How would you animate this slide if the request was “Make the left and center images disappear on click.”?
BAD
Here is one solution, the one I see a lot – but not the way I recommend accomplishing the request. The goal is to have the left and right images disappear. A common solution I see is adding a white box added that has a “Fade In” animation.
This does accomplish the request, make images disappear. The disadvantage is what the presenter reviewing the slides in slide sort or a PDF sees.
It is difficult to know the slide content, know content is missing from the printout, and prepare for the talk. Using the “cover it with a white box” option also makes formatting the slide much harder (move the white box, use Selection Pane to turn off the white box, send to back, etc. just to adjust the images you can’t see).
BEST
So, what is the “better” way to accomplish the request? Let me propose the best way would be to build this as 2 slides:
In a printout, or slide review in slide sorter, it is 100% obvious what the audience will see. This helps enable the presenter to plan their talk. Using a Fade transition would accomplish the exact same visual as the white box that animates on.
EFFICIENT
To stay with 1 slide, a more efficient and better way to do this is to animate the left and center images*. Easy, select the left image, shift+click to select the center image and add a Fade Out animation. Note, this is the “EXIT” animation, Fade Out. This means that the images will be removed from the slide during the slideshow “on click”.
This sets up exactly the same visual as the above options. But within the slide sorter review or printout, the deck looks like this:
Yes, it is not completely clear that the left and center images will disappear when reviewing the slide deck. But the presenter does see what the content is on the slide vs. being surprised there is more to the slide than they saw in the printout!
-Troy @ TLC