I don't like animations, but in some cases they cannot be avoided. Sometimes I need to make a relatively complex technical diagram, for example for a technology startup needing to explain the IT architecture of their product (obviously for a conference room presentation, rather than a townhall meeting). The only animation effects I use are simple "appears" and "disappears", or the occasional change of color, no flying objects or other spectacular effects here. The problem with complex animations is that they are impossible to edit. Especially when the layers are starting to pile up. Here is what I do. Copy the slide over a number of PowerPoint slides, sometimes going into 10 slides are more. In that way you have the complete overview of what's happening when. The only thing to watch out for is to make sure that objects on each slide are located in the exact same position (control-c on 1 slide, control-v on the other). Old-fashioned, but it works. UPDATE. Glen Turpin pointed me to the selection pane in PowerPoint 2007. It actually solves many of the issues I talked about. You can find it at the bottom of the arrange menu in the drawing ribbon. One more reason to upgrade to PowerPoint 2007.