A recent question in the Microsoft Office forums inquired about the process of animating a picture in PowerPoint so that it came onto the slide piece by piece--like a puzzle. The question was answered, but the answer was not exactly what the original poster had wanted. The answer explained how to make a picture look like a puzzle, but not how to have the separate pieces come in one-by-one. That is what I will cover today.
The original answer referenced this tutorial: Puzzle Pictures in PowerPoint. The tutorial includes a pre-made puzzle framework from PowerFrameworks, which I will also use.
Make an Image Look Like a Puzzle.
- Download the puzzlepicture zip file at this link.
- Unzip the file.
- Start PowerPoint.
- From within PowerPoint, navigate to the unzipped puzzlepicture folder and open sg002_1200_rectangle.pptx.
- View the Selection and Visibility Pane by choosing Home > Drawing > Arrange > Selection Pane.
You will see 12 puzzle pieces (these are the numbered Freeforms) and one rectangle.
- Click the Hide All button at the bottom of the Selection and Visibility pane to hide everything on the slide.
- Right-click the slide and select Format Background.
- From the Insert from area, click the File button.
- Navigate to your own image, select it and click the Insert button.
- Close the Format Background dialog box.
- On the Selection and Visibility pane, click the Show All button to make all items visible again. The puzzle pieces are already formatted with a background fill, so the pieces are comprised of the image you inserted. If you simply wanted your image to look like a puzzle, you would be done. Continue on if you would like your image to appear on the slide one piece at a time.
A presentation will open with an image of a whale overlaid with puzzle pieces.
Note: If you are using an earlier version of PowerPoint that does not support .pptx files, follow the instructions here for using the .ppt file.
The Format Background dialog box will appear. Currently there is a picture of a whale set as the background so Picture or Texture fill is already selected.
Your image will now be the background of the slide.
Note: If you notice sluggish response times in PowerPoint, consider inserting a lower resolution image.
Animate the Puzzle Pieces
- View the Animation Pane by choosing Animations > Advanced Animation > Animation Pane.
- On the Selection and Visibility Pane, hold down the [Ctrl] key while clicking to select each of the 12 Freeform puzzle pieces.
- From the Animations tab, select the Appear animation.
- Click the more arrow on the last animation effect and choose Timing.
- From the Timing tab, select After Previous from the Start drop-down menu and increase the Delay number to stagger the appearance of the puzzle piece. I went with .5 seconds, but you can choose whatever you like.
- Click the OK button.
- On the Selection and Visibility pane, click the Hide All button to hide all the puzzle pieces. Click the box next to Rectangle 16 to make it visible.
- Right-click the rectangle on the slide and choose Format Shape.
- From the Fill category, change the fill color to whatever you would like. (For my project, I wanted it to appear as though initially the slide was blank, so I chose white.)
- Click the Close button to close the Format Shape dialog box.
- On the Selection and Visibility pane, click the Show All button to make all items visible again.
- Press the [F5] key on your keyboard.
All of the puzzle pieces will appear selected in the Animation Pane.
The Appear dialog box will open.
You will be left with a large blue rectangle.
The Format Shape dialog box will appear.
Your image will now come in as a puzzle, one piece at a time.
To use the slide in any other presentation, select the slide from the slide sorter pane (or in Slide Sorter view) and copy and paste it into your desired presentation.
Note: When pasting into another presentation, be sure to paste using the Keep Source Formatting option. Learn more about pasting options here.
Check back next week for tips to make your animated puzzle look more realistic!