If you have several objects on a PowerPoint slide that you want to assign the same animation to, you don't have to apply the animation to them individually. Instead, group them together so that they act as one object.

To get started, open the PowerPoint presentation and go to the slide that contains the objects that you would like to group and animate. If you haven't inserted the objects yet, you can do so by clicking the "Insert" tab and choosing the option (such as "Pictures" or "Shapes") for your desired object.

Click the "Insert" tab and choose an option to insert an object.

Next, select all of the objects on the slide that you'd like to group together. You can do this by pressing and holding the "Ctrl" key ("Command" on Mac) and clicking the objects. Alternatively, you can click and drag your mouse over the objects.

An object is selected if a box appears around it.

Select the objects you would like to group together.

Next, right-click a selected object. In the context menu that appears, hover your cursor over "Group," and then select "Group" from the sub-menu.

Right-click the object, click Group in the context menu, and then select Group from the sub-menu.

All selected objects are now grouped together, and PowerPoint will treat them as a single object.

A group of heart shapes on a PowerPoint slide.

When you apply an animation, it will affect all objects that are in that group. To set an animation, click the group, and in the "Animations" tab, choose the animation that you'd like to use from the "Animation" options. We'll use the "Float In" animation in this example.

Click the Animations tab and then choose an animation from the Animation group.

Now, when you play the animation, the objects in the group will animate simultaneously.

All grouped objects playing an animation at the same time.

That's all there is to it! A big part of PowerPoint's appeal is the ability to manipulate objects in many different ways. You can take your animation skills to the next level by combining multiple motion paths to your grouped object.

Related: How to Combine Motion Paths in Microsoft PowerPoint