Create an animated announcement

In a recent Power Pointers Quarter Hour, we had a lot of fun with transitions. (If you aren’t a part of that program, you’re missing a lot of great training–check it out here.) One that I thought I’d share with you is using the Curtains transition for an animated announcement. This transition was new for PowerPoint 2013.

Here’s what it looks like.

Isn’t that cool? You could use it to announce a new program or event. You won’t believe how easy it is. You’ll need PowerPoint 2013 or later for it, although earlier versions have other transitions that might suffice — they just won’t be as elegant or dramatic.

Here are the steps for this beauty:

1. On the first slide, right-click and choose Format Background. Set the color to a dark red or whatever color you want the curtains to be.
2. Insert a text box and type ANNOUNCING! or whatever text you want. Format it to contrast with the curtain color. Add a Wipe animation with the From Left option. Set it to Start With Previous.
3. On the Transitions tab, in the Timing section, check the After check box and set the slide to advance after 3.00 seconds or so. You’ll probably go back and adjust the timing later.
4. Insert a new slide and insert the announcement. In my case, I inserted a screenshot from my website, but you could type text from scratch. The slide background should be white or at least something that contrasts with the curtain color.
5. With the 2nd slide displayed, click the Transitions tab and choose the Curtains transition. Set the timing to about 5 seconds, or whatever works for you.
6. Go back to the first slide, go into Slide Show view and test the effect.

Tip: You can export this to video (File, Export, Create a Video). Of course, that’s what I did to create the video above. But you can use it as part of a presentation as well.

Just to remind you, here’s where you can find out more about Power Pointers Quarter Hour.

How could you use this effect? Can you think of other short animations that you could use? Leave a comment and please use the Share buttons below to tell your colleagues.