How can you do this?
One method is the "pseudo-animation" trick you have seen in
MasterView Issue #1, Art. 6
In this case, to hide the columns you don't want to appear, you need to cover them by
drawing, on top of them, a rectangle that you will fill with the same color as the background.
The other method is to use the "Animation effects" feature in
PowerPoint 2000. PowerPoint 97 has some differences, but I
explain them at the end of this article.
Let's see how it works.
Once you have created your chart, do the following:
1) Click outside of it in order to go back to the normal
PowerPoint interface
2) Ensure you are in Slide View mode
3) Click on "Slide Show"
4) Select "Custom Animations..."
A dialog box will appear. It will look quite complex, but do
not be afraid, I am going to explain it in detail.
On the top left side you have listed all the elements you have
in your slide that can be animated. For a standard chart you
can animate the title and the chart.
By clicking with your mouse, put a tick mark beside the item
you want to animate: in our case, the chart.
On the lower part of the dialog box you will find some tabs: in
the first, "Order and Timing", you can actually tell PowerPoint
in what order you want the items to appear. Usually the title
should be first. You can use the up and down arrows to change
or modify the order in which elements will be displayed on the
slide.
On the right side of the same tab, you can even decide how you
want this animation to be started: only when you click with
your mouse, or automatically after a certain number of seconds.
Let's move now to the third tab, "Chart Effects" and
explore it.
On the left side of this tab you can select how to introduce
the chart elements.
a) all at once
b) by Series
c) by Categories
d) by Element in Series
e) by Element in Categories
Selecting any of these option, but the first, will let you
display the elements in the chart one at a time at every mouse
click you make.
There's an additional option to even animate the grid and
legend in your chart. If you tick this option, the background
gridlines will not appear until you click with the mouse, then
the elements of the chart will appear according to the option
you have selected.
Once you have selected how you would like to show the elements
of your chart, move into the right hand side of this tab and
select now the animation effect.
You have plenty of choices, and you may want to try a few of
them (by using the preview pane on top of the dialog box) in
order to choose the best one.
I would also suggest you to use of elegant and pofessional-
looking animation effect called "Wipe". As soon as you select
it, you will also be able to choose what direction you would
like the effect to be displayed: Up, Down, Left or Right.
For a column chart, since the columns are based on an
horizontal line at the bottom of your chart, it would be
appropriate to apply a "Wipe Up" animation, so you actually see
the columns growing from their bottom line.
A bar chart, for instance, has horizontal bars that start on
the left side of the chart (at least if you are in a country
with left-to-right reading). You may want to apply a "Wipe
Right" animation effect and have your bars appearing from left
to right (otherwise the opposite may apply - see Arabic).
The last option I am going to cover here is the "Dim" effect.
Applying this effect will actually "dim" the elements that have
already been displayed, so that they will not distract your
audience. You can choose a light color such a gray to dim the
previous elements, so the audience will be "forced" to focus on
the colored items you are currently displaying.
A few words for PowerPoint 97 users:
the "Custom Animation" dialog box will appear a bit different,
even if it will give you the same options.
As soon as you have the dialog box displayed, you will have
first to:
1) select, from the "Timing" tab, which elements you want to
display. You will do this by clicking on the object description
on the left side (in case of a chart you will see "chart 2" -
usually item number 1 is the title) and by selecting, on the
right hand side, "Animate" (where you can choose if on mouse
click or automatically).
Having done this,
2) you move into the top left side of the dialog box and set
the entrance order of the items in your slide by using the up
and down arrows.
Then, after selecting the element you want to animate where it
says "Animation order",
3) move into the "Chart Effects" tab.
From this point onwards, there are no relevant differences
between PowerPoint 97 and 2000 for the chart animations.
You can read this article in the original issue of MasterView.
