Page 18 of 25PREVNEXT

Animations I: Preset and custom animation

List of effects for a bulleted list, shown collapsed and then expanded in the task pane

Fig. 1  A collapsed list of effects.
Callout 1 In the task pane, the effect for a bulleted list shows with the list collapsed. Changes apply to the entire collapsed list.
Callout 2 Expand arrows: Click them to expand the list.
Fig. 2  An expanded list of effects.
Callout 1 The four effects in an expanded list. Click a specific effect to make changes only to it.
Callout 2 Collapse arrows: Click them to collapse the list.

The quickest way to animate a bulleted or numbered list is to click the list on the slide, and then add an effect from the Custom Animation task pane. The result is that the entire list gets the effect, and the bulleted items animate one by one (technically, paragraph by paragraph, since each bulleted item is a new paragraph).

The effect you've applied to the bulleted list shows up in the task pane effects list as a collapsed list (Figure 1). The list contains the same effect applied to each bulleted item. Work with these collapsed effects in a couple of ways:

  • Keep the list collapsed to make changes or apply options to all the effects at once.
  • Use the expand arrows to display all the effects and select individual effects to modify them.

Figure 2 shows the collapsed list expanded, and you see each effect.

Other ways to animate lists

  • Apply effects to the list one bulleted item (paragraph) at a time. This could make sense if you wanted a different effect for each bulleted item. To select a bulleted item, select any letter or word in that paragraph. When you apply the effect, it will apply to the whole paragraph. Do this for every bulleted item. The items animate in sequence.
  • Animate the bulleted items all at once. If you select all the text in the bulleted list and apply the effect, the whole list animates at once.

Note     The behavior described applies to lists within default placeholders (the hatchmarked boxes for text that appear in the slide layout). But if you create a list in a shape you've applied, such as a text box, the results vary. For instance, if you just click the list in a text box and apply an effect, the whole list animates at once instead of line by line. To get items to animate in sequence, you have to select each one and apply an effect.

Page 18 of 25PREVNEXT