w:effect (Animated Text Effect)

Applies a legacy animated text effect to a run. These effects are deprecated in OOXML Strict and not rendered by most modern processors.

Parent elements

w:rPr

Description

w:effect specifies a legacy animated text effect for a run. These animated effects were supported in older versions of Word (95–2003) but are deprecated in OOXML Strict and largely unsupported by modern rendering engines. They should not be used in new documents.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.3.2.10.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Possible Values	Description
`w:val`	`ST_TextEffect`	`blinkBackground`, `lights`, `antsBlack`, `antsRed`, `shimmer`, `sparkle`, `none`	Specifies the animation type; `none` removes the effect.

Values

Value	Description
`blinkBackground`	Background flashes/blinks between two colors.
`lights`	Christmas-light animation around the text.
`antsBlack`	Marching ants (dashed animated border) in black.
`antsRed`	Marching ants in red.
`shimmer`	Text shimmers/sparkles continuously.
`sparkle`	Rainbow-color sparkle animation.
`none`	No animated effect (default; use to cancel inherited effect).

Examples

<!-- Blinking background effect (legacy; not rendered by modern processors) -->
<w:r>
  <w:rPr>
    <w:effect w:val="blinkBackground"/>
  </w:rPr>
  <w:t>Legacy blinking text</w:t>
</w:r>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

var run = new Run(
    new RunProperties(
        new TextEffect { Val = TextEffectValues.BlinkBackground }
    ),
    new Text("Legacy blinking text")
);

Notes

All values except none are deprecated in OOXML Strict (ISO 29500 Strict).
Modern processors (Word 2013+) do not render these animations; the property is preserved for round-trip compatibility only.
Do not use animated text effects in new documents.