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How to Animate in Google Slides? [Everything to Know!]

How to Animate in Google Slides? [Everything to Know!]

Animation can be a great way to bring your presentation alive, and make it more engaging for the viewer. It’s also an easy way to add some variety into what might otherwise be a very static document. Animating in Google Slides is actually quite simple and straightforward.

To animate in Google Slides, select the object (text, shape, or image) and right-click on it. From the menu, click on “Animate”. In the “Motion” settings pane that opens on the right, choose the “Animation Type” and “Start condition” from the dropdown options under “Object Animations”.

In this article, you will learn how to animate objects, text, bullet points, add delay, edit animations, and even delete animations – as well as everything else that you need to know about animations in your Google Slides presentations!

I shall be covering the basics so you will be able to follow along even if you are a beginner. If you are an advanced user and are looking for specific animation instruction, I advise that you skip the beginner information at the start, and scroll down to find the relevant information.

Let me first start with the basics of animations in Google Slides. So, without further delay, let’s get to it!

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1. What does Animation Mean in Google Slides?

The word ‘animation’ in itself refers to the technique used to move inanimate objects in order to bring life to pictures or graphics.

Animation in Google Slides allows objects to move or fade in or out of the slides. This feature on Google Slides enables you to insert multiple effects on your slides. Animations can be used to focus the attention of your audience on the specific part of the slide or even make your presentation more engaging!

Google Slides is equipped with tons of features that will help you to amplify your presentation without having to do much. It also allows you to adjust the speed of each effect by dragging the animation speed slider. This allows you to put a professional touch on your slides.

In Google Slides, you can apply animations to text boxes, shapes, pictures, bullet points, graphics, and icons.

One thing that you need to keep in mind is that while using animations on Google Slides, do not get carried away with too many animations and transitions. Make sure you do not overpower your message with too many effects.

One last thing before we move on to the next section is to remember not to confuse animations with transitions in Google Slides. Let’s talk about the differences between animations and transitions in a bit more detail in the next section.

2. Difference Between Animation and Transition in Google Slides

It is easy to get confused between “Animations” and “Transitions” in Google Slides since both add motion effect and movement in the presentation. However, they are not the same thing.

The key difference between animation and transition in Google Slides is that animation is applied to objects present on a slide, whereas transition is applied to the slide itself! Animation effect is visible on the slide while transition effect can be seen when you move one slide to the next.

Thus, it is important to remember that these two can not be used interchangeably. However, these motion effects can be used together.

Pro Tip!
Animations in Google Slides are of two types – a.) ones that will make your elements appear (usually contain the word “in” in it), and b.) ones that will make your elements disappear from the slide! (usually contain the world “out” in it)

Let’s understand the types of animations and transitions before we move on the next section –

Types of Animations in Google Slides

There are a total of 13 animation types that are available in Google Slides. These are as follows –

  • Appear
  • Disappear
  • Fade in
  • Fade out
  • Fly in from left
  • Fly in from right
  • Fly in from top
  • Fly in from bottom
  • Fly out to left
  • Fly out to top
  • Fly out to bottom
  • Zoom in
  • Zoom out

A quick way to understand these animations is that when the animation has the word “in” mentioned in it, that animation effect will make the object appear on the slide. The animation with the word “out” mentioned, will make the object disappear from the slide.

Another glance at the list above (with the information about the ‘in’ and ‘out’ animation types), and you will perhaps notice that in reality, Google Slides actually only provide 4 animations i.e. Appear, Fade, Fly, and Zoom.

The other animation types provided are either to use the same effect to make the element disappear or use a variation of the same animation effect in Google Slides.

Transitions in Google Slides

As mentioned earlier, the motion effect that takes place while switching from one slide to another is denoted as Transition. By default, you will not see any transitions applied as they are turned off. However, you can enable them pretty easily.

Slide transitions actually deserve a completely different post altogether! (which I plan to cover in the near future). For now, let’s take a look at the various transitions provided in Google Slides –

  • Dissolve
  • Fade
  • Slide from right
  • Slide from left
  • Flip
  • Cube

I hope this has helped you differentiate between animation and transition in Google Slides.

