Animate parts of a table - part 1, overlap with shape

It is possible to animate a table in PowerPoint 2007-2010-2013. For PPT 2003 you can see my blog entries from 2010 here: Animate table PPT 2003. Unfortunately you can only animate the table as a whole, not by individual rows/columns/cells.

That is a great disadvantage, in most cases you do not want to show all of the information at once. That would lead to overload, the information should be devided in small chunks. This will make the information digestible and clear.

There are different workarounds to animate a table by row column or cell. Each of these workarounds has its own disadvantages. In the following articles I will give you five possibilities:

1. Overlap the row/column with a shape and make the shape disappear with an exit effect.
2. Split the table in all its parts, then regroup all relevant parts by column and row.
3. Make several tables based on the original. Each table representing one row/column.
4. Duplicate the slide several times and delete rows/columns as you go.
5. Make the table without the data, position textboxes on top of the cells.

Let us take a look at the first workaround:

Overlap rows/columns with a shape

This is the table we want to animate.

Make use of drawing guides to inidicate the exact spot where to draw the overlapping shape. Press Alt+F9 and copy the needed horizontal and vertical guides by using the ctrl+drag method.

Draw your first rectangle making use of the created guides. Copy the rectangle and move it till all the rows are covered.

Then, with all the rows selected change the fill colour to white.

Finally, with all the rectangles still selected, apply an exit animation effect, format it to be animated on click, adjust the timing if needed.

Now the table looks like this, start the presentation, enter and each row will appear one by one.

If you have a coloured background on your slide the white rectangle will not do. In that case use the background of the slide to fill the rectangle. Right click the rectangle, Edit Shape, activate the radio button Slide background fill.

This is an example how the table looks with a blue background.