Make animated text appear line by line (build slides)

Problem

You want to have text on your slide(s) appear line by line.

Solution

If you use PowerPoint 2002 or 2003, see Echo Swinford's Animation Features tutorial on Echo's Voice

Or here's the quick start from Kathy Jacobs:

PowerPoint 2002 and up
You need to change the "Group By" value for the bullets to one level higher than the number of indentation levels in the text you're animating.

• Click the text box to select it
• Choose Slide Show, Custom Animation to bring up the Custom Animation task pane
• If the text box doesn't already have an animation applied, click Add Effect, click Entrance and choose the Entrance effect you want. An animation effect appears in the list area below "Modify ..."
• Right click the animation and select "Effect Options" or "Timing"
• Click the Text Animation tab in the dialog box that appears
• Set "Group by" to either the number of outline levels in your paragraphs or one more than that number (just in case you add a level later)
• Click Ok and you're done.

If you don't want to do this by hand on every slide, you can set up the Animation and Group By settings on the Slide Master and it will automatically apply to the placeholder text of each slide.

PowerPoint 2000 and previous
You need to change the "Group By" value for the bullets to one level higher than the number of indentation levels in the text you're animating.

• Choose Slide Show, Custom Animation or right click on the text placeholder and select Custom Animation. Either way, the Custom Animation dialog box appears.
• In the Custom Animation dialog box, click the Effects tab. The "Group By" drop-down list is on the right side of the tab.
• Click the placeholder you want to animate in the "Check to animate slide objects" area. Verify that PowerPoint shows the placeholder you want to animate as as selected in the preview window. If not, click the name of the shape you want to animate in the "Check to animate slide objects" area.
• Choose an entry effect in the "Entry animation and sound" area
• Set your text to enter as you desire in the "Introduce Text" area
• Click the check box for "Group By" and then use the drop-down list to set the value to either the number of outline levels in your paragraphs or one more than that number (just in case you add a level later).
• Click OK

If you don't want to do this by hand on every slide, you can set up the Animation and Group By settings on the Slide Master and it will automatically apply to the placeholder text of each slide.

Search terms:line,animate,text

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