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Animation schemes are a new feature of PowerPoint 2002, so if you're upgrading from an earlier PowerPoint version, you'll appreciate how much animation schemes simplify the task of setting up animations.
An animation scheme is simply a predefined slide transition and a collection of animation effects applied to slide objects. One of the most basic animation schemes is called Appear, which sets up the body paragraphs so that they appear out of thin air one at a time. More complex animation schemes cause text to fly in, do back flips and somersaults, and spin around until it gets dizzy.
 | Take a few minutes someday to work your way through all the animation schemes to see how each one works. You can get a good idea about how each animation effect looks by using the previews in the Animation Scheme Task Pane. But to really see how the animation schemes work, you should set up a simple presentation with four or five slides with several paragraphs on each slide, and a couple of drawing objects here and there. Then, one at a time, apply each animation effect and run the slide show. |
To apply an animation scheme to your slides, follow these steps:
1. Move to the slide you want to apply the animation scheme to.
If you want to apply the animation scheme to all your slides, you can skip this step, because it doesn't matter which slide you start from.
2. Choose the Slide Show-->Animation Schemes command.
The Animation Schemes Task Pane appears, as shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: Setting up animation effects using the Animation Schemes Task Pane. |
3. Click the animation scheme you want to use.
PowerPoint gives you a preview of what the animation looks like by animating the current slide. If you want to see the preview again, just click the animation scheme again.
| The animation schemes are organized into three categories: Subtle, Moderate, and Exciting. At the very beginning of the list of animation schemes, you find the five schemes you've most recently used. In addition, you find a category called "No Animation" with just one entry, "No Animation," (duh) which removes all animation from the slide. |
Clicking the animation scheme doesn't just preview the animation on the current slide, but actually assigns that scheme to the current slide. If you choose to retain the animation you had before, just press Ctrl+Z or choose Edit-->Undo.
4. If you want to apply the animation to the entire presentation, click Apply to All Slides.
5. Preview the entire show to make sure the animation works.
You can start the slide show by clicking the Slide Show button in the Animation Scheme Task Pane, or by choosing Slide Show-->View Show or pressing F5.
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