In the last column I offered a tutorial on the use of the custom animation tool bar to have objects automatically appear and disappear using both mouse clicks and timing settings. In this article I’m going to introduce the use of triggers to animate a slide. I’ll also show you a few drawing tools you might find useful.
Start a new presentation with the “Office Button” “New” “Installed Themes” (if you wish) and click “Create”. From the “Home” tab select “Layout” and choose the “Title Only” layout. In the title area type “Which will most likely lead to a successful meeting?” In the “Shapes” area of the “Drawing” section of the home tab select the rectangle and add a rectangle to your page a bit below the title, near the left side. Click “Shape Fill” and change the color of your rectangle. Click “Shape Effects” then select “Bevel” and one of the bevel options. Click “Shape Effects” again, select “Shadow” and then pick a shadow. Note the other shape effects options for future reference. With your modified rectangle selected, hold down “Ctrl” and click “D” three times (duplicate). You now have four identical rectangles. Move one of them down toward the bottom of your slide. Select all four rectangles (hold down “Shift” and click on each, or left click and hold near the bottom of your page and pull the selection box up and over to encompass all four rectangles). On the home tab, in the drawing block, select “Arrange” “Align” and “Align Left”. With the rectangles still selected select “Arrange” “Align” “Distribute Vertically.” Your rectangles will now be lined up and evenly spread out on your slide. Select the top rectangle and type “Coffee and Cookies.” If you wish, click the “A” with the up arrow in the “Font” box to enlarge the text. Select the next and type “Dim Lighting,” then “Concise Agenda” for the third and “Clear Objectives” for the final rectangle. Adjust the text size on these if you wish. These rectangles will be your triggers.
Click the “down (expand) arrow” in the bottom right corner of the shapes section of the home tab drawing box, and down near the bottom, select a “Callout.” Click and drag with the mouse until you have the shape somewhere near your first rectangle. Click and drag the yellow diamond to move the callout pointer towards your first rectangle. Move and adjust your callout until you are pleased with its size, shape and placement. With this callout selected, type “Nice, but probably not the best choice”. Adjust the text size as above. With this callout selected (you may need to click it twice—a dotted selection box is for the text, a solid selection box is for the object) click “Ctrl D.” Move the new callout down a bit, size as you wish and move the diamond to the second rectangle. The callouts may overlap. Edit the text on this callout to “Zzzzzzzzzzz.” Duplicate this callout, move it and adjust the yellow diamond associate it visually with the third rectangle. Edit this one to “Good Choice”. Make one more callout, associate it with the fourth rectangle and edit it to “With an agenda, perhaps the most important.”
Now we’ll set the triggers. Select the first callout. In the “Animations” tab click “Custom Animation” to open the animation window. Then click “Add Effect” “Entrance” and select an effect. Click “More Effects” see the full range of effects. Click the arrow next to the box with the name of your callout and click “Timing.” Click the “Triggers” button and then click the radio button next to “Start the effect on click of:” From the drop down menu that appears, identify and select the first rectangle. You’ll now see a little pointy finger on your callout. With this callout still selected, click “Add Effect” again then click “Exit” and select an exit effect. It is very important that you next use the green “Re-Order” arrows at the bottom of the Custom Animation box to move the exit (red icon) down the events list so it is below the entrance for your callout (green icon). You’ll now see two pointy fingers on your callout. Repeat these steps with the second callout, selecting the second rectangle as the trigger, adding an exit and moving the exit down the list so it is below the appropriate trigger. Repeat for the remaining two callouts. When you are done, you will see four trigger pairs, one for each rectangle, each with a green entrance effect above a red exit effect.
Now let’s look at the show. Hit “F5”. You should see your title and four rectangles. Click the first rectangle and a callout should appear. Click the first rectangle again and it will go away. Click another rectangle and watch its callout appear. Make sure your clicks are on the rectangles to avoid clicking through to the next slide (when located over a trigger your curser will be a pointing finger, not an arrow). You can click the trigger rectangles in any order and as many times as you like.
Triggers are an excellent way to encourage audience participation and introduce a little life to a text-oriented slide show. They can also be used to ‘build’ a complicated diagram, one part at a time, with each new drawing element set to be a trigger for the next.
For more information about PowerPoint, contact Elia Schoomer at 83058 or ens0@lehigh.edu |
