PowerPoint - Fade in pictures one after the other

Creating a PowerPoint presentation is one thing. It is another to make this presentation varied as well. In this tutorial, we explain how to add effects and fade in PowerPoint images one after the other when creating a PowerPoint presentation.

What your PC must have for PowerPoint 2021

Old computers are no longer suitable for the new version of PowerPoint. In any case, Windows 11 is the best operating system. The highly complex tool PowerPoint 2021 can be used to its full potential with Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Pro N, among others. The software with which a PowerPoint presentation can be easily created includes, of course, Microsoft Office 2021 Standard. Microsoft Office 365 Home and Microsoft 365 Family also run excellently on the Microsoft operating systems Windows 11 Education and Windows 11 Enterprise. In the professional or semi-professional sector, Microsoft Office 2021 Home and Business and the office software Microsoft 365 Business Premium have proven their worth. The complete package Windows 11 Pro for Workstation is the best choice here.

How to add effects to pictures in PowerPoint

If you want to fade in pictures one after the other on one of the Windows 11 systems, for example with Microsoft Office 2021 Standard or Microsoft 365 Family PowerPoint, you first have to add effects to them. To do this, first click on the image on the slide that is to appear first in the presentation. Now navigate to the „Animations“ tab and select the effect that suits best in the „Animation“ group.

4 basic types of possible animations

The numerous animation effects that PowerPoint provides under Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Pro N under Windows 11 Education, Windows 11, Enterprise or Windows 11 Pro for Workstation, for example, can be divided into four basic types:

  1. Input: Determines how the image appears in the presentation slide.
  2. Focus: With a mouse click, objects can be rotated with the cursor.
  3. Exit: Determines the effect with which the image leaves the slide.
  4. Motion paths: This makes the animated objects „slide“ across the slide on a predefined path.

Easily fade in PowerPoint images one by one

After each picture has been provided with effects, they should now also be faded in in a certain order. To do this, the start behaviour of each animation as well as its duration must be defined. To enable PowerPoint to fade in images one after the other, proceed as follows:

  • Duration: Click on the animated picture, enter the number of seconds for which the picture is to be displayed in the „Duration“ field in the „Display duration“ group.
  • Delay: Here you can delay the animation of individual pictures after the actual start. Here, too, the duration of the delay must be entered in seconds.
  • Start: The time at which an animated image is to appear can be selected through various options:
  • „Start at Click“ starts the animation with a mouse click.
  • „With previous“ makes the animation start at the same time as the one in the sequence before. Caution: With this setting, several animations are visible at the same time!
  • „After Previous“ lets the PowerPoint images fade in one after the other, but immediately after the previous effect
  • „Preview“ in the „Animations“ tab allows you to test the animations in their order.

Tips for organising the effects

With all the possibilities that PowerPoint 2021 offers, it is possible to lose track of everything, depending on the number of effects and animations. To prevent this from happening, all effects can be organised very easily. If you first click on the „Advanced animation“ option in the „Animations“ tab and then on „Animation area“, the complete animation area appears. Here, all the selected animations of the slide are displayed in order. Now you can easily change settings such as the duration or the start of the effect. With the right mouse button, you can access a context menu that offers numerous other options. Incidentally, the order in which the animations are to take place can be changed quite simply by dragging and dropping.

Header image: ©Gorodenkoff, stock.adobe.com