How-To

How to Apply Transitions and Animations in Google Slides

By Sandy Writtenhouse

Published December 8, 2020

Learn how to spruce up your presentations with transitions and animations in Google Slides. From subtle to lively, give your show some pizzazz.

If you’d like to add a little pizzazz to your next Google Slides presentation, you have wonderful tools at your fingertips. With transitions and animations, you can turn a static slideshow into one that’s more dynamic.

Not all presentations are suitable for these types of effects. And some people may view them as distracting. However, if you’re creating a slideshow for your students, club members, or teammates, then take a look at how you can make it more interesting and entertaining with transitions and animations in Google Slides.

Add a Slide Transition

A transition is an effect you see when moving from one slide to the next. Rather than the slides just appearing, they can fade in or out, slide in from one side, or flip onto the screen. These are nice subtle ways to improve any type of presentation.

It’s best to start with a single slide and review the available transitions for the effect you want. You can then easily apply that same transition to all slides for consistency if you like.

1. Select a slide using either Filmstrip or Grid view.
2. Click Slide > Transition from the menu.
3. Expand the section in the Motion sidebar below Slide Transition. It likely displays “None” since you have no transitions yet.
4. Use the drop-dox box to choose the effect you’d like to use.
5. To see how it looks, click the Play button at the bottom of the sidebar and then Stop when it finishes.
6. You can adjust the slider to make the transition move slower or faster.
7. Optionally, you can hit the button to Apply to all slides.

Once you apply a transition to a slide, you’ll see that indicator next to the slide in both Filmstrip and Gallery views.

If you decide to remove a transition later, follow the same Steps 1 through 3 above and pick None in the effect drop-down box. Here again, you can click Apply to all slides to remove the transitions from the whole deck.

Add an Animation

An animation gives you a livelier way to spruce up your slideshow. Where a transition applies to a slide, an animation applies to an element on your slide. So, you can have photos fly in from any edge, text blocks fade in or out, and icons spin around.

1. Select a slide and then pick an element on the slide you want to animate.
2. Click Insert > Animation from the menu. This opens the same Motion sidebar as when you add a transition.
3. Near the bottom of the sidebar, under Object Animations, click Add animation.
4. When that section expands, you’ll first choose the animation effect from the drop-down list. You’ll see many options appear and disappear, fade, fly, zoom, and spin.
5. In the next drop-down box, select the trigger for the animation. This can be On click, After previous, or With previous. The latter two refer to other animations you have set up. So you can have all of your animations on that slide happen at once or after each other if you prefer.
6. Last, you can pick the speed for the animation using the slider.
7. Click the Play button to see a preview of your animation and Stop when it finishes.

You can continue adding animations to the same object or different slide elements if you like. And if you keep the Motion sidebar open, you can simply click to choose each element on your slide and then add its animation easily.

When the Motion sidebar is open, you can see all transitions and animations that apply to the slide you have selected. This also lets you rearrange animations if you want them to occur in a different order for the same object or other elements.

To rearrange, put your cursor over the six small dots on the right of an animation and then drag it up or down to its new spot.

Review Your Slideshow

You can play your presentation at any time to see it as your audience will. So although you can use the Play button in the Motion sidebar to view transitions and animations, it’s also helpful to see your slideshow in full view.

Just click the Present button on the top right of Google Slides to start the show.

Transitions and Animations in Google Slides

If you have a slideshow that could use a bit of oomph, then try out the transitions and animations in Google Slides. Whether you want a subtle transition to fade from one slide to another or a spinning photo that flies off the screen, you have options!

For more on Slides, take a look at how to create your own Google Slides template to save some time.