GIFs are a great supplement to any Powerpoint presentation. Animated graphics and videos go a long way when engaging an audience. Below you’ll find information about how to add a gif to your presentation and some best practices.
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Learn how to add and preview a GIF animation to your PowerPoint slides. For more on animated GIFs and icon animations get in touch using the form below. GIF best practices and examples can also be found in the link at the bottom of this page.
Step 1. Navigate To The Slide of Choice
Pick the location for the GIF of your choosing (i.e. which slide you’d like it to appear on). If it’s an empty slide, you’ll see 8 icons in the center of the screen. Click on the ‘picture’ icon, if you hover over the icons the titles will pop up. For now, as of 2020 the picture icon is in the bottom left.
If you don’t have a blank slide or already have content, go ahead and navigate to the top navigation menu of PowerPoint. Click on the ‘insert’ tab and then click on the ‘pictures’ icon that pops up below.
Step 2. Choose Your GIF
Upon clicking the ‘picture’ icon tab, a popup will appear showing the files and folders on your computer. Navigate to the folder of choice and find the .GIF file. Then click insert(highlighted in the image below).
Your GIF will now appear in your PPT slide of choice. But wait, you’re not quite done yet.
Step 3. Resize and Reorder GIF
If you hover your mouse over the GIF you’ll see an circular arrow and some dots around the border appear. You can click and drag on any of these items and resize the GIF to become larger or smaller. You can also click and drag the GIF to wherever you want it to appear on the page.
You’ll notice that your GIF is most likely not moving or being animated as it might in your internet explorer preview. Don’t worry! This is completely normal. In order to preview the GIF and watch it loop seamlessly, head on over to the slideshow tab in the top navigation menu.
Step 4. Preview GIF Animation in PowerPoint
In the top menu of PowerPoint, click on ‘Slide Show.’ The popup row beneath that appears will have the options to play from the beginning or current slide. It’s completely your choice but to save time, I typically choose ‘from the current slide’ (either will work).
Bonus:
One other thing to note is that depending on how GIFs were made (specifically their meta data, or what tells them behind the scenes how to animate) is the looping features. Most GIFs will animate continuously or for a single time and stop on their last frame. This all depends on how GIFs are made. For more on GIF best practices and examples, find more here.