PowerPoint won't do, PowerPoint won't do.

September 27, 2007 12:11 PM

I'm creating a PowerPoint with bulleted lists, and I'm having trouble getting it to do what I want.

I have the lists animated using "effect options" so that they dim to gray after the next click.

Between these bullets, I need additional slides with screenshots and circles and information (complicated enough that I want it on its own slide, not mashed onto the slide with bullets).

Here is my question: How can I create a slide that has half of the bullets dimmed/grayed out *already* when the slide comes up? The best I've been able to do is "with previous" on a bunch of them, but I still need to click once, then they all gray out together. Halp pls.

posted by eleyna to computers & internet (8 answers total)

Creat X versions of the bulleted slide, and make the text grey for all bullets except for the one you're about to speak about. Insert these slides throughout the presentation as appropriate - no need for the fancy effects :)
posted by odi.et.amo at 12:18 PM on September 27, 2007

Yes, I thought of that, but my bullets themselves are yellow. When the effect grays out the bulleted text, it grays out the bullet with it. If I click the text and make it gray, then I have gray text and a bunch of yellow bullets.
posted by eleyna at 12:21 PM on September 27, 2007

Can't you manually make the bullet grey also?
You may need to make a separate text box for each bullet item for it to work properly since PowerPoint isn't always as edit-friendly as Word can (sometimes) be.
posted by odi.et.amo at 12:24 PM on September 27, 2007

Yes, technically, I could do that. But creating additional text boxes really isn't the solution I want. I just want to find out if there's a way to make an effect play automatically when the slide comes up instead of "on click."
posted by eleyna at 12:27 PM on September 27, 2007

I know you've tried it, but if you do "with previous" it should happen automatically once the slide comes up.

Is it the first animation in the sequence on that slide, or is there something else before it that requires a click? If you make it the first animation(s), it should happen automatically.

Also, make sure you don't have a delay (options -> timing -> delay: 0).

Finally, might want to change the speed on those to "very fast."
posted by SampleSize at 12:49 PM on September 27, 2007

Also check your slide transition setting - if you set Advance Slide to 'On Mouse Click', then you can set the animation to start automatically (with previous) when the slide is transitioned.
posted by widdershins at 1:08 PM on September 27, 2007

The simple way, whether you want the solution or not, is to do as said above, and just create multiple copies of the slide.

The exceedingly complex way is to turn your interstitial slides into large (slide-size) images, and have them appear on click, disappear on next click while simultaneously greying out the relevant bullet point.

Allow me to emphasize: this is a stupid solution and a lot more trouble than it's worth. You will get precisely the same effect by simply doing:

1) slide w/bullets
2) detail slide
3) copy of 1, greyed as necessary.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Trust me on this. With PowerPoint, as with so many things, the simpler solution is better. Go with the simple solution. There is no point at all in using complex (and, frankly, poorly-implemented; ppt animations leave a lot to be desired) animation sequences to do something that can be done in a tenth of the time with a simple copy/paste and selective use of colour.

Hell, email me the deck--email in profile--and I'll have it back to you in under an hour, perfect.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:11 PM on September 27, 2007

Ah-ha ha.

I figured out the solution I need - thanks! Your comments opened my brain and helped me puzzle out why it wasn't doing what I wanted. (Thank you, SampleSize, especially).

My problem was that I was trying to use the "effect options- after animation - dim" setting. Which is something that happens *after* the animation (hence, it wouldn't gray it out until I clicked once). What I needed to use was an additional animation (emphasis - transparency) and lump them all in the "with previous" setting, and I can get nice, transparent bullet points (they're not gray - but that's okay with me) immediately when the slide comes up.

Perfect.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
posted by eleyna at 1:56 PM on September 27, 2007