How to animate line charts so they come one after the other?

You are presenting the sales trend of Product A, B and C. You have a line chart. Instead of showing all the 3 lines at once, you want to click and show the line graph of A, then talk about it. Then you want to go to B and then C. How do we do this animation?

Here it is in a few simple steps (in PowerPoint 2010). The process is almost similar in 2007. In case you have any problems, leave a comment or send me an email.

Step-1 Create the line chart in PowerPoint or copy paste from Excel
Step-2 Left click on the chart to select it. Under Animations Tab on top -> Go to Add Animation.
Step-3 Go to More Entrance Effects -> Wipe.


Wipe is a good effect. During final presentation, the lines will come from left to right smoothly.

Step-4 Under Animation Pane on your right -> Click on Chart -> Choose Effect Options from drop down. In PowerPoint 2007 choose this from 'Custom Animation' panel on your left.

Step-5 Under Effect Options window there are three tabs (Effect, Timing & Chart Animation). Under Effect Tab -> Choose direction from left. This will make the lines come from left to right in final slide show.

Under Chart Animation tab in the same window -> Choose Group Chart by series (This will make sure Product A, B and C will come one by one) -> Unselect the check box which reads 'Start animation by drawing the chart background'. If you keep it selected then the chart axis and grid lines also get animated.


We're done!

Step-6 Changing the speed of animation.
Under Animation Pane on the right. Click on chart and choose Timing from the drop down menu. Select Medium or Fast as you wish.