Animation/ motion path end point/ duplicate objects?

[Keith R]

I googled but didn't find a relevant hit. If you can point me in the right
direction (or help me refine my search terms) I'd greatly appreciate it.

I have a slide with several shapes, each of which has a motion path. The
shapes all end up in a row, then I want to fade in a table (where each shape
is in a cell all in the top row) so I can add descriptive information in the
table below. I've run into a few problems I'm hoping someone can help me
with.

(1) I'm having all kinds of trouble lining up the motion path end points so
the shapes all end up in a centered, straight line. Is there a way to force
the endpoints into alignment? When working with shapes themselves I can
fine-tune the shape location, but I'm not sure how to do that with multiple
/endpoints/ of motion paths.

(2) After the animation, I want to switch to a new slide to add my other
content (the slide is too 'busy' to effectively work in, with the original
shape locations showing and the motion paths all on the same slide). I need
to move the same shapes into what was the final destination of the motion
paths. Again, when I move them individually (by mouse) they don't want to
line up in exactly the right places, so when I move from the motion paths
slide to my new slide, the shapes 'jump'. Instead of spending hours manually
aligning each one (flipping between the two slides in slideshow mode, then
identifying which ones are misaligned, then going into design view and
tweaking each shape location in the options box) how can I just "copy" the
end result of slide 1 (after the motion paths) to make slide 2?

Many, many (many many many) thanks,
Keith

 

[Lucy Thomson]

Hi Keith

I picked up a great tip at PPTLive 07 from the goddess who is Julie Terberg:
1. Create dummy shapes that are where you want the real shapes to end up
2. Use the guidelines to create crosshairs in the centre of each shape (use
the circles at the top/bottom & sides of the shape to find the centre)
3. Create the motion paths from the real shapes to the crosshairs - they
should snap to the centres
4. delete dummy shapes

Will that work for you? Oh, and for lining up objects I use the alignment
buttons or the guidelines. If you need more info post back with your version
and I'll make a wee video for you. I'm running out to a meeting right now
but will do it today at some point.

Lucy

 

[Echo S]

Great tips!

In addition, Shyam's Motion Path tools might help here.
http://skp.mvps.org/mptools.htm

 

[Keith R]

Lucy, I'm using PPT2003. Thank you for the tips and the offer of additional
assistance, although (see below) I think I'm all set for now. Echo- Shyam's
tool added the duplicate shapes at the end of the animation- what a great
tool! I was unable to figure out the rest of his tool and if/how to use it
to align the endpoints of the motion paths. I looked for any sort of help
file but didn't see one. The second part of his tool asks for the user to
select multiple motion paths, but the drop-down box would only let me select
one, even when I held down <ctrl> so I couldn't really play around to figure
out what it does.

I added a one-column table to the master slide (so I won't fight with which
objects are selected while I'm working on this) and added an additional
vertical line through the middle of the column; I'm trying to align my
motion endpoints (tiny white circles) so that they are centered on that
vertical line and are placed about halfway in each cell. The two challenges
this morning were (a) not all of my objects (ovals) are exactly the same
size, because I had to enlarge a few to fit the text. I went through each
one to get the max height and width, then selected all and set them to that
size at the same time. I ended up having to move a bunch around on the
slide, but it would have been worse trying to fix this later in the process;
and (b) even with the grid on the smallest possible size (.039 inches) I
have trouble getting the endpoint to actually sit on my homemade guideline.
I ended up turning off the 'snap to gridline' and 'snap to objects', then on
the master (creatively interpreting Lucy's suggestion) a diagonal line
within each table cell so the intersection of that and the vertical gave me
exact center. Once I had turned off the 'snap to' I was able to place the
endpoints where I needed them.

I think between Lucy's advice for positioning, and Shyam's tool for creating
endpoint copies per Echo's recommendation, I'm good to go.

Many thanks to both of you!
Keith

Great tips!

In addition, Shyam's Motion Path tools might help here.
http://skp.mvps.org/mptools.htm

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Hi Keith

I picked up a great tip at PPTLive 07 from the goddess who is Julie
Terberg:
1. Create dummy shapes that are where you want the real shapes to end up
2. Use the guidelines to create crosshairs in the centre of each shape
(use the circles at the top/bottom & sides of the shape to find the
centre)
3. Create the motion paths from the real shapes to the crosshairs - they
should snap to the centres
4. delete dummy shapes

Will that work for you? Oh, and for lining up objects I use the alignment
buttons or the guidelines. If you need more info post back with your
version and I'll make a wee video for you. I'm running out to a meeting
right now but will do it today at some point.

