Apply multiple animation effects to one object
Applies To
PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac PowerPoint for the web PowerPoint 2024 PowerPoint 2024 for Mac PowerPoint 2021 PowerPoint 2021 for Mac PowerPoint 2019 PowerPoint 2016

In PowerPoint, you can apply multiple animation effects to a single string of text or an object, such as a picture, shape, or SmartArt graphic.

Tip: When working with multiple animation effects, it helps to work in the Animation Pane, where you can see a list of all the animation effects for the current slide.

Add another animation effect to an object

  1. Select the object on the slide that you want to animate.

  2. On the Animations tab, select The Animation Pane button. Animation Pane.

  3. Select Add Animation, and choose an animation effect.

  4. To apply additional animation effects to the same object, select it, select Add Animation and pick another animation effect.

Important: After applying the first animation effect, if you try to add more animation effects any other way other than selectinging Add Animation, you won't apply an additional effect. Instead, you'll replace the existing effect with a the one you're adding.

Set the start time and length of an animation effect

When you want to control the timing of your animation effects, do the following for each animation effect:

  1. In the Animation Pane, select the down arrow next to the animation effect, and then select Timing.

  2. On the Timing tab, select the Start down arrow, and choose from the following start times:

    • To have the effect play when the mouse is clicked, select On Click.

    • To have the effect play at the same time as the previous animation effect, select With Previous.

    • To have the effect play after the previous animation effect plays, select After Previous.

      Tip: The previous animation effect is the one listed in the playing order in the Animation Pane (usually located just above the animation you are setting the timing for).

  3. To delay the animation effect from starting, select the Delay up arrow to the number of seconds you want.

  4. To change the speed of the animation effect, set the Duration to the level you want.

  5. To watch how the animation effects work together, select Preview on the Animation tab.

Play multiple animation effects at the same time

You can have two or more animation effects occur at the same time for one object. For example, a picture could fade in and float in. To accomplish this layering of two (or more) effects at once, do as follows:

  1. Use Add animation button icon. Add Animation to add the second effect.

  2. For the timing of the second effect, set Start to With Previous.

Tip for working with multiple animation effects

When you work with multiple objects on a slide, it can be difficult to differentiate one object and its applied animation effects from another. 

In the picture, below, the default object names don't provide much of a description so it's hard to tell which object has what animation effect applied to it.

Names of objects without description

In the Selection Pane, you can give each object a distinct name to make it easier to work with them when you are applying animations to each. See below:

Give each object a distinct name

  1. To change the name of an object, on the Home tab, choose Select and pick  Selection pane button Selection Pane.

  2. In the Selection pane, double-click the default object name to open the box, then type a new name for the object.

More about working with animation effects

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