The best way to animate multiple objects on a slide in the same way is to group them first. That way, you only have to apply your animation effect once. You select all the objects and apply the Group command. Here’s a video demonstration:
42 seconds
Group a set of items and then apply an animation
(SmartArt graphics and text boxes—including bullet lists—are already grouped, so you can animate them without these preparation steps.)
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Hold down the Ctrl key and click all the objects that you want to animate together.
They don’t have to be touching each other, and it’s all right if they’re mixed in with things that you don’t want to animate. For example, in the mix of rectangles and triangles pictured below, all the rectangles are selected to be grouped.
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Select the Shape Format tab, then select
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On the Animation tab, select the animation effect that you want to apply to the group.
When you play back the animation, the grouped objects behave like one object.
More about grouping and animation
Another way to select a set of objects for grouping is to drag across them. It’s called drawing a marquee. If the marquee misses some things that you want to include, hold down the Ctrl key and click them. If it includes some objects you don’t want, do the same thing—hold down the Ctrl key and click the extra objects to unselect them. When you've selected all the objects you want, group them using the procedure above.
Group a set of items and then apply an animation
(SmartArt graphics and text boxes—including bullet lists—are already grouped, so you can animate them without these preparation steps.)
-
Hold down the Ctrl key, then select all the objects that you want to animate together.
They don’t have to be touching each other, and it’s all right if they’re mixed in with things that you don’t want to animate. For example, in the mix of rectangles and triangles pictured below, all the rectangles are selected to be grouped.
-
Select the Format tab, then select
-
On the Animation tab, click on the animation effect that you want to apply to the group.
When you play back the animation, the grouped objects behave like one object.
See Also
Group a set of items and then apply an animation
(SmartArt graphics and text boxes—including bullet lists—are already grouped, so you can animate them without these preparation steps.)
-
Hold down the ⌘ key, then select all the objects that you want to animate together.
They don’t have to be touching each other, and it’s all right if they’re mixed in with things that you don’t want to animate. For example, in the mix of rectangles and triangles pictured below, all the rectangles are selected to be grouped.
-
Select the Shape Format tab, then select
-
On the Animation tab, click on the animation effect that you want to apply to the group.
When you play back the animation, the grouped objects behave like one object.
See Also
Group a set of items and then apply an animation
(SmartArt graphics and text boxes—including bullet lists—are already grouped, so you can animate them without these preparation steps.)
-
Hold down the Ctrl key, then select all the objects that you want to animate together.
They don’t have to be touching each other, and it’s all right if they’re mixed in with things that you don’t want to animate. For example, in the mix of rectangles and triangles pictured below, all the rectangles are selected to be grouped.
-
Select the Shape tab, then select
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If you don't see the Group option: On the Shape tab, select
-
On the Animation tab, click on the animation effect that you want to apply to the group.
When you play back the animation, the grouped objects behave like one object.
