. Select the Edit button in the following dialog box.

Note: For the latter two methods, make sure that you have selected the desired animation from the respective list before clicking on the Edit button. You can also select multiple animations and apply the same settings to all of them.

The program displays a dialog box with the following options:

Start tab

Here, you determine when to start the animation.

Start animation section:

On next mouse click: The animation starts after a mouse click.
After previous animation: The animation starts as soon as the previous animation is finished (if a previous animation exists, see note below).
Together with previous animation: The animation starts at the same time as the previous animation.

Note: If you want an animation to start automatically during the slide show, but it is the first one of a slide, just select the option After previous animation for this purpose also. Presentations then recognizes that no previous animation exists and will start with it immediately.

Sequence section:

Here, you specify whether the animation should be started as part of the main sequence – or part of an additional sequence that is triggered only when you click on a specific object.
Start animation as part of the main sequence: The animation is part of the "main sequence" for this slide, which means that the animation will be executed every time this slide is displayed during the slide show (depending on the start settings described above).
Start animation after click on the following object: The animation starts only when you click on the specified object. You can select the desired object in the dropdown list.

Note: Choosing the latter option will create another animation sequence in addition to the main sequence. It will only be executed when you click on the selected object during the slide show.

If you have defined several sequences for a slide, you can access them by opening the dropdown list Sequence in the dialog box of the context menu command Animations. In this list, you can select the sequence that you want to edit.

Timing tab

Here, you set how long the selected animation takes, whether it has a delayed start, and whether it should be repeated.

Duration: This option lets you specify how long the animation should take to complete (the shorter the time you set, the faster the animation runs).

Delay: Here, you can enter a time that should elapse before the animation starts after it is triggered. If, for example, you set the start to "On next mouse click" and enter 5 here, it will take 5 seconds for the animation to start after you click on it with the mouse.

Repeat: Here, you can set whether and how often the animation should be repeated. To do so, select an entry from the list or enter a number. An animation only runs once by default.

Play across slides: For sounds only: By default, sounds in a slide show are stopped when switching to the next slide. If you want a sound to continue playing across a number of slides (for example, for background music), enter the number of slides here.

Smooth start: This option slows down the speed a little when the animation starts.

Smooth end: This option slows down the speed a little when the animation ends.

Effect tab

Here, you can change the originally selected animation effect again.

Animation type: There are three basic types of animations: Appear, Emphasize and Disappear (as described in the previous section). Each type contains a number of different effects.

Animation effect: This option lists the effects available for each type.

Variants (only available for certain effects): This option lists the available variants for each effect, for example, the direction from which the animated object should fly into the slide.

Sound tab

Here, you can assign a sound to the animation also.

Keep previous sound: This option continues playing the sound that you set for the previous animation.

Stop previous sound: This option stops the sound that you assigned to the previous animation.

Play new sound: This option plays a new sound as soon as the animation is triggered. To choose the sound file to play, select it from the list or click on the File button to select a new sound file.

End tab

Here, you specify what happens at the end of the animation. For example, you can have the object dimmed when the animation is finished.

Note: Instead of using the limited options provided on this tab, you can alternatively assign a Disappear effect to the object, which offers far more setting options from which to choose.

The following settings are available:

Don't dim: The object does not change after the end of the animation.

Dim with color: The object is dimmed to the selected color after the animation ends.

Hide: This option hides the object when its animation ends.

Hide after next mouse click: This option hides the object at the first mouse click after the object animation ends.

Note: Of course, the effect can only be seen if the associated animation is not the last animation of this slide because then a mouse click usually switches to the next slide.

Rewind emphasis effect: For some Emphasize effects, for example, the object changes color and remains in the new color at the end. If you enable this option, the object will return to its original color at the end of such an animation.

If the object automatically changes back to its original color in the selected effect, this option is grayed out.

Text tab

Note: This tab is available only for objects that contain text.

Here, you can specify how the text contained in the object should be animated.

Animate paragraphs: In this dropdown list, you can specify whether the whole text should be animated at once or just parts of the text (all paragraphs or different list levels for hierarchical bulleted lists).

Automatically animate grouped paragraphs with delay: Here, you define the delay to wait between each paragraph group.

This option is available only if you have grouped by levels for the option Animate paragraphs.

Reverse animation order: This option reverses the order of the individual animated text parts.

This option is available only if you have grouped by levels for the option Animate paragraphs.

Animate text: Here, you can specify whether the text is animated as a whole, word for word or letter by letter.

Delay between words/letters: This option sets additional delay times between words or letters (depending on what you set for Animate text).

Animate attached shape: If this option is enabled, the selected animation effect also applies to the object. Otherwise, only the text is animated.