Update 3 problem with animations applied to same object

Jul 30, 2014

Installed the Update 3 for Studio 13 just over a week ago and haven't encountered any issues until today when I checked a slide that had a large series of animations.

Background on the animations

  • The PowerPoint file and the animations on this slide, in particular, were created before Update 3 was released, and they worked fine then.
  • Throughout a synced animated sequence, I have multiple Exit and Entrance animations applied to the same objects -- one is clip art and the other is a PowerPoint rectangle. The first animation applied to these two objects is an Exit animation (fade out for one and wipe "out" for the other). Then at some point later, the Entrance animation is triggered for those same two objects (fade in and wipe "in").

    Basically, the objects are on screen at the start of the slide, then disappear (Exit animations), and then reappear (Entrance animations). This kind animation sequence -- disappear and then reappear -- occurs at various points throughout the animated sequence for just these two objects.

Issue

The first Exit animations work fine, but the Entrance animations on those objects that follow never occur, almost like they were never applied. In fact, all the subsequent animations (Exit and Entrance) applied to just those two objects are never triggered. The animations on all the other objects on the slide continue to work.

Testing

I did a number of tests to try and isolate the problem:

  1. I re-synced the entire sequence, again, using Presenter's syncing feature. The issue was still present in the Preview and when published.
  2. I added a new slide in the same project file and started to reconstruct everything from scratch. After I applied Exit and Entrance animations for the first time to the same clip art and rectangle object, I synced them and previewed the slide. Again, the Entrance animations were never triggered.
  3. I then created a new PowerPoint file and inserted new copies of those two objects on the slide. I added an Exit animation to them and then applied an Entrance animation to each. After syncing, again, no animation occurred after the Exit animation both in the Preview and published copy.
  4. I then removed the animations and applied an Entrance animation to the objects, then Exit animations, and then Entrance animations. I synced the animations. In the Preview, the first Entrance animations worked but no animations occurred after that.
  5. I then did tests using different types of animations and also applied Entrance and Exit animations on a block of text on a separate slide. In every instance, none of the animations applied worked after the Exit animation was triggered.
  6. I also applied just Entrance animations (2) to the same object. Both animations worked.

All the other animated sequences on other slides in my project file are working, though none of them have a sequence in which an Exit animation occurs and then later an Entrance animation on the same object occurs.

Troubleshooting I tried that didn't work

  1. Like I mentioned earlier, I haven't had any problems since running the update last week, and I've been working in this project file all day, every day, since installing the update. However, I decided to run the VSTO installer in the event that I didn't have the necessary VB tools.
  2. The Microsoft .NET Framework 4 was already installed. (I think that may have happened during the update.)
  3. I rebooted the computer.
  4. I re-installed Update 3 so it would perform a repair.

Specs

  • I'm doing all of my work on the local machine, which has had Studio 13 installed on it for some time. No network drives are involved.
  • I'm using PowerPoint 2010/32-bit on a Windows 7 Professional environment.
3 Replies
Adrian Dean

Hi Tim,

I'm sorry to hear about these issues. We would like to take a closer look. Please go ahead and submit a Support Case for these animation issues. Make sure to upload your files when doing so, using the following instructions to create an Articulate Package before doing so.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Always Happy to Help,

Adrian

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