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

 

[Shyam Pillai]

Hey Keith,
The Align/Join tool is used in the following manner.

1. Draw an autoshape on slide.
2. Assign a 'Diagnonal Down Right' motion path to the shape. (a)
3. Assign a 'Diagnonal Down Left' motion path to the shape. (b)
4. Launch the Align/Join tool. In the dialog the autoshape will be listed
with the motions paths on that shape below.
5. Select all the items in the 'Select to edit motion paths' list.
6. Also, tick 'Generate a new motion path for selected items'.
7. Click OK.

You will notice that animations (a) and (b) are aligned end to end, giving a
smooth motion path.
You will also note that an extre animation has been added which is a single
motion path animation created by combining (a) and (b). You can now delete
(a) and (b), if desired.


--
Regards,
Shyam Pillai

Animation Carbon: Copy/Paste/Share animation libraries.
www.animationcarbon.com

Lucy, I'm using PPT2003. Thank you for the tips and the offer of
additional assistance, although (see below) I think I'm all set for now.
Echo- Shyam's tool added the duplicate shapes at the end of the animation-
what a great tool! I was unable to figure out the rest of his tool and
if/how to use it to align the endpoints of the motion paths. I looked for
any sort of help file but didn't see one. The second part of his tool asks
for the user to select multiple motion paths, but the drop-down box would
only let me select one, even when I held down <ctrl> so I couldn't really
play around to figure out what it does.

I added a one-column table to the master slide (so I won't fight with
which objects are selected while I'm working on this) and added an
additional vertical line through the middle of the column; I'm trying to
align my motion endpoints (tiny white circles) so that they are centered
on that vertical line and are placed about halfway in each cell. The two
challenges this morning were (a) not all of my objects (ovals) are exactly
the same size, because I had to enlarge a few to fit the text. I went
through each one to get the max height and width, then selected all and
set them to that size at the same time. I ended up having to move a bunch
around on the slide, but it would have been worse trying to fix this later
in the process; and (b) even with the grid on the smallest possible size
(.039 inches) I have trouble getting the endpoint to actually sit on my
homemade guideline. I ended up turning off the 'snap to gridline' and
'snap to objects', then on the master (creatively interpreting Lucy's
suggestion) a diagonal line within each table cell so the intersection of
that and the vertical gave me exact center. Once I had turned off the
'snap to' I was able to place the endpoints where I needed them.

I think between Lucy's advice for positioning, and Shyam's tool for
creating endpoint copies per Echo's recommendation, I'm good to go.

Many thanks to both of you!
Keith

Great tips!

In addition, Shyam's Motion Path tools might help here.
http://skp.mvps.org/mptools.htm

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Hi Keith

I picked up a great tip at PPTLive 07 from the goddess who is Julie
Terberg:
1. Create dummy shapes that are where you want the real shapes to end up
2. Use the guidelines to create crosshairs in the centre of each shape
(use the circles at the top/bottom & sides of the shape to find the
centre)
3. Create the motion paths from the real shapes to the crosshairs - they
should snap to the centres
4. delete dummy shapes

Will that work for you? Oh, and for lining up objects I use the
alignment buttons or the guidelines. If you need more info post back
with your version and I'll make a wee video for you. I'm running out to
a meeting right now but will do it today at some point.

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au


I googled but didn't find a relevant hit. If you can point me in the
right direction (or help me refine my search terms) I'd greatly
appreciate it.

I have a slide with several shapes, each of which has a motion path.
The shapes all end up in a row, then I want to fade in a table (where
each shape is in a cell all in the top row) so I can add descriptive
information in the table below. I've run into a few problems I'm hoping
someone can help me with.

(1) I'm having all kinds of trouble lining up the motion path end
points so the shapes all end up in a centered, straight line. Is there
a way to force the endpoints into alignment? When working with shapes
themselves I can fine-tune the shape location, but I'm not sure how to
do that with multiple /endpoints/ of motion paths.

(2) After the animation, I want to switch to a new slide to add my
other content (the slide is too 'busy' to effectively work in, with the
original shape locations showing and the motion paths all on the same
slide). I need to move the same shapes into what was the final
destination of the motion paths. Again, when I move them individually
(by mouse) they don't want to line up in exactly the right places, so
when I move from the motion paths slide to my new slide, the shapes
'jump'. Instead of spending hours manually aligning each one (flipping
between the two slides in slideshow mode, then identifying which ones
are misaligned, then going into design view and tweaking each shape
location in the options box) how can I just "copy" the end result of
slide 1 (after the motion paths) to make slide 2?

