You're probably familiar with this: your presentation is ready, and then you realize that something needs to be changed. These changes often bring with them a number of problems: images ruin the layout, and your slides look static.

What helps here is the PowerPoint slide master. With it, you can create an appealing design with animations and triggers. Read on for tips and tricks on using animations in the slide master.

PowerPoint Slide Master - What is it?

Using the slide master, you can modify or expand your presentation as needed without disrupting the design and flow of your slides. You can quickly and easily define fundamental elements in a consistent manner.

Detailed information can be found in the article " PowerPoint Slide Master ".

Animations on the slide master - here's how!

The PowerPoint slide master is ideal not only for maintaining a consistent design but also for setting up recurring animations . To configure triggers or animations on the slide master, you don't need to add them to each slide individually. With the slide master, you only need to set everything up once.

A good example of this is the effect for placeholders in main text. The following images show, firstly, a blank slide with the placeholders in normal view, and then the slide master template.

In normal view , clicking the frame of the text box will directly display the animation menu , from which you can select an effect.

In the slide master view, the individual effect levels are displayed directly on the frame. Since there are five different text layers, five numbers are shown. In the animation menu, however, you only see one line, and the other levels only become visible when you click on the respective level.

When you close the slide master, in Normal view you'll see the previously selected animation in the Animations menu on the right, now labeled "Master." Five lines of text have been inserted into the placeholder on the slide. In the Animations menu, you'll notice that the "Master" label is missing and the mouse icon in the left-hand corner indicates "On Click."

The animations run in the order shown in the animation menu. First, clicking the slide master animates it, followed by the animation of the text box on the slide.

Caution: It's easy to make a mistake when selecting and adding placeholders in the slide master. If you want an animation for all slides, including all slide layouts, you must select the "topmost" slide in the slide master.

However, if you select the master slide that is highlighted when you navigate to the slide master from any slide, the effects will only be applied to the slides assigned to that master. You can see the difference in the Animation Pane menu.

Here you can see that an animation has been set up on the "top" master slide. Below that, you'll find another effect for one of the layout slide masters. When you present your slides in presentation mode , the animation will play out as follows:

#1: First, triggered by a mouse click, the effects of the master slide run through.

#2: The selected effects of the respective slide layout then run.

Attention: If you have selected two identical text boxes, this means that the animation of the text in the text box on the slide will also occur twice (one after the other).

In the following screenshot, only the text box in the slide master layout has been animated.

Problems with animations on the slide master

Please note that using animations on the slide master requires careful attention. It is often difficult to edit, change, or remove effects that have been inserted incorrectly. This is further compounded if you also insert and animate your own objects on the slide master.

This means you won't see the animations of these objects in the animation pane in normal view. Therefore, you also won't see when and how each animation plays in the slide master.

Example:

To illustrate this problem more clearly , we have an example for you. A triangle has been inserted on the master slide. You can now see that this triangle is present on all slide master slides.

The triangle was then edited with the "Float In" and "Rotate" effects and set to execute on "Click" . The first effect of the text placeholder is visible at the top of the Animation Pane menu.

The problem here is that only the placeholder animation is visible in the animation pane once you close the slide master. The two effects of the triangle are no longer visible.

Animations on the slide master – our tips

#1: Less is more

If you have set up an animation on the slide master , it will initially play after each slide starts. If you use spectacular slide transitions, your audience may quickly become annoyed by the numerous movements on your slides.

The way the effect is implemented also plays an important role: animated clips, for example, often add even more visual clutter to your presentation . Shapes that move vaguely in the background can also quickly become distracting. Our tip: Review your entire presentation in its original size, ideally even in the room where you'll be presenting it. Less is more, and you'll quickly realize whether your presentation is complete or needs further development.

#2: Shortcuts

To access the master view , you normally have to navigate through the ribbon . This requires several clicks and takes more time than using keyboard shortcuts. Using the keyboard shortcut "Shift" and clicking the normal view icon in the bottom right corner of the status bar is significantly faster.

Clicking the button again will return you to the normal view.

You can also find out more about useful keyboard shortcuts in our blog article on the topic of "Shortcuts" .

#3: Use triggers

As a reminder: A trigger is an initiator/switch in the form of any object that explicitly triggers an effect. You can find more information about triggers in our blog post on the topic.

If you want to combine effects from the slide master with animations running on the slide, PowerPoint triggers are a good option. It's advisable to first design all the effects on the slide and then copy the animations to the slide master. This ensures that the timing of the animation can be precisely adjusted.

Alternatively, you can copy an existing master and then modify it to meet your requirements. You can then explicitly modify this master for test runs without altering the original master.

Triggers on the slide master - the special features

Many PowerPoint users are unaware that trigger fields located on the slide master can also be triggered when you are in normal presentation mode.

