The document provides a comprehensive guide to using PowerPoint's animation features, including simple animations, motion paths, and emphasizing text and images. It also covers advanced techniques such as narrating over slides, embedding videos, and creating GIFs from slides. Additionally, it suggests the use of unique templates and the embedding of Excel worksheets for enhanced presentations.

3. 1. Animations
PowerPoint’s Animation
capabilities are an easy way to
bring some fun and pizzazz
to your slides, with just a
few clicks!
Just click on some content
on a slide that you want try an
Animation with, then click on the
Animations menu. You will see options like “Appear”,
“Fade” “Fly In”, etc. Click one to see what it will look
like when applied to the content you’ve selected.

4. Animations (cont.)
Note that it’s pretty easy to tweak
how the animations work with the controls
on the right of the Animation window – Effect
Options, Triggers (does it start when you click,
or immediately after another animation, etc.?),
Duration, Delay, etc. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
You’ll want to exercise some restraint here though.
It’s easy to get carried away with these and create a
dizzying array of flashing, whirling content
… don’t do that.

5. 2. Motion Paths
One of the most flexible Animations available
in PowerPoint is the Motion Path.
Objects can move across the screen and you
can adjust the path they follow. If you click
the ‘Add Animations’ button from within the
Animations menu, this will bring up a menu
of the various Entrance, Exit, Emphasis, etc.,
Animations, including Motion Paths
(you may have to scroll down to see these,
or select ‘More Motion Paths’).

6. Motion Paths (cont.)
Build Test
The basic Motion Paths
provided include Lines,
Arcs, Turns, Shapes,
Loops, and a Custom
Path (this one lets you
define the path you want).
If you select ‘More Motion
Paths’, you’ll see a bunch
of pre-configured paths,
like “4 Point Star” and
‘Tear Drop”.

7. 3. Text & Image EMPHASIS
One set of Animations are for “Emphasis”.
When you click the Add Animation button
on the Animations menu, you’ll see these.
As long as you’ve selected an object before
you click the menu options, you’ll be able to
hover over Emphasis options like Teeter, Wave,
Grow/Shrink, etc., to see how they will look when
applied. Remember, you can tweak things about
the Animations, so you may be able to get them
to behave in unexpected ways to achieve a
desired effect.

8. 4. Follow the
Bouncing Ball
If you’re of a certain age,
the phrase “follow the
bouncing ball” brings to
mind images of a small
white cartoon ball
bouncing merrily along
above a scrolling line of
song lyrics at the bottom of
the TV screen.

9. Follow the Bouncing Ball (cont.)
This is a fun, nostalgic effect that uses
the Motion Path animation. In this music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Mtmj_R-_Y,
you can see how I used this technique
along other Animation tools to create a fun
music video for an original song I recorded.
Here are the instructions I found online
that showed me how to do this:
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/animate-a-
bouncing-ball/

10. 5. Narrate Over
Slides
This is probably easier
than you thought!
There are a couple of
ways to tackle this.
They’re both
discussed in this
video:
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=PKv1W3
kJyW4

11. 6. Use PowerPoint as a Blank
Template for Building Video Content
By combining Animations and other
PowerPoint techniques and functions
with a screen casting tool, it’s pretty
easy to create video content that looks
professional. By using a blank
background, or a picture as your
background, viewers will have no idea
you even used PowerPoint. (I used this
technique to make parts of the music
video in #4 above.)

12. 7. Embed a YouTube Video
in your Presentation
Find the video you want to
embed, click the Share link
and then the Embed link
and copy the Embed code.
Then, back in PowerPoint,
just click the Insert Menu
and choose Video, then
select Video from Website
and paste in the embed
code for any YouTube
video!

13. 8. Create an Animated GIF
from a PowerPoint Slide
You can save a
PowerPoint slide as a GIF
and then use a program
like GIMP to create your
own animated GIF! This
Wikipedia entry provides
further details (there are
other GIF animator
programs out there as
well).

14. Here’s the template is used for this presentation:
http://www.presentationmagazine.com/sparkler-powerpoint-template-5322.htm
9. Find and Use Your own
Unique Templates
I love to seek inspiration when
starting a new slide deck or
animation by seeking out a new
template. There are lots of good free
ones available on the Web. Here are
over 44,000 free presentation
templates from
PresentationsMagazine.com!

15. 10. Embed a Functioning Excel
Worksheet into a Presentation
Did you know you can have a totally functional
Excel Worksheet embedded in a PowerPoint
slide? It’s easy … just a couple of clicks. Click the
Insert Menu, then choose Object from the menu
ribbon. Then either click on Excel Worksheet
under ‘Create new’ or click ‘Create from File’ and
browse out to an Excel worksheet and select it.
Note that a large format worksheet isn’t going to
work well here, but if you create or
insert a small functional worksheet,
it should be easy to navigate and use.

16. This presentation was created using content originally published in this article:
http://www.emergingedtech.com/2014/09/awesome-things-powerpoint-can-do/
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