Using jQuery for Effects

Question

Ok - have been tasked with possibly an impossible (or at least a potentially nightmarish) scenario.

Need to come as close as possible to reproducing PowerPoint-like effects via HTML/JavaScript (the spec is large and ugly, so I will spare you the details).

Ultimately, I am looking for a solid launching point. I have used both Prototype/Scriptaculous as well as jQuery in many projects, and based on what I am seeing, it appears jQuery has the more plug-in available, so am leaning towards using jQuery.

Can anyone point me to some plug-ins, articles, or anything else that would help me in accelerating the research on this so I can define to my client what can and cannot be done.

Any other suggestions from you jQuery gurus are welcome of course.

Thanks -

Answer 1

What do you mean with "PowerPoint-like" effects. If you mean animations between slides you should look into

• the Effects available with the standard jQuery download (fadeIn, fadeOut, slideDown, slideUp, ...)
• the jQuery Easing plugin
• the jQuery Cycle plugins effects browser

Answer 2

I would certainly look at jQuery UI as well, which adds a number of effects. See here for a current list. Click on the link for each to see several demos, there are quite a few options for some that are powerpoint-ish.

For example, try the various options in the dropdown here.

Answer 3

The jQuery documentation is very good: jQuery animate docs

However, if you are trying to achieve very complex effects you will almost certainly benefit from using a different framework. jQuery is a fantastic tool - particularly with the DOM, but animation isn't its strongpoint.

MooTools has a particularly good animation library (MooTools began life as a JavaScript animation framework) with a number of core modules that give you flexible tools to create complex animation chains yourself as well as a number of official and community-provided plugins. My recommendation would be to at least have a look at that first. You can certainly achieve this in jQuery but you will be making it more difficult for yourself!

• MooTools homepage
• Mootools Core Documentation

Answer 4

My $0.02: If you're doing complex effects, you need the library that runs the fastest, not the library that is the easiest to work with.