Inserting animation

Hi Amanda

Thank you for your question; and welcome to the forum.

Most web sites I have read about this topic are in general agreement that animating every single thing in your presenation is a bad idea; as is applying a variety of effects.

The best suggestion I have come across is this:
"Animations should be used for only two things: emphasis on a point and introducing bulleted information"

This and other tips on building an effective presentation can be found here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Effective-PowerPoint

I hope this is useful.
Amanda