Section 10.13. Adding Movement | iWork 05: The Missing Manual

10.13. Adding Movement

After you've created all your slides and put them in the proper order, the content part of your creation is done. Now it's time to add slide transitions to provide sophisticated smoothness or gee-whiz glitz as you move from slide to slideand object builds , or animations within a slide. Besides adding some visual excitement to your slideshow, transitions and builds can help you present your information more clearly, add drama, signal changes in topic, andif you use them wiselygive your slideshow a much more professional, polished appearance.

10.13.1. Adding Transitions

If you don't add a transition, Keynote changes slides instantlyor cutsfrom one slide to another. Besides the cut, Keynote offers 23 other slide transition styles from which you can choose. You owe it to yourself to sample all these transitions just so you know what's available. If you watched the iWork Tour presentation (Help iWork Tour), then youve already seen most of the transitionsand you've also seen a fine example of what you should never do in one of your presentations: use every transition. You don't want your audience to walk away impressed by your fancy transitionsand unable to remember your message.

Transitions serve two very different purposes in a slideshow: They can either create smooth segues from one slide to another, or they can provide a dramatic punctuation to highlight the break between slides. When you choose transitions, consider carefully whether you're trying to just move smoothly to the next slide, provide a noticeable break between topics, or startle the audience with your visual derring-do. Always consider your message and your audience as you choose transitions. If your presentation is a morale booster for the cheerleading team, you can probably get away with anything. But if you own a funeral home and your presentation to the bereaved describes the various services you offer, you might want to reconsider your use of the Twirl, Drop, or Burn transitions. Transitions are like fontsyou usually need only one or two styles in a single document. If you have any doubt about which transition to use, err on the side of simplicity.

Tip: When you add a transition to a slide, you're creating the transition from the current slide to the following slide. You can't create a transition into the first slide of the presentation. If you want to start with a transition, you need to create a black slide for the beginning of the show and transition from that to your actual first slide. See Section 9.2 for details on creating a black slide.

Select a slide or group of slides to which you want to add transitions .

A transition moves out of the current slide into the following slide. You can select a group of slides and apply the same transition to them all. You can also add a transition to a master slide so that all slides based on it use that same transition. See Section 12.3 for more on creating and modifying master slides.

Open the Slide Inspector and click the Transition tab. From the Effect pop-up menu, choose a transition style (Figure 10-10) .

Keynote displays the transition on the Inspector's Preview screen. Click the Preview screen to replay the preview.

The menu displays all the available effects, broken into a 3-D Effects section and another showing 2-D Effects. Depending on your computer and its video card, you may see another section at the bottom of the menu titled "Effects that can't play on this computer." Since Keynote's fancier transitions require a lot of video horsepower, many Macs can't display them all.

But just because they won't play on your computer, doesn't mean you can't use these transitions in your slideshow. If you transfer the slideshow to a computer that does have the necessary video hardware, the transitions play just fineon lesser computers, they appear as simple dissolves .

Figure 10-10. Left: In the Slide Inspector's Transition tab, use the Effect pop-up menu to choose a transition style. The menu's divided into 3D Effects and 2D Effectsand depending on your computer's video hardware, the menu may show some effects you can't display on your computer.
Right: Keynote plays the transition for you in the Preview window after you choose an effect, change its duration or direction, or click the Preview window. The Preview window provides a tantalizing appetizer of your transition effectand lets you make sure you've picked the right transition. But to make sure you've really got it set up correctly, and to appreciate the transition's full effect, you have to play the slideshow.

In the Duration field, set the length of time for the transition. Type in the number of seconds or use the up and down arrow buttons .

You can set transition durations anywhere from a fraction of a second up to 60 seconds in lengthbut most of them look best in the one to two-second range.
Many of the transition effects move from one side of the screen to the other, move in or out, and so on. Use the Direction pop-up menu to choose how this movement occurs .
Use the final pop-up menu, marked Start Transition, to determine when Keynote plays the transitionin other words, when it begins transitioning to the next slide .

The standard setting, On Click, begins the transition when you click the mouse or press the Space bar. Choose Automatically if you want to change to the next slide after so many seconds, instead of by clicking the mouse. Enter that time interval in the Delay field or use its up and down arrow button to set the delay interval.

