The Advanced Timeline is turned off by default. When you turn it on, a timeline appears at the bottom of the Custom Animation task pane, and indicators appear next to each clip that show how long each clip will take to play and at what point each one starts. This can be useful when you are trying to coordinate several sound and/or video clips to play sequentially with a certain amount of space between them. It saves you from having to do a lot of math to calculate their starting and ending times in relation to the initial appearance of the slide.
To use the Advanced Timeline, follow these steps:
Display the Custom Animation task pane if it doesn't already appear (Slide Show⇨Custom Animation).
Open the menu for any of the items on the list in the task pane and choose Show Advanced Timeline.
(Optional) Widen the task pane by dragging its left border, so you will have more room. You might also want to click the word Seconds at the bottom of the task pane, opening a menu, and then choose Zoom In or Zoom Out to change the zoom on the timeline.
Click a clip on the list. A red right-pointing arrow appears next to it. The arrow appears at the spot that corresponds to the place on the timeline where the clip is currently set to begin. Figure 12-13 shows several clips, each beginning at a different point.
For each clip, change the Start setting to With Previous or After Previous, depending on how you want it to relate to the earlier clip.
| Caution |
If there is more than one sound clip set to After Previous, a vertical line appears where the first clip will finish. If a clip is set to After Previous, it cannot start before the clip that precedes it. Therefore, any delay that you set up for a subsequent clip will be in relation to the end of the preceding clip. If the clip is set to With Previous, the two can overlap. |
(Optional) To reorder the clips on the list, click a clip and then click the up or down Reorder arrow at the bottom of the task pane.
(Optional) To change the amount of delay assigned to a clip, drag the red arrow next to it to the right or left. This is the same as changing the number in the Delay text box in the clip's animation timing properties.
Figure 12-13: You can use a timeline to set the timing between clips on a slide in a graphical way.
You can use custom animation to create complex systems of sounds that play, pause, and stop in relationship to other animated objects on the slide. See Chapter 14 for the full details, but here's a quick explanation of it: add a sound to the Custom Animation task pane by clicking Add Effect and then choosing Sound Actions and finally Play, Pause, or Stop. In this way you can create separate actions for the same clip to start, pause, or stop at various points.