Many, many (many many many) thanks,
Keith

 

[Keith R]

Shyam-

Thank you for the explanation. I only had one motion path per object, which
explains why I wasn't able to test that functionality. I'll definitely keep
it in mind for future presentations where I have a single object move more
than once. In my current presentation, I have multiple shapes (each with
only one motion path) and am simply trying to coordinate their movement
relative to each other's position.

Best regards,
Keith

Hey Keith,
The Align/Join tool is used in the following manner.

1. Draw an autoshape on slide.
2. Assign a 'Diagnonal Down Right' motion path to the shape. (a)
3. Assign a 'Diagnonal Down Left' motion path to the shape. (b)
4. Launch the Align/Join tool. In the dialog the autoshape will be listed
with the motions paths on that shape below.
5. Select all the items in the 'Select to edit motion paths' list.
6. Also, tick 'Generate a new motion path for selected items'.
7. Click OK.

You will notice that animations (a) and (b) are aligned end to end, giving
a smooth motion path.
You will also note that an extre animation has been added which is a
single motion path animation created by combining (a) and (b). You can now
delete (a) and (b), if desired.


--
Regards,
Shyam Pillai

Animation Carbon: Copy/Paste/Share animation libraries.
www.animationcarbon.com

Lucy, I'm using PPT2003. Thank you for the tips and the offer of
additional assistance, although (see below) I think I'm all set for now.
Echo- Shyam's tool added the duplicate shapes at the end of the
animation- what a great tool! I was unable to figure out the rest of his
tool and if/how to use it to align the endpoints of the motion paths. I
looked for any sort of help file but didn't see one. The second part of
his tool asks for the user to select multiple motion paths, but the
drop-down box would only let me select one, even when I held down <ctrl>
so I couldn't really play around to figure out what it does.

I added a one-column table to the master slide (so I won't fight with
which objects are selected while I'm working on this) and added an
additional vertical line through the middle of the column; I'm trying to
align my motion endpoints (tiny white circles) so that they are centered
on that vertical line and are placed about halfway in each cell. The two
challenges this morning were (a) not all of my objects (ovals) are
exactly the same size, because I had to enlarge a few to fit the text. I
went through each one to get the max height and width, then selected all
and set them to that size at the same time. I ended up having to move a
bunch around on the slide, but it would have been worse trying to fix
this later in the process; and (b) even with the grid on the smallest
possible size (.039 inches) I have trouble getting the endpoint to
actually sit on my homemade guideline. I ended up turning off the 'snap
to gridline' and 'snap to objects', then on the master (creatively
interpreting Lucy's suggestion) a diagonal line within each table cell so
the intersection of that and the vertical gave me exact center. Once I
had turned off the 'snap to' I was able to place the endpoints where I
needed them.

I think between Lucy's advice for positioning, and Shyam's tool for
creating endpoint copies per Echo's recommendation, I'm good to go.

Many thanks to both of you!
Keith

Great tips!

In addition, Shyam's Motion Path tools might help here.
http://skp.mvps.org/mptools.htm

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx


Hi Keith

I picked up a great tip at PPTLive 07 from the goddess who is Julie
Terberg:
1. Create dummy shapes that are where you want the real shapes to end
up
2. Use the guidelines to create crosshairs in the centre of each shape
(use the circles at the top/bottom & sides of the shape to find the
centre)
3. Create the motion paths from the real shapes to the crosshairs -
they should snap to the centres
4. delete dummy shapes

Will that work for you? Oh, and for lining up objects I use the
alignment buttons or the guidelines. If you need more info post back
with your version and I'll make a wee video for you. I'm running out to
a meeting right now but will do it today at some point.

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au


I googled but didn't find a relevant hit. If you can point me in the
right direction (or help me refine my search terms) I'd greatly
appreciate it.

I have a slide with several shapes, each of which has a motion path.
The shapes all end up in a row, then I want to fade in a table (where
each shape is in a cell all in the top row) so I can add descriptive
information in the table below. I've run into a few problems I'm
hoping someone can help me with.

(1) I'm having all kinds of trouble lining up the motion path end
points so the shapes all end up in a centered, straight line. Is there
a way to force the endpoints into alignment? When working with shapes
themselves I can fine-tune the shape location, but I'm not sure how to
do that with multiple /endpoints/ of motion paths.

