Slide Transition Duration in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Slide transitions in PowerPoint have a fixed, default duration. While some slide transition effects such as Cut take a fraction of a second to take place, other effects like Reveal can take more than 3 seconds to occur. Now, these are the default times for the effects. You are not limited to using only the available time spans since you can always increase or decrease the slide transition duration as you deem fit.

Before we show you how you can change the duration, do remember that Transition Duration and Transition Time are not one and the same. While Transition Duration is the amount of time taken to move between slides, Transition Time is the time for which the slide stays on the screen during a Slide Show before moving to the next slide. Transition Times are purely optional, since you can choose to let any slide show as long as you want and only move to the next slide with a mouse click. Transition Duration though is not optional. Even if you do not change the duration, there still is a default duration for each transition effect.

Follow these steps to change the Transition Duration in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. We assume you have already added transition to your slides.

1. Open your presentation and navigate to the slide for which you want to change the Transition Duration. Access the Transitions tab of the Ribbon, and take a look at the time shown in the Duration box, highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Duration box within the Transitions tab

60 Seconds or 100 Decimal Seconds?

PowerPoint uses a decimal system for part of a second. So, .50 refers to half second (50 centiseconds), each second thus has 100 centiseconds.
2. Use the Up and Down arrow buttons within the Duration box, as shown in Figure 1, above, to increase or decrease the Transition Duration. You can also type in the exact duration value in seconds within the Duration box. Thereafter, click the Play button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below, within the Preview group to check how long the actual transition takes to complete.
3. 
   Figure 2: Play button within the Transitions tab

Maximum Transition Duration?

The maximum transition duration allowed in PowerPoint 2011 is 59 seconds. Try this out with some transition effects and you will find the results can be gorgeous or boring!
3. If you are happy with the result, you can apply the same effect and duration to all slides in your presentation by clicking the All Slides button located within the Apply To group of Transitions tab, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below.
4. 
   Figure 3: All Slides button within the Transitions tab
4. Save your presentation.