You've probably seen animated GIFs if you've browsed the World Wide Web. These files contain a series of GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) images that are displayed in rapid sequence to produce an animated effect.

Animated GIFs can be used in Microsoft PowerPoint® 2000 presentations to add emphasis, interest, and instructional value to your ideas. Animated GIFs play automatically during a slide show. When you are working on a presentation - for example, in Normal view or Slide Sorter view - the animated GIFs appear as static pictures.

Animated GIFs also play if you publish your presentation as a Web page and view it in a Web browser. If you are developing your own animated GIFs, you can create them once and use them in a presentation, on a Web page, or both.

To Insert Animated GIFs

First display the slide, and then complete the following steps:

To insert an animated GIF from the Clip Gallery

1. Point to Picture on the Insert menu, and then click Clip Art.
2. On the Motion Clips tab, click the category you want, click the clip you want, and then click Insert Clip (the first button on the menu that appears when you click a clip).
3. To return to PowerPoint, click Close (the button marked with an "X") in the upper right corner of the Clip Gallery dialog box.

To insert an animated GIF that you created

1. Point to Picture on the Insert menu, and then click From File.
2. Locate the folder that contains the animated GIF you want, and then click Insert.

To preview how the animated GIF picture will appear in the slide show, click the Slide Show button at the lower left of the Microsoft PowerPoint window.

You can download animated GIFs and other clips from the Clip Gallery Live Web site. Here is one of the animated GIFs you can download: