Custom Animation allows you to select when a sound, image, text box, or other affect appears, disappears, has special effects, and so on.

Note: Before beginning this step, you might want to disable some of the newer Custom Animation features in PowerPoint XP; they can cause problems when sending slide shows, saving as them Web pages, and so on. To disable those troublesome features, click Tools>Options>Edit and check the box next to Disable New Features: New Animation Effects. Then click OK.

To add Custom Animation, click Slide Show>Custom Animation. (Notice that the Custom Animation pane that now opens is from an earlier version of PowerPoint, not PowerPoint XP.)

In the box beneath Check to animate slide objects:, you'll see a list that includes the media (sounds), rectangles (copied text boxes), and Title 1 (the original text box) you've created. You want to find each text box, correctly match each word with its sound, put the words and sounds in the correct order, and animate each word.

Click the items beneath Check to animate slide objects: until the first word of the story's title appears in the preview window. Check the box next to that item.

To animate the first word of the story's title:

• Select the Order and Timing tab.
• Click the green arrow to the right of the Animation order: box until that item is first on the list.
• Click the button next to Automatically beneath Start animation.
• Select the Effects tab.
• Click the first drop-down menu and change the Entry Animation to Appear.
• Click the items beneath Check to animate slide objects: until you find the sound of the first word of the title. Check the box next to that item.
• Repeat the steps above for each word in the story's title. Remember to alternate media with rectangles in the animation order box, ending with a media object.
• Click the Preview button to check your work.
• Click OK.
• Save your work

Next: Finishing up!