Adding effects

Topic

New Reply

I’m working on a slideshow in Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 and I’m having trouble adding effects to the images. On the slide I am working on, I have set it up to expand and move on path as it enters and then to fade out. But I also want it to fade in on entrance. However, whenever I add that effect, I lose the expansion effect. PPT wants to make me choose between the two.

In some of my other slides, I have as many as 5 or 6 effects going off, some simultaneously, some consecutively, and I’ve had no problems. In many of them, I have fade and expand happening at the same time on entrance of an image.

Any ideas as to why I am no longer able to add all of these effects?

Regards,

JMT

Reply | Quote

Replies

I tried restarting and still get this problem. It’s most odd, as I was able to add any many effects as I wanted to several months ago when I started this project.

However, when I copy one of the slides into a new blank document, I am then able to add more effects. For example, when I add a fade in on entrance, it doesn’t take away the expand feature.

So unless anyone can figure out a solution, I may copy all of my slides into a blank slideshow and hope that nothing gets lost or distorted.

Reply | Quote

I’ve done a fairly thorough web search and don’t find any mention of this kind of problem, so I suspect your presentation may have been corrupted slightly causing that behavior. I would try copying your slides in chunks to see if you can get them all to behave – it is possible that one of your slides is somehow corrupted.

Reply | Quote

I don’t think that the problem is in the presentation; I think it’s in Microsoft PPT. Even when I open a blank document, I am limited in the number of effects I can add. For example, on a Text Box, I can have it fade in with a motion path, but if I try adding a second motion path, the second one disappears; if I try having it fade out, that second motion path disappears. So it must be something with Microsft PPT. Is there a setting that limits the number of effects you can have per slide?

Reply | Quote

I’m working with 2007 now, but I too remember that you should be able to set multiple effects per object.
A corruption of your installation perhaps? Is anything else funny?

Reply | Quote

Nothing else is funny in the presentation or in MS Powerpoint. However, I think I must have a problem in both the Presentation and in MS Powerpoint:

– The presentation becasue I tried opening it on another computer and, although I can add many effects to a slide on this other computer, I cannot do so in this presentation.
– My version of MS Powerpoint becasue when I open a new presentation, I am limited by the number of effects I can add.

Would upgrading to Office 2007 solve the problem?

How could there be a corruption in the installation? If that were the case, wouldn’t I have had these problems way back in 2008 when I installed Office? Why would I only experience this problem now?

Regards,

JMT

Reply | Quote

I DISCOVERED THE PROBLEM.

I am limited by the number of effects that I can put in when the button above the effect says “Change Effect.” However, when it says “Add Effect,” I can add as many as I want. When I go to “Change Effect,” the new effect overwrites the old and I am unable to get more than 2 or 3 at most in.

The million dollar question: how do I get the “Change Effect” to change to “Add Effect” when I want to add an effect, not change one?

I think it has to do with having all of the effects selected at once. If I have only one single effect selected, then I end up with a “Change Effect” option. But if I actually click on the image that I am adding effects to, then it causes all of the effects on the Custom Animation pane to be selected. When they are all selected in this way, then “Change Effect” changes to “Add Effect.”

JMT

Reply | Quote

Thanks for posting what the problem turned out to be – hopefully it will help another frustrated PPT user down the road.

Reply | Quote

“The million dollar question: how do I get the “Change Effect” to change to “Add Effect”

Select the object(s) to be animated = Add Effect
Select the animation(s) in the animation pane=Change

John Wilson
Microsoft MVP

Reply | Quote

Yes, I FINALLY figured that out after days of racking my brain.

Reply | Quote