FT Powerpoint clinic
 

Help.

Using PP 2007, I want to construct a page of bullets so that the items are emphasized one by one as I click through. By this I mean:

I want to start with a blank screen (except for the header)
As I click I want each item to be added one by one (so far so good)
At the next click I want the next one to appear (also easy)
and (here's the hard part) I want the previous line to fade partially but not completely (go dim).

I can get the previous line to fade totally away, but not just go dim.

It's a second animation tied to the bullet change using "with previous."

You want the effect Emphasis/Change Font Color. Select your font color and then the speed of the transition (Medium seems about right to me.)

You'll have to add this animation in between every one of your bullet changes and select the right text. In the actual bullet change animations, make sure Effect Options, After Animation is set to "don't dim."

So you go to the next bullet and simultaneously, the previous bullet fades from its original color to whatever faded color you choose.

Now, if you can live with the dimmed text going dim all at once and not fading to its dim color, you can just set Effect Options, After Animation to the gray or other color you prefer and be done with it.

Crap like this reminds me of the glory days of Lotus Freelance Graphics and its one-click "bullet build" icon. 15 years later Microsoft has still never caught on.

There is a "lighten" effect that is an option in the custom animations setup. You might be able to create a transition that fades the new line in and then lightens the old one to a gray so that it does what you want.

Aaaack,

Thanks for the help. I'm getting closer. What a pain.

Why use bullets....
 

Ahh but you should not even be using bullets.....;)
http://sociablemedia.websitetoolbox.com/?forum=21389
http://www.aspirecommunications.com

Not exactly - Aspire Communications hides bullets behind a Jeopardy board, but the bullets are still there.

Even more hilarious, if you part with your money to purchase their templates (which aren't too hard to create yourself), here's what you'll see...

In other words...bullets! :D :D :D

Can I interject that I hate buildout slides? Just show what you're going to say.

;)

Doesn't best practise state that one should display ALL bullet points directly, instead of using the frustrating way of hiding the upcoming ones?

Presentation Style
 

I'm particularly fond of the presentation style that Lawrence Lessig uses. I've never tried it, and I think you need panache and a single message to make it work, but it's pretty compelling. I believe he uses Keynote to create presentations like this.

Do I detect a bit of bias in your question? :D :D :D

Bob Dylan + Apple
 

[deleted message]

Personally, I feel that the use of build out slides depends on the audience. For most internal presentations, business reviews, and generally any presentation that you give where the audience contains leadership in your chain of command, don't use build out slides.

However when you're giving a public presentation that's generally product/marketing focused, they can be usefull. But I would still recommend using them sparingly.

In my experience watching presentations, when somebody throws up a slide with five points on it, I read all five, so while the person in busy explaining the first one or two, I'm not paying attention because I'm reading the others. Build slides can keep the audience more focused on what's being discussed at the time.

Well, if there is enough text on the slide that it takes that long to read the five bullets that the presenter can get through 40% of the content before you finish there is another problem in play. ;)

Hyperbole gets me again--I should have stopped at 'one' rather than first one or two. :)

Still, the point remains that if I'm giving a presentation, I want the audience focused on what I'm talking about now, not some other point that I'll be talking about in a minute or two. Build slides let that happen.

Slightly OT, I do my build slides 'by hand' after a couple bad experiences trying animation with one version of PP and having it not work on a different version of PP on a computer hard-wired to the projector system.