Reorder Animations in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Animations are always numbered in the order as you apply them. So, if you first animate a shape and then add animation to the text placeholder—then that's going to be the sequence in which they will animate. However, it is possible to reorder your animations as needed. You may want to consider reordering of animations so that the sequencing happens as per some aesthetics and logic. Also Entrance and Exit animations, if applied need to be the first and last animations for any slide object. PowerPoint's Reorder options for animations let you play with this sequencing.

Follow these steps to reorder existing animations in PowerPoint 2011 for Windows:

1. Before you start, make a duplicate copy of your slide in the presentation. This is easily achieved by selecting the slide in Slide Sorter view (see also our page on PowerPoint 2011 Views) or within the Slides pane, and pressing Command+D. This duplicates the slide, and it's good to have a copy of the slide that you can go back to, just in case you want to cancel everything and start from the scratch!


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2. Now, click the Reorder button within the Animations tab of the Ribbon, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
3. 
   Figure 1: Reorder button within the Animations tab
3. Doing so summons the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2, below. Within this tab, the Animation order list includes all animations applied to various objects on the active slide, as shown in Figure 2. Note that all animations are shown in the sequence they occur from top to bottom.
4. 
   Figure 2: Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox
4. Select any animation that you want to reorder, as shown in Figure 3, below. You can also select multiple animations. We chose the animation added to 5-Point Star shape, as shown in Figure 3.
5. 
   Figure 3: Animation selected within the Custom Animation tab of the Toolbox
5. To change the order of the selected animation(s), use the Reorder Up/Down arrow buttons, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, above, located at the bottom of the Animation order list. In Figure 4, you can see that we have changed the order of the selected animation from 4th to 2nd, within the Animation order list.
6. 
   Figure 4: Animation reordered

Drag to Reorder Animations

If there are plenty of animations listed within the Animation order list, it may take a lot of time to reorder them using the Reorder up-arrow or down-arrow buttons. In such a situation, first, select the animation that you want to change the order for, and then drag it to the new position within Animation order list.

6. Once you have reordered your animations, preview them to make sure that the results look like what you intended. You might have to tweak animation events if reordering made some changes to how they play.
7. Save your presentation.