The Animations tab is a bit deeper in Office 2010, and while this tab did exist in Office 2007, it’s actually the tab with the most new content. Now that transitions have their own tab, separate from animations, there are lots of new things included. For example, animations like Motion Paths are now held in a gallery, and they’re much easier to use than before.
That said, the best new features related to animations are also among the least obvious, and aren’t new ways to add animations but rather new ways to manipulate them and easily replicate them. Take Animation Painter as one example. This tool, located to the right of the animation tab gallery, lets you quickly copy an animation to multiple objects. First, you click on an object that has been given an animation. Then, click Animation Painter. The next object you click in your Powerpoint will be given the same animation. You can then click Animation Painter again and do this for another object, and so on. In this fashion, you can easily apply an animation to multiple objects.
The Animation Pane is also incredibly useful. Found above the Animation Painter option, the Animation Pane lets you change how animations play in your presentation. When you click on a slide with animations, the animations will appear in the order they’ll display. You can re-arrange them via drag-and-drop. But they don’t have to play in order at all; if you right click an animation in the Animation Pane, you’ll have the option of playing the animation alongside the animation that comes before or after. Precise adjustments to timing can be made by dragging the rectangles that are found besides the text of each animation – this changes when the animation begins to play and how quickly it plays.
