Animate charts and SmartArt

Charts and SmartArt are similar to text as you can animate elements individually.

For charts, the trick is to find an animation that makes sense with the chart style.

In this column chart, animations like Fly In or Bounce don't do much to help an audience visualize the data.

But, let's try a Wipe. By default, everything wipes on at once. Go to Effect Options.

As you can see, we have lots of choices.

Let's stick with the upward direction, so it appears the columns grow, as they animate on.

Down here, we can choose to have all the elements in each series, or category animate on at once, or each element in a series or category animate on. Let's try By Series.

So, when we talk about the differences between the years, we can bring the three series in one at a time.

The only thing wrong is that the grid animates on too. And what we want is for the grid to be static.

These numbers correspond to the four animations associated with the chart.

Select the first animation, which is the one for the grid. And press Delete.

Now when we preview the animation, the grid is static.

You can animate a pie chart, using the same logic, except you will use a Wheel animation, which wipes on the chart like a clock.

What kind of animation do you think would work with a scatter chart?

SmartArt animation works about the same.

You choose an animation that makes sense for how you want to bring in or emphasize the elements of the graphic.

We could use a Fade or Wipe animation for this organization chart, but something like a Zoom would work too.

Then, choose the sequence in which you want to bring the elements in.

For example, Level at Once brings all the elements in each level on one at a time.

Here is an interesting graphic.

In this one, it would make sense to animate the gravity arrow flying down and the lift arrow flying up, and the text fading in.

Here's how we do that. First select the Fly In animation. Then, in Effect Options, choose One by One.

Next, open the Animation Pane. Select Animation 1, which brings in the bar, and delete it.

Click Play from. So now we know the first animation brings in the gravity arrow.

Select the first animation, and in Effect Options, select From Top.

Select the second animation which brings in the gravity text, and choose Fade.

Then, do the same for Lift.

Now, when we preview, everything plays the way we want it to.

So far, we have pretty much stayed with the default and built-in animations and options.

Up next, we'll get into ways to create custom animations with motion paths.