3. How to Animate in Google Slides?

Now that we have understood the basics, let us now learn how to add animations to your Google Slides presentation. Remember, you can add animation to different objects including text, images, objects, shapes, icons, graphics, tables, etc.

Regardless of what element you plan to consider, the process of adding animations to each of those elements is going to be quite similar.

That said, for the sake of this article, I’m going to consider adding animations to text, and adding animations to images and text as an example. Plus, I will show you multiple different ways in which you can add animations to the objects in Google Slides.

3.1 How to Animate Text in Google Slides?

Here’s a step-by-step process to add animations to text in Google Slides –

Step-1: Open Google Slides

To open a Google Slides presentation, simply click here or visit slides.google.com. Make sure that you are logged into your Google account to open a new presentation.

Step-2: Select the Text and click on the “Insert” Menu

Once you’ve opened a new presentation, type out your desired text on your selected slide. Select the text and click “Insert”, which you will find on the top left corner of your screen. Choose the “Animation” option from the dropdown menu.

Step-3: Select the Animation Type and Start Condition from the Motion Pane

After clicking on “Animation” you will see a new window open up on the right side of the screen. This will help you adjust the motion settings.

Pro Tip!
Google Slides allows for 3 start conditions for animations namely a.) on-click, b.) with previous, and c.) after previous. These settings help determine when the animation should start playing and depending on your chosen setting, it could be played on a click of a button, with a previous animation, or after an animation is completed.

Under the “Object Animation” section, choose the “Animation Type“. In the above example, I’ve gone with the “Fade in” animation.

Next, choose the “Start Condition“. You can choose to start the animation on click, with previous (animation), or after previous (animation).

3.2 How to Change Duration of Animations in Google Slides?

Google Slides also allows you to slow down or make the animations appear quickly! This can be done using the “duration” setting for animation.

Here’s how you can change the duration for animations in Google Slides –

Step-1: Select the Object to Change Animation Duration

The first step is to select the text or other object that already has the animation added. You can select it by clicking on it.

Step-2: Open the Motion Settings Tab by Clicking on View

If an object has animation already added to it, then click on the “View” tab. From the dropdown, click on “Motion“.

This will open the “motion” settings window on the right part of your screen.

Pro Tip!
To make changes to an existing animation, always open the “Motion” tab first from the “View” menu. By using the “Add Animation” option from the “Insert Menu” (or by any other method), will add an additional animation to the same object!

It is important to note that if you select an object that already has an animation added to it, then click on insert, and add animation as described in the previous section, you will end up adding another animation to the same object instead of editing the existing animation.

Step-3: Change the Duration of the Animation

The last thing that you would want to do is to change the duration of the animation by dragging the “Duration” slider towards the left or the right.

Dragging the slider towards the left will result in slowing the animation, while dragging it towards the right will make the animation speed up.

3.3 How to Reorder Animations in Google Slides?

Sometimes, you may add animations in the wrong order. In such a scenario, you may want to change the order in which the animations appear. This can also be done easily in Google Slides.

Here’s how to change the order of the animations in Google Slides –

Step-1: Open the Motion Settings Window from the View Menu

If you don’t have the motion window open, then go to the “View” menu, and click on “Motion” to view the existing animations that are present on the slide.

Step-2: Change the Order of the Animations from the Motion Window

Choose the animation that you want to change the order for. Then, in the “Motion” window pane, hover over on the “6 dots” at the far right of the animation until the cursor changes to a crosshair. Then, click and drag the animation up or down as per the requirement.

Step-3: Click Play to Review the Changes

As a final step, click on the “Play” button on the Motion settings window pane to review if the order of the animation is as per requirement.

3.4 How to Remove Animations in Google Slides

Sometimes, you may have added an animation to an object or text by mistake. In that case, you may like to remove the added animation. In case you are wondering, here’s how to remove the animation in Google Slides –

Step-1: Go to the Slide Containing the Animation to be Deleted

First, you should go to the slide which contains the animation you want to remove or delete.

