Animations & transitions

This group of instructions adds motion to a presentation: a transition that plays when the show moves onto a slide, and animations that make individual shapes appear, leave, or draw attention to themselves while the slide is showing. It also lets you reorder the animations already on a slide.

Prerequisite: before using any of these instructions, the workflow must already have a PPTX presentation created or opened (with Create presentation). The two animation instructions act on a shape that already exists on the slide (for example a box made with Insert Text Box or a shape from the Shapes group), which they find by its name.

These concepts recur across several instructions in this group; they are explained here once.

• Document: indicates which document in the workflow the instruction applies to. If left empty, the current document is used.

• Slide numbers start at 1: slides are identified by position, and the first slide is 1, the second is 2, and so on. The Slide number field uses this numbering.

• Shapes are identified by name: Add Animation To Shape and Set Animation Order locate the shape they act on by its name — the name it was given when it was created — and act on every shape with that name. If Shape name is left empty, the instruction applies to all the shapes on the slide; if no shape with that name exists on the slide, nothing happens.

• An out-of-range slide number does nothing: if the slide number does not exist in the presentation (for example, slide 5 in a 3-slide deck), the instruction does nothing and the workflow continues with the next instruction.

• Time is measured in seconds: durations, delays, and auto-advance times are given in seconds (for example 0.5 = half a second).

• Dynamic values (@name): in any text field you can type @ followed by the name of a value saved earlier in the workflow, and it will be replaced by that value. For example, if you saved an effect name in myEffect, you can type @myEffect in the Effect field.

• “From variable” fields: the @name trick only works in text fields. So that a numeric field (like Slide number or Duration (seconds)) can also take its value from a saved value, each one has a companion “from variable” field:

  • If you leave it empty, the value typed in the normal field is used.
  • If you fill it in with the name of a saved value, the engine ignores the normal field and uses that variable’s value.

  This is mainly for chaining instructions (one instruction saves a value, the next one reads it). If you only work with fixed values, you can ignore these fields.

• Add Animation To Shape .pptx
• Set Animation Order .pptx
• Set Slide Transition .pptx

Add Animation To Shape .pptx

Adds an entrance, exit, or emphasis animation to a shape on a slide.

When to use it: to make a shape fade or wipe in, leave the slide, or draw attention to itself (spin, grow, shrink) while the slide is on screen.

Parameter	Meaning	Default	Required
Document	Document the instruction applies to	(current document)	No
Slide number	Slide the shape is on (starts at 1)	1	No
Shape name	Name of the shapes to animate; empty = all shapes on the slide. Supports @name	(empty)	No
Effect type	entrance, exit, or emphasis	entrance	No
Effect	The animation effect (see below). Supports @name	fade	No
Trigger	When it starts: onClick, withPrev, or afterPrev. Supports @name	onClick	No
Duration (seconds)	How long the animation lasts	0.5	No
Delay (seconds)	Wait before the animation starts	0	No
Slide number (from variable)	Reads the slide number from a saved value	(empty)	No
Duration (from variable)	Reads the duration from a saved value	(empty)	No
Delay (from variable)	Reads the delay from a saved value	(empty)	No

Important behavior: the shapes are found by their name; if Shape name is empty, every shape on the slide gets the animation (in slide order); if no shape on the slide has that name, nothing happens. For entrance and exit, the Effect is a visual filter such as fade, wipe(left), dissolve, blinds, or box. For emphasis, you can additionally use spin (a full turn), grow (enlarge to 150%), or shrink (reduce to 50%). The withPrev and afterPrev triggers only take effect when the shape already has an earlier animation to attach to; otherwise the animation starts on click. You can add several animations to the same shape by running the instruction again. If the slide number does not exist, nothing happens.

---

Set Animation Order .pptx

Moves an existing animation to a different position in the slide’s animation sequence.

When to use it: after adding several animations, to change which one plays first, second, and so on.

Parameter	Meaning	Default	Required
Document	Document the instruction applies to	(current document)	No
Slide number	Slide the shape is on (starts at 1)	1	No
Shape name	Name of the shapes whose animation to move; empty = all shapes on the slide. Supports @name	(empty)	No
New position	Position in the sequence (starts at 1)	1	No
Slide number (from variable)	Reads the slide number from a saved value	(empty)	No
New position (from variable)	Reads the new position from a saved value	(empty)	No

Important behavior: finds every animation that targets the named shape and moves it to New position (0 = first). If the position is greater than the number of animations, the animation is placed last. If Shape name is empty the shapes are processed one after another in slide order, each moved to that position — so the last shape ends up at it. The instruction does nothing if no shape has that name, if the shape has no animation, if the slide does not have an animation sequence yet, or if the slide number does not exist.

---

Set Slide Transition .pptx

Sets the visual effect that plays when the show moves onto this slide, and how the slide advances.

When to use it: to add a fade, push, wipe, or similar effect between slides, and to choose whether the slide advances on click, automatically after a time, or both.

Parameter	Meaning	Default	Required
Document	Document the instruction applies to	(current document)	No
Slide number	Slide to set the transition on (starts at 1)	1	No
Transition type	The transition effect (see below). Supports @name	fade	No
Duration (seconds)	How long the transition lasts	0.5	No
Advance on click	Whether clicking advances to the next slide	Yes	No
Advance automatically	Whether the slide advances on its own after a time	No	No
Auto-advance after (seconds)	Time before advancing automatically (only when Advance automatically is on)	3	No
Slide number (from variable)	Reads the slide number from a saved value	(empty)	No
Duration (from variable)	Reads the duration from a saved value	(empty)	No
Advance on click (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No
Advance automatically (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No
Auto-advance after (from variable)	Reads the auto-advance time from a saved value	(empty)	No

Important behavior: any existing transition on the slide is replaced. Recognized Transition type values are blinds, checker, circle, comb, cover, cut, diamond, dissolve, plus, pull, push, wheel, and zoom; any other value (including fade) gives a fade. Auto-advance after only has an effect when Advance automatically is on; you can keep both Advance on click and Advance automatically on at the same time. If the slide number does not exist, the instruction does nothing.

---