Most electronic presentation applications allow you to set animated transitions between slides. You can set slide transitions to fade out, dissolve, roll from the left, etc. These transitions provide a smooth change from one slide to another — whether you are manually clicking through slides or automatically advancing through slides. Additionally, most applications, including PowerPoint, also allow you to set a specific time (duration) for each slide. This means you can determine how long a slide is visible before advancing to the next slide when running a presentation automatically. This type of custom timing for slides is necessary whenever you create a presentation to advance automatically. It is not difficult to do — but it can be time-consuming to implement because timing the slides correctly takes several tries.

To set slide transitions and timing in PowerPoint

1. Create the content for the PowerPoint presentation.



2. Edit the presentation to the point at which you feel comfortable with the content. When you are satisfied with the content, graphics, and overall design of the presentation, you are ready to determine the slide transitions.




Note While you can create the slide transitions and timing at any point, these are usually activities reserved for the end of presentation production. It is wise to fully determine slide content and graphics before setting transitions or timing — because the slide content determines how long a slide needs to be visible, etc.



3. In the Slide or Slide Sorter view, select the slide or slides for which you want to create transitions. (You can add slide transitions to an individual slide or to all slides in a presentation.)



4. Select Slide Show > Slide Transition. The Slide Transition dialog appears.






5. Under Effect, use the drop-down box to select the desired slide transition.




Note During a slide presentation, the content should be center stage. You want the tools you use — such as animations and transitions — to emphasize your points, not to draw the audience's attention to special effects. So, be hesitant to use several slide transitions or other animations within a single presentation.



6. Select a timing for the transition: Slow, Medium, or Fast.




Note This timing does not have to do with the slide display, rather simply with the transition.



7. Under Advance, select one of the two options for causing the transition:



• On mouse click means the slide advances only with a mouse click by the presenter.



• Automatically after ? seconds means the slide advances automatically — after the specified period of time.




8. Click one of the application options:



• To apply the transition to the selected slide, click Apply.



• To apply the transition to all the slides, click Apply to All.


9. Select View > Slide Show to test your presentation transitions.