How to Make Text Appear in Stages in PowerPoint Presentations

Whether you are creating a training presentation for new employees or want to impress a potential client, PowerPoint's animation feature can help you make an impact. One way to use animation is to move text onto a slide. By animating paragraphs individually, you can set up bullet points or sections to appear on the slide in stages so that viewers have time to take in each statement, ask questions or take notes.

Start PowerPoint and open the presentation you want to animate. Select all of the text you want to appear in stages or simply click inside the text box containing that text.

Click on the "Animations" tab of the ribbon. Click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation section and select "More Entrance Effects." Select the effect you want to use to make the text appear on the slide and click "OK."

Click "Animation Pane" in the Advanced Animation section. Click the arrow at the right end of the animation effect you added and choose "Effect Options."

Click the "Text Animation" tab. Click the "Group Text" drop-down arrow and select the way that you want text to appear. For instance, choose "By 1st Level Paragraphs" if you want one paragraph or bullet point to appear at a time.

Choose any other effects you wish to apply, such as the amount of time you want between text appearances. Click "OK" to apply the settings. Save the PowerPoint presentation before closing or running it.