Trigger an animation effect

When you want to click something specific on the slide, like each arrow shape here, to start an animation effect, use a trigger.

On this slide, each green arrow triggers a text effect when I click it.

Here is the sequence, again: Arrow 1 triggers the first text animation, which is a Wipe entrance effect.

Arrow 2 triggers the second effect, and Arrow 3 triggers the third.

Compare this with a typical list animation, where I click to play each effect, but I don’t click anything specific to do it.

In the first example, the effect starts only when I click an arrow, which is a trigger for the effect.

So, triggers let me specify click points for effects.

I can create as many triggers as I need.

For example, I could make this text banner be a trigger also—starting a picture effect.

To set up a trigger, you first apply an animation effect to the thing you want to trigger.

For this slide, I want to trigger a text effect on this banner shape.

I’ll select the shape and apply a Wipe entrance effect.

Now, I specify a trigger for the effect. In the Animation Pane, I select the effect, which activates the Trigger command.

I click Trigger, point to On Click of, and select Arrow 1, which is my arrow shape over here.

Now the arrow is a trigger.

Triggers are useful for starting sound files and videos, which PowerPoint views as animation effects.

Instead of clicking the sound media on this slide to play it, I can pull it off the slide, so it never appears, and set up a trigger to play it, namely this button shape.

On the slide, when I click the button, it triggers the sound effect.

On a slide with video, I can do the same thing: pull the video media off the slide, set it to Play Full Screen, and create a trigger to start it— this big green arrow.

On the slide, when I click the big green arrow, it triggers the video to play.

Up Next: Use triggers for multiple effects, including sound.