10.13.2. Creating Object Builds

While slide transitions create animations between slides, object builds add animations within a slide. You can use object builds to do things like make bullet points appear one by one; bring pictures, shapes , or other objects into the slide singly , or in groups; or display a chart or table element by element. You can control object builds with the mouse or Space bar during the presentation or you can automate them, bringing in each object or element in a timed sequence. The iWork tour presentation (Help iWork Tour) has a number of object builds.

You can choose from a variety of impressive animation styles that Keynote can apply when moving text or objects into a slide, or moving them out. As with transitions, discretion is advised when creating object builds. It's nice to have all these options available, but not every slide needs its text to appear as if it's been shot from a machine gun or whirled in a Cuisinart.

10.13.2.1. Creating object builds

Since every element of a Keynote slidetext boxes, pictures, shapes, and so onis an object, you employ the same techniques to build pictures into or out of a slide as you do to build shapes into or out of a slide, for example. Keynote also gives you further building possibilities for text, tables, and chartsall of which are objects made up of many individual elements.

The basic procedure for creating object builds on a slide is to select the objects on the slidetext boxes, pictures, shapes, and so onone at a time, and use the Build Inspector to determine how and when each object appears on the slide, and then how and when each object disappears from the slide. The build in (when objects appear on the slide) and the build out (when objects disappear from the slide) are completely separate operations. You can have either one without the other, or you can have both.

By controlling the build in and build out order, timing, and direction for various slide elements, you can create dramatic animated effects.

Select an object on the slide that you want to build, and then open the Build Inspector. Click the Build In tab if you want to set up how this object appears on the slide; click the Build Out tab if you want to set up how this object disappears from the slide .

The object you select could be any kind of text box, a single bulleted item, a picture, chart, table, movie, or sound file.

Unlike other inspectors, the Build Inspector features a drawer where you can arrange the build order for multiple objects and determine when each build begins. Click Set Automatic Builds to open it.
Click the Effect pop-up menu to choose the build effect style. Many effects have a direction option. Use the Direction pop-up menu to set it .

If you're working with a text object, the Effect menu shows two categories of text effects in addition to the standard set of object effects (Figure 10-11). Character Effects apply the effect to each individual character in the selected text. Word Effects apply the effect to each word. When you choose an effect, Keynote displays it in the Preview window.
You can adjust the length of time it takes Keynote to perform this effect by entering the number of seconds in the Duration field or using its up and down arrow button .
Use the Delivery pop-up menu to choose delivery options for body or free text boxes .

For body text boxes, you can choose to have the whole text box appear at once (All at Once), or to have the bullets appear incrementally, in one of three variations (Figure 10-11). Free text boxes can appear in their entirety, or paragraph by paragraph.
5. Use the Order pop-up menu to set the build order for multiple objects, or drag them up or down the list in the Build Order drawer .

Each time you add an object to the Build Inspector, it appears in the list in the Build Order drawer. This list shows the order, the object name , and whether the object is building in or building out (Figure 10-12).

Use the Start Build pop-up menu to determine when each build occurs .

On Click starts the build when you click the mouse or press the Space bar.

"Automatically after" starts the build after the time interval you set in the Delay box after the slide transition (if it's build number one) or after the build above it in the list.

Figure 10-11. Left: Use the Build Inspector's Effect pop-up menu to choose the build style. The items in the top part of the menu treat the whole text box or paragraph as a single entity, the Character Effects styles individually build in each character, while the Word Effects styles individually build in each word.
Right: Use the Build Inspector's Delivery pop-up menu to choose how bulleted items appear in a body text box. All at Once brings all the text in together. By Bullet brings in each bulleted item individually. By Bullet Group brings in each bullet and any indented bullets beneath it as a group. By Highlighted Bullet brings in each bulleted item individually, highlighting the current bullet while dimming the previous ones in order to focus attention on the current bullet point. The time you enter in the Duration field applies to the entry of each bullet or group of bullets.

"Automatically with" lets you start two builds simultaneously , beginning the current build at the same time as the one above it in the list.

When you've completed the build in, click the Build Out tab and follow the same procedure to automate the removal of that object from the slide .
Highlight another object on the slide canvas and repeat the above procedure to build in, and, if you like, build out the object .

Highlight an object in the Build Order drawer if you need to edit its settings .

Figure 10-12. You can create sophisticated animations by combining multiple object builds, using various effects on one slide. This eclipse animation from the iWork tour slideshow contains 22 timed object builds. Control the sequence of an animation by dragging objects up or down the Build Order list, and control its timing by adjusting the effect duration and build delay settings.

