Using Animated Images and Sounds

Another “WOW” feature in Microsoft PowerPoint XP – Animated Images and Sounds!

In PowerPoint XP you can now have images that “move!”  These are called animated images.  On any slide you can insert an animated Clip Art image.  Most of the time, when you get comfortable with PowerPoint, you’ll want to insert an image and then move and size the image as you desire.  To do this you’ll need to click-on Insert in the Menu Bar, and then on Picture in the drop down menu, and them move over Clip Art and click on Clip Art.  Your screen should look like the one below.

When you click-on Clip Art the first time you may see a screen that asks if you want to organize your Clip Art.  This is a good idea.  So, click-on OK.  You will see a series of screens that indicate that this is being done.

Once again you’ll notice that the area on the right side of the screen has changed to carry out the task in which we are engaged.  Notice that the image on the left indicates Insert Clip Art at the top.

For those of you that have used Microsoft Clip Art 2000 this will be a noticeable change.

 Notice the two selections under Other Search Options:  All collections and All media file types.  Click-on the small down pointing triangles on the right.

 When you click on the triangle for All collections you will see:

When you click on the triangle for All media file types you will see:

We’ll “get into” sounds later, but now is a good time to learn about Motion Clips or Animated Clips.  First we’ll do a search to see if we can find a cartoon motion clip that might fit into our Peanut Butter and Jelly theme.  Look at the upper portion of the right side of the screen again.  First, we’ll do a Clip Art search for cartoons and “hope” we get a motion/animated image.

So, type-in cartoons in the area under Search text:

 Then click-on the Search button.

 A screen similar to the one on the left will appear on the right side of your screen.

Notice in the lower left corner of each image that there is either no “symbol” or there is a “small earth symbol.”  This indicates that the clip art that the search found are not animated.  If you saw a “yellow star” this would indicate that the clip art is animated. 

To “see” more about an image, move your cursor over the “right edge” of an image.  We chose the person holding the heart (as indicated below).  You will see a light blue bar appear on the right edge of the image with a small down pointing triangle.  Move your cursor over the triangle and click-on it.

When you click-on the triangle, the image at the top of the next page will appear.

 From the image on the right you can see that the drop down menu furnishes you with a number of selections.

Move your cursor over Preview/Properties and click-on this selection.

This image gives specifics on the Clip Art picture you chose.  If this had been an animated image, you would see the animation moving in the left preview area.

This is a handy feature where you can check the many details of any image you select.

When you are finished looking at Preview/Properties, click-on the Close button in the lower right corner.

Sound:

We clicked-on the triangle and chose Typewriter.

After animation (Dimming):

We noticed that before we clicked-on the triangle that the words “Don’t Dim” appeared in the area to the right of After animation.  When we clicked on the triangle we chose the light blue color that appeared.  When you are making your PowerPoint presentation, you might like to have the bullet, to which you are speaking, be more noticeable that the bullets about which you have already explained.  By choosing the light blue color, as you move through the bulleted items, you will see the last bullet dim and the new bullet be more noticeable.  In a moment, when we complete this Appear Effect menu, we’ll Play our slide and you’ll see what we mean.

Animate text:

We clicked-on the triangle and chose By letter.

Seconds delay between letters

We used the small “up and down” triangles to indicate 0.1 seconds between letters.

When you complete your Appear menu screen it should look like the one at the bottom of Page 46.  Click OK.

Now, click-on Play at the bottom right of your screen.  You will see the text enter like it’s being typed, hear the typewriter sound, and see the bullets dim as you proceed on to the next bullet.

Sound

Be Careful with Sound

Be careful when using sound for transitions and text animation.  Sometimes, too many effects can overwhelm and detract from a presentation. As you become more experienced with sounds and web pages you will find many web pages devoted to sounds and clip art.  In the Front Page 98, 2000 and 2002 tutorials there is a section on WAV sounds.  If you desire a copy of either of these tutorials, simply e-mail the addresses at the end of this tutorial.  You may want to experiment with some other sounds you “download and save” form the internet.

Don’t forget to keep saving your presentation often as you enhance it with these effects.

Using Online ClipArt