Animation in PowerPoint slides is a powerful tool that helps you illustrate using visuals. People respond to pictures positively, and they respond to visual stimuli like animation even more. It forces them to pay attention. Thats why people can also be annoyed if animation is used in a way that does not meet the audience’s expectations. Here we will look at the do’s and don’ts of using the “Motion Path” PowerPoint animation feature.

Annoying Use of Motion Path Animation 

There are many annoying ways to use animation that you shouldn’t try to replicate. One of these is making things move for no reason. All it does is distract people from the Presentation, if that is your goal then you should use it, but if it isn’t then don’t.

Don’t use it for lists and bullets that could have been shown normally. Most of the time, it will have a negative effect on the audience even though you, the presenter, might think it looks pretty cool.

Correct Use of Motion Path Animation

“What is the correct use of motion path animation then?”, I hear you ask. Well, its quite simple actually. You use motion path animation to move specific objects from one place to another. You can use this to move something that you are talking about. The audience should keep their focus on it; helping you make your point smoothly and seamlessly.

An example of this technique would be to move a word(s) from one page to another, or to move objects from one box to another. You can move digits from one sheet to another and show where they go in a mathematical formula. There are tons of ways that you can use the motion path animation to make your PowerPoint slides come alive.

Image Courtesy:

Distance vs. displacement by Mr.Swaraj [GNU Free Documentation License] via Wikimedia Commons