I am working on a presentation for a very complex system (turboprop engine). I will be using the same PowerPoint slide with many animations many times, to demonstrate different events as they happen. I would like to make one animation dependent on another, rather than on time. For a very simple example, a lever could mechanically move a piston left or right. Rather than have to animate the piston based on time, I'd like to base the piston movement on the position of the lever. Then, as my narration talks about moving the lever, I can move the lever at a particular time, and the piston moves accordingly, without having to have a time-based animation of the piston movement. This is a gross simplification, as there are many parts moving, and the lever might be moving one direction on one slide, and the other direction on another slide.

Can anyone suggest anything to help me out?

I'm using PowerPoint 2010 on Windows 7.

Thanks