Have you ever been unfortunate enough to sit through a Powerpoint presentation where each slide is just packed with tons of information? You end up reading 5 minutes ahead of the speaker's presentation instead of listening to what is being said.
The whole reason to use Powerpoint in a presentation is to better focus the audience, not to distract them. So let's look at a simple animation tool that can make a big difference - Appear and Dim. This animation scheme is easy to apply and a useful effect. Here's how it works:
- On a typical slide with a title and four bullet points, The presentation will intially show only the title of the slide.
- The first point appears with a click from the pointer.
- The second click brings up the next bullet point along with any subpoints, and half-tones the first point to de-emphasize it and keep the audience focused on what the speaker is currently discussing.
It is very simple to apply this animation scheme to the entire presentation. From the menus, navigate to Slide Show > Animation Schemes... This will bring up the Slide Design sidebar where you can change the Design Template, Color Scheme, and Animation Scheme.
Under the Subtle heading, select Appear and Dim. Then at the bottom of the sidebar click the Apply to All Slides button. Notice the other two buttons: Play and Slide Show. Play will show the animation scheme currently selected within the normal view. Slide Show will switch to the presentation view from the current slide (equivalent to using the Shift+F5 shortcut)