(2) After the animation, I want to switch to a new slide to add my
other content (the slide is too 'busy' to effectively work in, with
the original shape locations showing and the motion paths all on the
same slide). I need to move the same shapes into what was the final
destination of the motion paths. Again, when I move them individually
(by mouse) they don't want to line up in exactly the right places, so
when I move from the motion paths slide to my new slide, the shapes
'jump'. Instead of spending hours manually aligning each one (flipping
between the two slides in slideshow mode, then identifying which ones
are misaligned, then going into design view and tweaking each shape
location in the options box) how can I just "copy" the end result of
slide 1 (after the motion paths) to make slide 2?

Many, many (many many many) thanks,
Keith

 

[Lucy Thomson]

Glad you got it sorted Keith I'm sill going to do the video to put on my
website - I'll post back when it's done.

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

Lucy, I'm using PPT2003. Thank you for the tips and the offer of
additional assistance, although (see below) I think I'm all set for now.
Echo- Shyam's tool added the duplicate shapes at the end of the animation-
what a great tool! I was unable to figure out the rest of his tool and
if/how to use it to align the endpoints of the motion paths. I looked for
any sort of help file but didn't see one. The second part of his tool asks
for the user to select multiple motion paths, but the drop-down box would
only let me select one, even when I held down <ctrl> so I couldn't really
play around to figure out what it does.

I added a one-column table to the master slide (so I won't fight with
which objects are selected while I'm working on this) and added an
additional vertical line through the middle of the column; I'm trying to
align my motion endpoints (tiny white circles) so that they are centered
on that vertical line and are placed about halfway in each cell. The two
challenges this morning were (a) not all of my objects (ovals) are exactly
the same size, because I had to enlarge a few to fit the text. I went
through each one to get the max height and width, then selected all and
set them to that size at the same time. I ended up having to move a bunch
around on the slide, but it would have been worse trying to fix this later
in the process; and (b) even with the grid on the smallest possible size
(.039 inches) I have trouble getting the endpoint to actually sit on my
homemade guideline. I ended up turning off the 'snap to gridline' and
'snap to objects', then on the master (creatively interpreting Lucy's
suggestion) a diagonal line within each table cell so the intersection of
that and the vertical gave me exact center. Once I had turned off the
'snap to' I was able to place the endpoints where I needed them.

I think between Lucy's advice for positioning, and Shyam's tool for
creating endpoint copies per Echo's recommendation, I'm good to go.

Many thanks to both of you!
Keith

Great tips!

In addition, Shyam's Motion Path tools might help here.
http://skp.mvps.org/mptools.htm

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Hi Keith

I picked up a great tip at PPTLive 07 from the goddess who is Julie
Terberg:
1. Create dummy shapes that are where you want the real shapes to end up
2. Use the guidelines to create crosshairs in the centre of each shape
(use the circles at the top/bottom & sides of the shape to find the
centre)
3. Create the motion paths from the real shapes to the crosshairs - they
should snap to the centres
4. delete dummy shapes

Will that work for you? Oh, and for lining up objects I use the
alignment buttons or the guidelines. If you need more info post back
with your version and I'll make a wee video for you. I'm running out to
a meeting right now but will do it today at some point.

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au


I googled but didn't find a relevant hit. If you can point me in the
right direction (or help me refine my search terms) I'd greatly
appreciate it.

I have a slide with several shapes, each of which has a motion path.
The shapes all end up in a row, then I want to fade in a table (where
each shape is in a cell all in the top row) so I can add descriptive
information in the table below. I've run into a few problems I'm hoping
someone can help me with.

(1) I'm having all kinds of trouble lining up the motion path end
points so the shapes all end up in a centered, straight line. Is there
a way to force the endpoints into alignment? When working with shapes
themselves I can fine-tune the shape location, but I'm not sure how to
do that with multiple /endpoints/ of motion paths.

(2) After the animation, I want to switch to a new slide to add my
other content (the slide is too 'busy' to effectively work in, with the
original shape locations showing and the motion paths all on the same
slide). I need to move the same shapes into what was the final
destination of the motion paths. Again, when I move them individually
(by mouse) they don't want to line up in exactly the right places, so
when I move from the motion paths slide to my new slide, the shapes
'jump'. Instead of spending hours manually aligning each one (flipping
between the two slides in slideshow mode, then identifying which ones
are misaligned, then going into design view and tweaking each shape
location in the options box) how can I just "copy" the end result of
slide 1 (after the motion paths) to make slide 2?

Many, many (many many many) thanks,
Keith