How to Animate a Drawing in Microsoft PowerPoint

If you want to use the Microsoft Office drawing tools in PowerPoint, you can add animation to your drawing to make it a useful demonstration.

This allows you to create anything from a simple letter to teach a student how to write to a fully detailed mockup to show your team a process.

Create your drawing in PowerPoint

When you go to the Draw tab in PowerPoint, you’ll see all your freehand tools at the top. You can choose a pen, pencil or highlighter, choose the line thickness and choose a color or pattern.

Each solid line you use becomes an element on the slide. You can select and move these items using the arrow on the left side of the ribbon.

To animate any of these elements, select it and go to the Animations tab.

TIED TOGETHER: How to create a typewriter or command line animation in PowerPoint

Animate the drawing in PowerPoint

With the drawing or part of the drawing selected, choose either Repeat or Rewind from the animation panel on the ribbon. Replay shows your drawing from start to finish, while Rewind shows it from end to start.

Note: You only see these animation options for drawings you create with the Freehand tools.

Click Preview on the left side of the ribbon to see the animation in action. You should see your drawing as if you are creating it for the first time.

If you want to animate an entire drawing that contains more than one part, simply select each additional part in the order you want to view it and apply the repeat or rewind effect.

You can then use the tools in the Timing section of the ribbon to choose how to start the animation on the slide, Duration, how fast the animation moves, and Delay to delay the animation for a few seconds.

In addition to the replay and rewind animations specific to the Freehand and Drawing tools, you can apply other effects to your drawing if needed. Select the drawing or part of it, click Add Animation in the Advanced Animation section of the ribbon, and choose the additional effect.

Remember that animations appear in the order you apply them. To adjust this order, select the animation number and use the Move Earlier or Move Later button on the right side of the ribbon. You can also open the animation panel and drag the effects to rearrange them.

TIED TOGETHER: How to rearrange animations in Microsoft PowerPoint

Animations have their place in PowerPoint, and viewing a drawing while you’re creating it is a great use. For more information, see how to animate part of a chart to emphasize it or show it line by line in a bulleted list.