10.13.2.2. Table builds

If you have a table in your slide, you can treat it just like any other objectyou set it up to build in or build out as described above. But since a table is itself composed of separate elements, Keynote can build in or build out the table in several different ways. With the following techniques, you can build dramatic tension as you reveal your table data bit by bit, for example, building up to the final column showing this year's test scores, sales figures, or grades.

To begin, select a table and use the Build Inspector to choose whether to build in or build out, a build effect, direction, and duration as described above. Then choose one of the following table build options from the Delivery pop-up menu:

All At Once . This is the standard delivery option. Keynote treats the whole table as a single object.
By Row . Choose this option to build in the table one row at a time, starting at the top; or build out the table one row at a time, starting at the bottom.
By Column . This option builds in the table one column at a time, starting at the left; or builds out the table one column at a time, starting at the right.
By Cell . Select this option to build in the table one cell at a time, left to right and top to bottom. When building out, this option removes cells one at a time beginning at the bottom right.
By Row Content . This option first brings the empty table framework to the slide and then adds the row contents row by row. When building out, Keynote reverses the process, removing the contents of each row, and then removing the table framework.
By Column Content . Select this option to first build in the empty table framework and then each column's content. When building out, Keynote removes the contents of each column before it finally deletes the table framework.
By Cell Content . Choose this option to build in the table framework followed by the cell contents, one cell at a time starting at the top left. When building out, Keynote removes the contents of each cell starting at the lower right, before it finally removes the table framework.

No matter which of the delivery options you choose, all the table elements share the same build effect. Building in and building out, however, are completely separate actions. You could, for example, build in the table by row content with the move in effect, and then build out by column with the dissolve effect.

10.13.2.3. Chart builds

Like tables, you can build a chart into or out of a slide all at oncelike any other objector gradually, dramatically assembling or disassembling the chart from its various elements.

To begin, select a chart and use the Build Inspector to choose either build in or build out, a build effect, direction, and duration as described above. Then choose one of the following chart build options from the Delivery pop-up menu:

All at Once . This is the standard delivery option. Keynote treats the chart as a single object.
Background First . Choose this option and Keynote builds in the chart in two steps: first the background fill, axes, and grid lines; then the chart data.
By Series . Select this option and Keynote first adds the chart background and then adds the chart data, one entire data series at a time.
By Set . When you choose this option, Keynote first adds the chart background and then adds the chart data, one entire data set at a time.
By Element in Series . With this option, Keynote first adds the chart background and then adds each data point, one data series at a time.
By Element in Set . When you choose this option, Keynote first adds the chart background and then adds each individual data point, one data set at a time.
By Wedge . This option is available only for pie charts . Choose it, and Keynote adds the pie chart to the slide one slice at a time.

Note: Keynote provides only three options for area charts: all at Once, Background First, and By Series. When you build a pie chart, you get only two choices: All at Once or By Wedge.

When you build a chart, the chart's background and data elements all use the same build effect. But you can choose different build effects for building in and building out.

If you include the chart legend on your slide, you have to treat it as the separate object it is when you build your slide. You can select the chart, hold , and then click the legend to select both items. Then choose Arrange Group to turn them into a single entity. If you use this method, Keynote limits you to the all-at-once style build.

You're better off if you build the legend in along with the chart, setting the Start Build pop-up menu and the build order to determine whether the legend appears before, after, or at the same time as the chart (see Section 10.13.2).

10.13.2.4. Controlling sounds and movies with builds

If you include a sound or movie file on a slide you can use builds to control when they begin and end. With this technique you can, for example, play only the first 10 seconds of a song or just the first 15 seconds of a movie. If you build multiple songs or movies on a slide, you can play several sound or movie files in sequence.

Select the movie or the sound icon on the slide canvas, and then open the Build Inspector's Build In Tab .

Choose an effect from the pop-up menu. Since sounds are invisible on screen, just choose Appear.
Click Set Automatic Builds to open the Build Order drawer. Drag your sound or movie into position in the Build Order list and set the Start Build pop-up menu to control the start of the sound or movie .

Choose "Automatically after" the prior build (or transition if this is the first object in the build) and set the time delay to the length of time you want Keynote to wait to begin playing.
Click the Build Out tab in order to end the movie or sound before it plays all the way through. Choose an effect, select the build out line for the movie or sound in the Build Order list, and then change the Start Build menu to "Automatically after."
Enter the amount of time you want your sound or movie to play in the Delay field .