Animations - less is more

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Animation can be a powerful tool to explain complex concepts simply, and can also add power and professionalism to a presentation. Unfortunately, too many times animation is used excessively or ill-informed which achieves the opposite goal - a childish presentation that, with too much emphasis on tricks and impressions, fails to convey the message.

Beginner mistakes

1. Animations are too jumpy - Too many beginner PowerPoint users (but also middle school students and nerds of all ages) use animations that jump, rotate and flick backwards before you can read the text that was supposed to appear. It's childish, it wastes the viewers' time and distracts them, and it screams "I learned PowerPoint two weeks ago - look what I can do".
   What do the professionals do: Use only animations with one direction of movement, preferably those that appear where they will appear at the end (for example fade, wipe, box).
2. Multiple types of animation
   It's the sleepy brother of 'flashy animation'. With each line coming up with a different kind of animation, it doesn't help that they're all subtle and sophisticated. This still causes the audience's attention to turn to the special effects rather than the content of the presentation.
   What the professionals do: they make sure to have a maximum of three types of animation in the presentation and to be consistent in their use (say 'wiping' for all the text and 'shutters' for all the titles).
   

   Errors of careless people

3. Inconsistent animation speeds and directions
   When the presentation goes through edits and renovations it is difficult to remember exactly which animation settings you used. The result is that even if the entire original presentation was in a 'wiping' animation from right to left (my favorite animation in Hebrew, by the way) the additions to the presentation that came in after the boss saw the draft appear from left to right (for example, because they were made on a different computer with an English default). Then in the presentation itself some of the lines go up like this and some the other way around. confusing.
   A less noticeable but no less common glitch is different speeds for different parts of the presentation.
   What the professionals do: Remember the animation settings and maintain consistency. For those with a bad memory, you can also choose a fixed type of animation and stick with it always or simply write it down to yourself (for example in PowerPoint speaker-notes).
4. Forget to animate one of the items
   When you forget to set an item (a line of text or a graphic element) its order in the animation, it will simply appear on the screen as soon as the slide goes up. The result is a slide where one item is stuck in the middle of the screen and suddenly in the middle of uploading the content it connects to the rest.
   What the professionals do: proofreading desired by someone else

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