PowerPoint Transition Tips and Tricks

You can access all of the transitions in PowerPoint 2010 through the Transitions tab, appropriately enough. Click on the slide you want to give a transition effect and then click on the Transition tab in the Office ribbon.

Now, my preference is to use "Fade" as my primary transition. Most of the time I want to subtly move from one slide to the next with the least amount of pomp. Fade is the best transition for that purpose. It's less abrupt than not using any transition, but the effect doesn't draw any attention to itself.

Once you have the transition selected, you can click the "Effect Options" button to adjust how the transition looks. For example with the "Fade" transition you can decide if it fades smoothly or through a black screen. For directional transitions, you can determine which direction they come from. Play around to see what works best for you.

Tweak the timing of the transition by changing the "Duration" value. If you like the settings for your transition and you want to use the same effect throughout your presentation, click the "Apply to All" button so that all the slides will share the same transition. You should use the same transitions throughout the slideshow. Do this. Please.

If you're creating a slideshow that automatically runs, use the Transitions tab to determine how long each slide will appear. In the "Advance Slide" area uncheck "On Mouse Click" and check "After" and then type in the number of seconds you want the slide to appear.

What transition tricks do you use regularly?