Custom Animation Naming Conventions

[Kelly G]

We make frequent use of animations at my job, and sometimes they can become
fairly layered with many lines of animation being listed in the custom
animation task pane. With multiple people working on a given project, it
becomes unclear quickly which lines in a given in the task pane refer to
which objects as we are layering objects on top of one another to house in a
single slide. Is there a way to cusomtize the animation task pane so that we
can add our own labels to the lines within the animation for a more legible
look to others working on the job. Default labeling gives a very generic
sense of the element being animated, for instance rectangle 54. Thanks in
advance.

 

[Shyam Pillai]

Hello Kelly,
Which version of PowerPoint are you using? It's possible to have this in PPT
2007 since PPT 2007 displays the name of the shape in the animation taskpane
and the name can be customized as desired. In earlier versions this is not
possible.

Regards,
Shyam Pillai

Animation Carbon: http://www.animationcarbon.com

 

[John Wilson]

As Shyam says you can only customise names and show them in the animation
pane in 2007 (one if the best features IMHO). In earlier versions though if
you add some text to a shape (ie its custom name) it should show up in the
animation pane. This text can be set the fill color and therefore be
invisible. Not perfect but it may help.

(NB I'm working on 2007 here but I'm pretty sure I remember this working in
2003)

 

[Echo S]

I think Select Multiple in PPT 2003 and prior may help with the naming so it
is easier to identify in the animation pane. But I can't remember for sure!

Anyway, here's a screencast about it. Might be worth trying, anyway.

http://visuallounge.techsmith.com/2005/11/powerpoint_secret_revealed.html

 

[RomaL]

Hi Kelly,

You can do this in 2003 with a bit of trick. When you create an image, save
it as a picture with a descriptive name (either jpg of png to keep the file
size small), then reinsert the picture from the saved file. When you animate
the figure, it will show up in the animation task pane with your file name.

The down side to this is that you will no longer be able to modify the
figure easily, unless you go back into the original drawing, change it, save
to file, etc. Also, some of the animation features, such as change figure
color, will no longer be available or will not work as expected.

If an object has a motion path associated with it, you can click on the
object name in the task pane, then use the keystroke combination Shift F6.
This will move your handles directly to the motion path of the object so you
can edit it. I don’t think there’s a comparable key stroke for animations
that aren’t motion paths. If anyone knows of one, please let me know!