Attention: Certain objects located on the master layer must be clicked for this to work. It is therefore important that these objects are exposed . This means not only that the objects must be visible, but also that:

• These objects are not overlaid by elements on the master.
• These objects must not be obscured by elements on the slide (in normal view).
• These objects should not be placed behind placeholders of any kind.

While the first two points are straightforward, the third point presents some pitfalls, which we will explain here. There is no "Turn animations on or off" option on the slide master. However, you can create such a choice with a simple trick.

Normally, animations on each slide play out as defined on the master slide. By default, there are no exceptions. However, using a trigger, you can take a different approach, resulting in a customized solution.

A quick and freely selectable reaction to changing circumstances is useful in a presentation for various reasons.

#1: You needed more time for your presentation than planned and decide during the presentation that the main animation of the texts should no longer be clicked through individually.

Tips on how to properly manage your presentation time can be found in the article " Time Management ".

#2: Especially with extensive and text-heavy slides, this can save or gain valuable time.

#3: Conversely, if needed, you can also click through the individual lines of text on the slides at any time by clicking the other button.

#4: This allows you to individually influence your time management and adapt to current situations.

Here's how to proceed:

Open the slide master of the slide containing the text box and select "Title and Content Layout" in the master pane. Then, right-click on the slide and select "Duplicate Layout" . From this point on, you will be working with two slide masters, each of which you can select using buttons on the master.

In this example, we have added a form to the new master with the note "without animation" to make the procedure easier to explain.

On the other master slide, insert two shapes as buttons . For clarity, we've included a green triangle and a red arrow here. Tip: When using them later, place simple rectangles in the top and bottom corners. Fill these with 100% transparency so that only you can see the buttons without your audience seeing anything.

In the next step, we placed a blue rectangle "with animation" on the slide. This style will now be given the text animation "Fly in > from left" . Select the effect and then choose "Animations > Trigger > On Click > Right Arrow" .

In the image, you see five lightning bolts on the left, representing the five text layers. This means that the text animation only starts when you click the blue arrow. Now click the green triangle and add a hyperlink to the next slide. Then, when you click the triangle in presentation mode, it won't link to the next slide in the slide master, but rather to the next slide in normal presentation mode.

Next, close the slide master so you return to the normal view. Now, select all slides with the "no animation" layout in the overview and right-click to select "Hide Slide" . The slide numbers of the hidden slides will then be crossed out. These hidden slides would not be displayed in normal presentation mode.

The presentation process

Following these steps, your presentation will proceed as follows:

#1: You arrive at a new slide in your presentation which contains (not yet visible) many lines of text.

#2: Your viewers initially see nothing except the headline.

#3: As the presenter, you can decide whether you want to show and explain each line individually. To do this, click on the blue arrow.

#4: However, if you want all the text to appear at once, click on the form with the hyperlink to the next slide.

Although this method may seem complicated at first glance , it is quick to implement and very useful in practice. There is also another approach to the same thing, which we will present in the following paragraph. While this may seem confusing at first, we don't want to omit this method because it is still used by many PowerPoint users.

Triggering on the slide master via text boxes

With this method, you don't copy the entire slide to the slide master, but only select the text box on the corresponding master slide and duplicate only the text box. To distinguish between them, we have colored the text of these boxes red in the screenshots.

#1: Place the new text box directly above the existing text box on the slide.

#2: Create two shapes, for example rectangles, which you place at the edge and which will serve as trigger fields. To match the text boxes, these are colored red and black in the screenshot.

#3: Add the desired animation to the new, red text box and select the corresponding (red) rectangle as the trigger field.

#4: Next, set "Effect Options > Text Animation/Group Text > as a single object" .

#5: Repeat the same process for the second text box and then close the slide master. In Normal view, you will now see that there are two placeholders for the text box.

#6: This means you have to copy each text twice, identically, into each text box. This overlapping of the text can be a bit confusing during editing, as you have to make every correction twice.

Presentation outline:

The structure of this presentation is similar to the first example and looks like this:

#1: You arrive at a new slide in your presentation that contains many lines of text.

#2: Your audience initially sees nothing except the headline.

#3: You can now decide whether you want to show and explain each line individually, and if so, click on the black area.

#4: If you want all texts to appear at once, click on the red rectangle.

The advantage of the solution just presented is that you have fewer slide masters , and the path may therefore seem more obvious/direct.

Conclusion - Understandable and visually appealing presentations thanks to triggers in the slide master!

Even though creating triggers and animations on the slide master may seem time-consuming at first glance, it guarantees greater audience attention and understanding. Try out the different options and test which one works best for you.

If you have any questions about animations on the slide master or PowerPoint in general, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@presentationload.de . We're happy to help!

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Other articles that might interest you:

• PowerPoint triggers - Control your audience's attention effectively!
• PowerPoint Slide Master - Save time and benefit from it in your PowerPoint presentations
• Use a PowerPoint animation to add emphasis
• Useful shortcuts for efficient work with PowerPoint
• Control your audience's attention: 9 useful tips for capturing attention from the start!