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A few years ago (more than I care to recall) I wrote this article on Experts Exchange explaining how you could loop animations on a single slide within PowerPoint. I recently received an email from Yahoo informing me I wasn’t using their email app and within the email was this animated GIF:

With a drop of curiosity and a cup of coffee I wondered how close I could get to that effect in PowerPoint. It turns out, much better!

 

Get the source PowerPoint file

I’ve put the original GIF, PowerPoint animated slide and instructions all in one handy file so you can see how to achieve this effect for yourself.

Get the free example PPTX

How it was made, 100% in PowerPoint

  1. Four copies of the original static frame were made and each one was then Cropped to the edges of each of the 4 icon pictures
  2. Four animation Emphasis effects were added to the first icon picture:
    • Spin 6° anticlockwise in 0.1s, after previous
    • Spin 12° clockwise in 0.1s, after previous
    • Spin 12° anticlockwise in 0.1s, after previous
    • Spin 6° clockwise in 0.1s, after previous
  3. The Animation Painter was used to apply the above 4 animations to the other 3 icons, making a total animation time of 1.6s
  4. A silent sound file of ~2s was recorded using Insert / Audio / Record Audio
  5. The audio file was trimmed to 1.6s, a single Bookmark added at t=0 and the audio set to Loop until stopped
  6. The 16 animation effects were set to be Triggered on the bookmark