Emphasis Animations in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

What is the Emphasis animation feature in PowerPoint?

Emphasis animation effects determine how slide objects call attention while on-the-slide. Entrance and Exit effect animations allow a slide object to enter or exit the Slide Area, whereas slide objects with Emphasis Effect animations are already there on the slide area before they start animating, and will be there even after they have finished animating.

Typical Emphasis animation effects are Spin and Grow/Shrink. You can also apply Emphasis animation effects to text objects so that the fonts or the text colors change. In all, there are 50 or more Emphasis Effects that PowerPoint 2016 for Windows provides. However, make sure you use animation only if it adds value to your presentation and helps you explain something better to your audience.

How to add Empasis animations in PowerPoint?

The Add Animation drop-down gallery of the Ribbon includes some of the Emphasis animations, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Emphasis Effects available for a shape (or a picture)

Notice that some of the Emphasis Effect animations such as Brush Color, Font Color, Wave, etc. have been greyed out. This is because these effects work only with text, and we have selected a shape to apply animation. Now, look at Figure 2, below that shows the Add Animation drop-down gallery we summoned for applying animation to a text box.

Figure 2: Emphasis Effects available for text

In Figure 2, above, you can see that all Text animations which are greyed out in Figure 1 are available, but Line Color and Fill Color effects have been greyed out since they don't apply to text.

If you want to explore more Emphasis animation effects, select the More Emphasis Effects option within the Add Animation drop-down gallery, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 1, shown previously on this page. Doing so opens the Add Emphasis Effect dialog box, as shown in Figure 3, below. The Emphasis effect animations within Add Emphasis Effect dialog box entirely depend upon the slide object you have selected. In Figure 3, you will find two views of the same dialog box. Towards the left you can see the Add Emphasis Effect dialog box when a shape is selected (we selected a Rectangle) for applying animation. If you select some text, it will look what you see towards the right within Figure 3.

Figure 3: Add Emphasis Effect dialog box

Within the Add Emphasis Effect dialog box you can see the Emphasis Effects divided into 4 categories:

1. Basic
2. Subtle
3. Moderate
4. Exciting

Broadly speaking, these category names explain how much attention-seeking each of these available effects are. Effects in the Basic category are simple, everyday effects that you may have seen a zillion times. Subtle effects do not attract too much attention, Moderate effects do ask for some attention, and effects in the Exciting category scream for your audience's attention. As far as possible, you should use a simple effect such as Appear, Grow/Shrink, or Transparency. These are all from either the Basic or Subtle categories.

The embedded sample presentation below shows you how to create all Emphasis Animation Effects available in PowerPoint.