Two women converse at a desk over a computer.

Create animated GIFs using PowerPoint

Feature deep dive
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

My name is Aimee Leong, and I’m a PM on the Office Graphics team.

Have you ever had an idea for an animated GIF but didn’t know where to get started? With the new feature Export/Save As Animated GIF, you can now create your ideas in PowerPoint!

How it works

Making an animated GIF is easy – I’ll make two in this post! Follow along with my steps.

STEP 1

Open PowerPoint and insert your media.

For my first GIF, I am creating a memorable email signature, so I inserted an animated sticker and some text that I liked:

Email signature created in PowerPoint

For my second GIF, I am creating a rotating gallery of images to share on my social media, so inserted a series of images on each slide:

PowerPoint with 4 slides that have an image of food

Tip: Adjust the dimensions of your slide via the Slide Size menu: go to Design Tab > Slide Size > Custom Slide Size

STEP 2

Choose your export options in the Create an Animated GIF menu.
Go to File > Export > Create an Animated GIF.

In this menu, you can adjust the size/quality of your GIF, and set the seconds spent on each slide:

PowerPoint export options to create an Animated GIF

Tip: If don’t want to adjust the export options, it’s faster to use the Save As menu: go to File > Save As and in the Save-as-Type dropdown, select “Animated GIF Format (*.gif)

STEP 3

Click Create GIF.

An Explorer window will open – in here, navigate to where you’d like your Animated GIF exported to.
Click Save and PowerPoint will begin exporting your slide(s) as an Animated GIF.
Go to your selected folder to see your creation!

Here is my new animated email signature:

Animated GIF signature

And here is my food gallery:

GIF of the 3 food images from PowerPoint

Other Tips

This feature respects all media supported in Slideshow (shapes, text, images, SVGs, videos, Animated GIFs, 3D Models, etc), PPT Animations and PPT Transitions.

A good way to preview your Animated GIF before export is to view your slides in Slideshow Mode.

Requirements

  • This feature is currently available for users running Insider builds on Windows and Mac.
    • Windows: Build 2001 (12410.20000)
    • Mac: Build 16.33 (19121106)
  • Requires an Office 365 subscription
  • This feature is not available for Office 2019 or 2016.

We typically release features over some time to ensure that things are working smoothly. This is true for Insiders as well. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as Insiders, have had the opportunity to try them.

Feedback

If you have any feedback or suggestions, you can submit them using the Help Improve Office (🙂) button in the top right corner of PowerPoint.

Learn what other information you should include in your feedback to ensure  it’s actionable and reaches the right people. We’re excited to hear from you! 

Sign up for the Office Insider newsletter and get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month!

None of the media used in this blog post is endorsed by Microsoft. They were selected by the writer as examples only.
Animated sticker by Molly Jacques on
GIPHY
Photos by
chuttersnapon Unsplash