Apply multiple animation effects to one object
Applies ToPowerPoint for Microsoft 365 PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac PowerPoint for the web PowerPoint 2024 PowerPoint 2024 for Mac PowerPoint 2021 PowerPoint 2021 for Mac PowerPoint 2019 PowerPoint 2019 for Mac PowerPoint 2016 PowerPoint 2013

In PowerPoint, you can apply multiple animation effects to a single string of text or an object, such as a picture, shape, or SmartArt graphic.

Apply multiple animations to one object

Tip: When working with multiple animation effects, it helps to work in the Animation Pane, where you can see a list of all the animation effects for the current slide.

Add another animation effect to an object

  1. Select the object on the slide that you want to animate.

  2. On the Animations tab, select Animation Pane.

    Open the Animation Pane

  3. Select Add Animation, and pick an animation effect.

    Add an animation effect in PowerPoint

  4. To apply additional animation effects to the same object, select it, click Add Animation and pick another animation effect.

Important: After applying the first animation effect, if you try to add more animation effects any other way other than clicking Add Animation, you won’t apply an additional effect. Instead, you’ll replace the existing effect with a the one you’re adding.

Set the start time and length of an animation effect

When you want to control the timing of your animation effects, do the following for each animation effect:

  1. In the Animation Pane, select the down arrow next to the animation effect, and then select Timing.

    Set the timing of an animation effect

  2. On the Timing tab, select the Start down arrow, and choose from the following start times:

    • To have the effect play when the mouse is clicked, select On Click.

    • To have the effect play at the same time as the previous animation effect, select With Previous.

    • To have the effect play after the previous animation effect plays, select After Previous.

      Tip: The previous animation effect is the one listed in the playing order in the Animation Pane (usually located just above the animation you are setting the timing for).

      Set the timing, delay, and duration of an animation effect

  3. To delay the animation effect from starting, click the Delay up arrow to the number of seconds you want.

  4. To change the speed of the animation effect, set the Duration to the level you want.

  5. To watch how the animation effects work together, click Preview on the Animation tab.

Play multiple animation effects at the same time

You can have two or more animation effects occur at the same time for one object. For example, a picture could fade in and float in. To accomplish this layering of two (or more) effects at once, do as follows:

  1. Use Add Animation to add the second effect.

    The Add Animation button.

  2. For the timing of the second effect, set Start to With Previous.

    On the Animations tab, in the Timing section, set the Start option to With Previous.

Tip for working with multiple animation effects

When you work with multiple objects on a slide, it can be difficult to differentiate one object and its applied animation effects from another.

In the picture, below, the default object names don’t provide much of a description so it’s hard to tell which object has what animation effect applied to it.

Names of objects without description

In the Selection Pane, you can give each object a distinct name to make it easier to work with them when you are applying animations to each. See below:

Give each object a distinct name

  1. To change the name of an object, on the Home tab, choose SelectSelection Pane.

    Open the Selection Pane

  2. In the Selection pane, double-click the default object name to open the box, then type a new name for the object.

    Change the default object name

More about working with animation effects

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