In this post, we explore troubleshooting a PowerPoint animation problem. We look at what to do when PowerPoint animations stop working, and then, we also explore how you can stop all animations in your presentation with one option.
One of our subscribers just reached out to say, The slides in my PowerPoint are not showing the animations I have set. I double-checked and all animations have been set properly. So why don’t the animations play?
Call it a coincidence, but we recently also heard another question, I have detailed animations set up on my PowerPoint slides, but can I disable the animations without deleting them altogether? I need to preview a bunch of these slides for non-animated stuff, and I have to view all animations which is taking so much time. One of my slides has thirty-two animations and it takes more than 4 minutes to preview them. If I could disable these animations, I would save 4 minutes each time I play the presentation only with this one slide!
The resolution to both these problems may be the same. To find out more, follow these steps:
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint. If it is not saved, please save it. If it’s already saved, press the Ctrl + S keyboard shortcut to save if you are using PowerPoint for Windows. If you are using PowerPoint on a Mac, use the similar Command + S keyboard shortcut to save.
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PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts
Do you want more keyboard shortcuts? Explore our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences Ebook that is updated for all PowerPoint versions.
- Next, access the Slide Show tab and of the Ribbon and click the Set Up Slide Show button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
Figure 1: Set Up Slide Show- Doing so brings up the Set Up Show dialog box that you see in Figure 2, below. Do note that the Show without animation check box has been selected, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.
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Figure 2: Show without animation in PowerPoint for Windows
- Conversely, if your slides play without animation, someone may have enabled this option. In that case, you will deselect this check box.
- If you are using a Mac, the Set Up Show dialog box may look a little different, as shown in Figure 3, below. Do note that the Show without animation check box has been selected here as well, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3.
Figure 3: Show without animation in PowerPoint for Mac- Press the OK button, and depending on whether you selected or deselected this option, animations will be disabled or enabled within the presentation. Save your changes.
Enable Animations Before Sharing
The option to disable or enable animations is something that is presentation-specific. What does that mean? It means that once you save your PowerPoint file to play without animations, it will not play animations on all systems. So, if you send this presentation to your boss, colleague, client, friend, or anyone else, they will not see any animations unless they enable this option at their end. Of course, you could enable this option before sharing the PowerPoint file with others.