A
asgallant
I have a number of questions about animating charts in PowerPoint:
1. I can't seem to get PowerPoint to allow me to animate a graph by series
with one animation and category with another animation in the same slide. It
applies the same group style to the whole chart. Is there any way to work
around this without breaking up the slide into multiple slides and animating
each in a single group style?
Ex: Animating a combo Line/Column graph, animate the line with a "Wipe"
entrance while using a "Blink" emphasis on each column in sequence.
2. Some animation group styles are available for a given animation on some
charts, but not others. More specifically, it seems that the options are
available on charts where they are not needed, and a re unavailable on charts
where they would be most helpful - like animate "by element in category" (or
series) is available for the "Flash Bulb" animation in a Column chart but not
in a combo Line/Column chart. In the plain Column chart, animating "by
category" and "by element in category" work exactly the same, as near as I
can tell. In the combo chart, animate "by category" animates the column and
line segment for the data point with the same animation at the same time.
One would expect that animating "by element in category" (or series) would
animate only the column or line segment for a particular point, but the
option is unavailable. Is there any workaround for this?
3. Is there a method to animate only a single element within a chart,
without animating every element and then deleting all of the animations
except the desired one?
Ex. Animate a Column chart with 10 columns, and "Blink" only one of them
without applying the "Blink" animation to all of them and deleting the
animation for the other 9.
4. When animating "by category" can the animations be reordered without
setting up multiple animations and deleting select animations from each
sequence to arrive at the desired sequence? The "Re-Order" option is greyed
out for the elements within the default sequence for "by category" animations.
Ex. Animate a Column chart with the "Blink" animation in an out-of-order
sequence (say, category 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 9, 8, 1, 10, 7).
5. I have a Bar chart with both positive and negative values where the
category axis overlaps the bars for negative values. If I animate the bars
with negative values, the layering on the chart changes, and they overlap the
category axis, covering the category titles. Is there a way to change the
layering of charts in PowerPoint? The "Bring Forward" and "Move Back"
options for both the bars and the axis are greyed out.
6. Why do the animations on a chart reset to the default if I make any
change to the chart aside from adding new animations? Is there a way around
this?
Ex. Animate a Column chart with 10 elements "by category" with the "Blink"
emphasis on one column, and then add the "Bevel" Shape Effect to the columns
- the animation will reset to using the "Blink" effect on each category in
sequence.
I know I can work around some of these by importing the charts as Enhanced
Metafiles and then ungrouping them, but the conversion to EMF alters the
appearance of the charts so they look noticeably different from the other
charts in the presentation. Any advice, hints, tips, tricks, or solace would
be appreciated.
- Andrew Gallant
1. I can't seem to get PowerPoint to allow me to animate a graph by series
with one animation and category with another animation in the same slide. It
applies the same group style to the whole chart. Is there any way to work
around this without breaking up the slide into multiple slides and animating
each in a single group style?
Ex: Animating a combo Line/Column graph, animate the line with a "Wipe"
entrance while using a "Blink" emphasis on each column in sequence.
2. Some animation group styles are available for a given animation on some
charts, but not others. More specifically, it seems that the options are
available on charts where they are not needed, and a re unavailable on charts
where they would be most helpful - like animate "by element in category" (or
series) is available for the "Flash Bulb" animation in a Column chart but not
in a combo Line/Column chart. In the plain Column chart, animating "by
category" and "by element in category" work exactly the same, as near as I
can tell. In the combo chart, animate "by category" animates the column and
line segment for the data point with the same animation at the same time.
One would expect that animating "by element in category" (or series) would
animate only the column or line segment for a particular point, but the
option is unavailable. Is there any workaround for this?
3. Is there a method to animate only a single element within a chart,
without animating every element and then deleting all of the animations
except the desired one?
Ex. Animate a Column chart with 10 columns, and "Blink" only one of them
without applying the "Blink" animation to all of them and deleting the
animation for the other 9.
4. When animating "by category" can the animations be reordered without
setting up multiple animations and deleting select animations from each
sequence to arrive at the desired sequence? The "Re-Order" option is greyed
out for the elements within the default sequence for "by category" animations.
Ex. Animate a Column chart with the "Blink" animation in an out-of-order
sequence (say, category 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 9, 8, 1, 10, 7).
5. I have a Bar chart with both positive and negative values where the
category axis overlaps the bars for negative values. If I animate the bars
with negative values, the layering on the chart changes, and they overlap the
category axis, covering the category titles. Is there a way to change the
layering of charts in PowerPoint? The "Bring Forward" and "Move Back"
options for both the bars and the axis are greyed out.
6. Why do the animations on a chart reset to the default if I make any
change to the chart aside from adding new animations? Is there a way around
this?
Ex. Animate a Column chart with 10 elements "by category" with the "Blink"
emphasis on one column, and then add the "Bevel" Shape Effect to the columns
- the animation will reset to using the "Blink" effect on each category in
sequence.
I know I can work around some of these by importing the charts as Enhanced
Metafiles and then ungrouping them, but the conversion to EMF alters the
appearance of the charts so they look noticeably different from the other
charts in the presentation. Any advice, hints, tips, tricks, or solace would
be appreciated.
- Andrew Gallant