I have an object that I want to move horizontally across the workspace in powerpoint. However, when I grab the endpoint and try to move it manually, I jostle the object at certain points accidentally, and this reflects in the motion. How can I avoid doing this?

It's not clear what you mean. If you want to keep the path horizontal / vertical try holding down SHIFT 0r SHIFT ALT while you drag

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You know, JohnWilson, you had solved my problem with this answer, as I was trying to create scrolling text (like a teleprompter), but the resulting animation "stutters" as it moves upward. Of course, this looks terrible. I have grabbed the object with the mouse and moved it upward while holding down SHIFT, then SHIFT+ALT, to no avail. The stuttering seems to mimic when I paused as I moved the object upward with the mouse.