Ms Office Tune Up

A transition is a visual (and sometimes auditory) effect that plays during the switch from one slide to another. The most common transition is a fade, where the next slide begins as a black screen and then gradually displays. Similarly, in a push transition it appears as though the slide is being pushed onto the screen. PowerPoint 2007 comes with more than 50 pre­set transitions, and you can see them when you choose the Animations tab and click the More button in the Transition to This Slide group. Hover the mouse pointer over a transi­tion, and PowerPoint demonstrates the effect on the current slide.

Most transitions occur silently, and that’s as it should be for the vast majority of presenta­tions. However, there are times when you want a sound effect to accompany a particular transition, such as:

• A slide that announces a major new product or service might transition with a drum roll.
• A transition to a slide containing a photo might be accompanied by a camera shutter that clicks.
• The transition to the last slide in the presentation might merit an applause effect (if only to encourage your audience to follow suit).
• A presentation to young children might add a variety of sound effects-chimes, explo­sions, lasers, wind, and so on-to keep the youngsters engaged.

PowerPoint 2007 comes with nearly 20 built-in transition sounds, including Applause, Camera, Drum Roll, Explosion, Laser, and Wind. On the Animations tab, pull down the Transition Sound list to select the sound effect you want to use.

If none of the ready-to-run sound effects suit your needs, PowerPoint also enables you to specify a custom sound effect, which needs to be a sound file in the WAV format.

Here are the steps to follow to apply a custom sound effect to a slide transition:

1. Navigate to the slide with which you want to work. (If you want to apply the transition to multiple slides, select those slides using either the Navigation pane or the Slide Sorter view.)
2. Choose Animations, click the More button in the Transition to This Slide group, and then click the transition effect you want to use. (Note that this step is optional; you can add a transition sound effect without also using a transition visual effect.)
3. Choose Transition Sound, Other Sound. PowerPoint displays the Add Sound dialog box.
4. Click the sound file you want to use.
5. Click OK.
6. If you want PowerPoint to keep playing the sound effect until the next sound effect begins, choose Transition Sound, Loop Until Next Sound.

CAUTION

Be careful with the Loop Until Next Sound command.This feature is best used with an enjoyable piece of music that loops smoothly or with an effect that requires a bit of time to unfold, such as a ticking clock. In most other cases, the constant noise will, at best, drive your audience to distraction (or, at worst, to thoughts of harming the presenter).

TIP

While you present, if you have a long (or looped) sound effect playing and you want it to stop, quickly press W twice in succession.This toggles the slide show’s white screen on and off, but it also serves to stop the sound effect. (Toggling the white screen on and off works best with presen­tations that use a white or light background. If your presentation uses a black or dark background, press B twice to toggle the black screen on and off.)

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