Make groups of objects appear and disappear in sequence with Powerpoint animation

Question

I am making a presentation and I have a map in a slide. I would like to appear and disappear some polygons so that some regions are highlighted.

Firstly, I would like only the map to appear. Second, a group of polygons. Next, another group of polygons appears while the previous one disappears. And so on and so forth.

I think that the correct steps are:

(1) appear first group

(2) disappear first group

(3) appear second group (start with previous)

(4) disappear second group

(5) appear 3rd group (start with previous)

(6) disappear 3rd group

The problem is that I cannot insert for example exit animation in group 8. When I tried this, the entrance animation is converted to extra animation.

Any suggestions?

Solution

First: if you need to assign multiple animations to a single shape, don't use the Animation tab for the second and later animations. Instead, choose Add Animation in the Advanced Animation group. Using the buttons on the Animations tab REPLACES any existing animation with a new one.

Yes. VERY bad user interface design.

So what you do is this:

Add an entrance animation to the first shape.

Add an entrance animation to the second shape.

Use ADD ANIMATION to add an exit animation to the first shape, then drag it BELOW the second shape's entrance animation and set it to occur WITH PREVIOUS.

Follow the same pattern for the remainder of the shapes you need to animate.

Comments

[fixer1234]

There's no limit to the sequence (e.g., OP's problem exceeding 7)?

[Steve Rindsberg]

@fixer1234 Good question ... one that'll be left as an exercise for the reader/OP. Quiz in the morning.