How to PowerPoint

Someone asked how I animated the office people in the Security Demo that I posted a while back.  So here’s a quick tutorial to show you three ways to do that type of animation.

 The basic techniques are here:

• Create a single motion path
• Create a series of motion paths
• Use the Flash once animation and duplicate the object

PowerPoint Animation Tutorial

Click here to view the PowerPoint animation tutorial.

David Anderson of Articulate shows how to create an interactive scenario in PowerPoint.  While the tutorial is focused a bit on rapid elearning, once you learn the techniques, you could use it in many contexts.

It’s also an interesting way to create a 2.5D animation in PowerPoint.

What you’ll learn:

In the tutorial you’ll learn to add motion paths to images.  By varying the timing and length of the motion path, you can create a look that simulates more of a 3D type motion.

The tutorial below is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using PowerPoint for animation.  In fact learning basic animation techniques and concepts is a good way to go if you want to get the most out of PowerPoint. 

The Complete Animation Course: The Principles, Practice and Techniques of Successful Animation provides a lot of the basics and foundational concepts for animation.

PowerPoint Animation Tutorial

Click here to view the animation tutorial.

With some practice, this could be a pretty cool effect.  How would you use an animation like this?

One of my favorite features in PowerPoint 2007 and beyond is that I can right click and swap out images.  This is really helpful if you have effects or animations applied to your images.

In the older versions of PowerPoint, you had to delete the image and replace it with another.  Then you’d have to reapply the effects and animations.  That’s not the case anymore.

All you do now is right click on the image, and select Change Picture.  From there you select a new image. And voila! You have a new image with all of the animations and effects intact.

Here’s tutorial that gives you some more detail so you can see it in action.

PowerPoint Tutorial

Click here to view the tutorial.

So you can see, it’s pretty easy and a big time saver, especially if you pre-build animations to be reused.  It definitely comes in handy if you build rapid elearning courses.

Do you have any simple time saving tips?

Here are three posts I did for the Rapid E-Learning Blog where I showed how to build out some ideas in PowerPoint.

Build a Puzzle

Build a Puzzle Animation in Just a Few Simple Steps walks though the process of building a puzzle sequence that reveals information as the learner advances.  There’s a tutorial as well.

Build a Cool Slide Template

Here’s How I Built That PowerPoint E-Learning Template walks through the process of building out a multi-colored template.  You can also download the PowerPoint files via the attachments link in the tutorial.

Create Your Own Handwritten Fonts

Over 100 Free Handwritten Fonts gives you links to a bunch of free fonts.  You’ll also learn to create your own for free.  Check out the tutorials.

I did a series of posts on the Rapid E-Learning Blog that explains how to get the most out PowerPoint when building rapid elearning courses.

Converting Your PowerPoint Slide to E-Learning

In this post I discuss ways to convert your slides into elearning.  I introduce a few different techniques and ways to make your slides look more interesting and make the content more interactive.

How to Convert Your PowerPoint Presentation into an Elearning Course

Using the Slide Notes for a Transcript

Most people use the slide notes for their transcript so I discuss ways to format the notes and how to use them in different ways other than just the transcript.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Slide Notes

Build Better E-Learning with PowerPoint 2007

For all the critics of PowerPoint, check out PowerPoint 2007 (and the soon to be released 2010).  It’ll make you rethink the criticism.  In this post, I reveal why PowerPoint 2007 is an excellent tool when you build rapid elearning.  In fact, if you do build rapid elearning course, you need PowerPoint 2007.  It’ll make your life a lot easier.

Here’s Why PowerPoint 2007 Helps You Build Better E-Learning

PowerPoint comes with a lot of animation effects baked into the application.  They’re just a few mouse clicks away.  You can:

• have objects enter the screen
• have objects exit the screen
• animate objects to add emphasis
• create custom motion paths

The Rapid E-Learning Blog has an excellent post that combines these animation capabilities and shows you How Walt Disney Would Use PowerPoint to Create E-Learning Courses.

The three techniques are:

1. Key Frame

Treat each slide as a separate frame in the animated sequence.

2. Motion Path

Assign a motion path to the object.  This works well because you can keep the animation on the slide.

3. Flash Once

Use the flash once animation and then move the object along the slide.  When it’s played, it will look like the object is moving across the screen.

For details and an excellent tutorial that walks you through the steps, check out the blog post.