Exit Animations in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Exit animation effects determine how animated slide objects exits from the Slide Area. For example, a slide object can fade or fly out the screen area—or use any of the many other Exit animation effects available within PowerPoint. Typical Exit Effect animations include Disappear, in which an object just vanishes or Float Down, in which a slide object mimics the setting sun. You can also apply Exit Effects to text objects so that words Spiral out of the slide. There are plenty of Exit Effect animations that PowerPoint 2016 provides. However, make sure you use animation sparingly to emphasize rather than to distract.

The Add Animation drop-down gallery on the Animations tab of the Ribbon includes some of the Exit animations, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Exit Effects

If you want to explore more Exit animation effects, select the More Exit Effects option within the Add Animation drop-down gallery as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 1, above. Doing so opens the Add Exit Effect dialog box as shown towards left in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Add Exit Effect dialog box

Within the Add Exit Effect dialog box you can see the Exit Effects divided into 4 categories:

1. Basic
2. Subtle
3. Moderate
4. Exciting

If you can't see Exciting category, just scroll down, as shown highlighted in red towards right within Figure 2, above.

These category names represent how much attention-seeking each of these available effects are:

1. Effects in the Basic category are simple animations such as Wipe that causes a slide object to wipe out of the Slide Area. Animation effects in the Basic category are important if you need to show technical procedures in your slides.
2. Subtle effects are simpler effects that fade, contract, or zoom slide objects and send them off the slide. A classic example is the Fade animation that fades out an object until it disappears.
3. Moderate effects do ask for some extra attention by floating, shrinking, or spinning off the slide.
4. Finally, effects in the Exciting category just shout for attention.

As far as possible, you should use something simple such as a Fade, a Disappear, or a Wipe effect. These are all from either the Basic or Subtle categories.

The Exit animation effects available within the Add Exit Effect dialog box entirely depend upon the slide object you have selected. Figure 2, above shows the Add Exit Effect dialog box when a shape is selected. Here, we selected a Rectangle for applying animation. Compare the Exciting effects within the Add Exit Effect dialog towards right in Figure 2 above, with the one in Figure 3, below, where we summoned the same dialog box for applying animation to a text box.

Figure 3: Add Exit Effect dialog box summoned with a text box selected

The Exciting category, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, contains three extra Exit Effects: Drop, Flip, and Whip effects. These were grayed out in the Add Exit Effect dialog box, as shown highlighted in red towards right within Figure 2, previously on this page. These three Exit Effects work only with text, not with shapes.

The embedded sample presentation below shows all the Exit animation effects available in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.