How to create an animated GIF using MS PowerPoint

Introduction

Now that Nimble Author supports animated GIFs, we've had a number of customers asking how they can create their own without technical expertise or big budgets.

We've put together this short tutorial that guides you through how to make a simple animated GIF in Microsoft PowerPoint. Watch the video for a full tutorial, or read on for step-by-step instructions.

In this article, we'll show you how to build the frames of your animated GIF in PowerPoint, save it in the correct format, and add it to a Nimble Author course.

To get started, open PowerPoint and create a new presentation. Each slide in your presentation will become a single frame in your final animation, like pages in a flip book, so you will probably want to make only one change from each slide to the next.

Adjusting the slide size

First, adjust the slide size so the finished GIF won't have too much white space around it. To do this:

1. Go to the Design tab, then select Slide Size and choose Custom Slide Size.

2. Adjust the dimensions to your liking.

Creating your first frame

The first slide in your presentation will become the first frame. In this tutorial, we're creating a depiction of a simple process using shapes.

3. Go to the Insert tab and select Shapes.

4. Add the shape of your choosing.

5. Change the shape fill colour and outline until you're happy with the result.

6. Double-click inside the shape to add text, then format this as required.

Creating subsequent frames

It's likely you will want to make only one small change from one frame to the next. In this case, we are building up the process frame by frame, so will duplicate the first slide of the presentation to build upon.

7. Go to the slide preview, right click and select Duplicate Slide.

8. If relevant for your animation, copy and paste the shape and change its colour or text to create the second step.

9. Duplicate the second slide and repeat, then continue doing this until all your frames are complete.

Specifying your frame length

In PowerPoint, you can specify exactly how long you would like each individual frame of your animation (or slide of your presentation) to appear for, before the next frame appears. To do this:

10. Go to the Transitions tab and look for Advance Slide at the top right.

11. Unselect 'On Mouse Click'.

12. Select 'After' and specify the time you'd like this frame to persist for.

13. Repeat the process for all slides in the presentation.
14. View the slideshow to check you are happy with the frame lengths and final appearance of your animation.

Saving the presentation as an animated GIF

15. Go to File and Save As, then choose a save location.

16. Give your file a name.
17. From the File Type dropdown, select Animated GIF Format (*.gif), and save.

Using the animated GIF in Nimble Author

Let's see how it looks in the course.

18. In Nimble Author, find the page where you'd like to add the GIF. Add an image block, then click the pencil to edit the image.

19. Then upload the animated GIF you just created in PowerPoint to the asset manager. Select the image to add it to your page.

20. Select 'Done editing' to see how the GIF will appear to the learner; it will automatically loop until the learner exits the page.

Note that image editing options like zooming or panning aren't available for animated gifs, so you'll need to ensure the image is the correct size before uploading it.