Image Overlays in Powerpoint
In this post, we’ll be showing you how to create image overlays (somewhat like the ones here without the stretch animation) in Microsoft Powerpoint. For this tutorial, we’ll be using 2003, but the instructions can easily be adapted to other versions of Powerpoint.
Note that it will be difficult to edit the content of a slide (as it will be blocked by a semi transparent rectangle) after adding the overlay images, so ensure that you’re finished up polishing the slide before undergoing this tutorial.
Open up Powerpoint
Select the Rectangle tool on the Drawing toolbar, and fill in the entire slide. This will become the semitransparent gray layer to darken the slide.
Format the Rectangle
Give it the color black, and set the Transparency to about 40%.
Animate the Rectangle
Make sure the rectangle is selected, and go to Slide Show → Custom Animation, Add Effect → Entrance → Fade.
Your Custom Animation sidebar should look like the above.
Add an Image
Go ahead and insert your iamge of choice. For the purposes of this tutorial, we dug a floppy disk out of the Clip Art manager.
Add Image Animation
Make sure the image is selected, and head to Slide Show → Custom Animation → Add Effect → Entrance → any effect you want (we picked Fly In). It should appear after the Rectangle animation.
Add an Image Caption
Draw a text box under the image. We assume you know how to make one. Add a custom animation per the steps above, and you’ve got an image overlay.
I'm Jason, the main author of Third Error, and many of the topics I'll focus on concern Windows (and applicable software), web applications, web design, and a bit of *nix (Ubuntu mainly). My computer runs Windows XP, with virtualized Ubuntu and OS X handy.