Step-2: Open the Motion Window and Select the Animation to be Deleted

From the animation plane, select the animation that you want to remove or delete.

Step-3: Select the Animation and Press the “Delete” button

Press the “Delete” button or icon to remove the chosen animation. Follow the same method to delete any animation that you want to remove.

4. How to Animate Bullet Points in Google Slides?

Having bullet points on our presentation can be helpful when we want to summarize key pieces of information. However, how do you animate bullet points in Google Slides? In this section, I will share a cool tip to help you animate bullet points quickly.

Here’s what you need to do to animate bullet points in Google Slides –

Step-1: Select the Bulleted List

Click on the Bulleted list you want to animate and “Select” it.

Step-2: Press Right Click and Select Animate

Right click on the mouse and select the “Animate” tab to add animation to the bulleted list.

Step-3: Select the Type of Animation

Depending on the type of animation you want, click on “Fade in” tab to select on the animation style.

Step-4: Select the Start Condition and enable “By Paragraph” setting

Depending on when you want the Bulleted List to show, select the “On Click” tab. Next, make sure that you click on the “By Paragraph” setting. This will allow the bulleted points to appear one at a time.

Step-5: Preview the Animation to See the Result

To preview the animation of the bulleted points, click on the yellow “Play” tab at the bottom of the section.

Press the yellow “Stop” button when you want to end the preview of the animation.

5. How to Animate Image and Objects in Google Slides?

Animating images and other objects in Google Slides works just the same way you would animate text. That said, I shall show you another way to access animations option for adding animations on Google Slide.

Step-1: Select the Image or Object

Select the image or object that needs to be animated. You can do that by clicking on it.

Step-2: Click on “Animate” Option on the Toolbar

Once the image is selected, you will notice that a “Animate” option is visible on the toolbar as showcased in the image above.

Click on it to add an animation to the image. This is another way to add animation to an object.

Step-3: Select the Type of Animation

Depending on the type of transition you desire, choose one. For this example, I’ve gone with the “Fly in from Bottom” animation option.

Step-4: Select the Start Condition for the Animation and the Duration

A time can be chosen depending on when you want the Object or Image to show. Press the “On Click” tab to allow the Image or Object to appear one at a time. Other options include “After Previous” and “With previous”.

Likewise, you can choose how fast or slow the animation show appear using the “Duration” option. Drag the slider towards right or left.

Step-5: Preview the Animation to See the Result

To preview the animation of the Image or Object, click on the yellow “Play” tab at the bottom of the section.

To end the preview of the animated Image or Object, click the “Stop” button.

6. How to Add a Motion Path Animation in Google Slides?

Motion path animations allow an object to move along in a certain path. This could be from right to left, up or down, or even diagonally.

Unfortunately, Google Slides doesn’t have an option to add a motion path animation on the slides directly. However, motion path animation can be recreated by using duplicating the slides and changing the position of the object slightly on each slide.

Unlike PowerPoint or Keynote, Google Slides doesn’t have an option to add “Path Animations“. However, the desired result can also be achieved with what is called a stop motion animation.

Check out the video below that explains the process of creating a stop motion animation in Google Slides –

7. How to Loop Animations in Google Slides?

Looping animations in Google Slides is not possible till now. However, you can create loop animation for an object, image, or text box in Google Slides using a hack. Let’s understand that in further detail.

Step-1: Create an Object on your Slide

The object created can be from the “Shape” tab, or an image, or a text box. It can contain statistical numbers or pictures related to the topic of the Presentation.

Step-2: Right Click and Select Animate Tab

Right click on the mouse and Select on the “Animate” tab to add animation to the already existing object.

Step-3: Select the Object to Add Looping Animation

After the animation sidebar pops up, make sure that the desired object is selected by clicking on it.

Step-4: Add Animation and Timing to your Object

Supposing that you want a Spin Loop Animation. From the transition option, select the “Spin” tab available on the bottom of the transition type list.

To select the time appearance of the object, select “On click” tab available on top of the list. This starts the animation when the object is clicked.

Step-5: Create Second Animation

Now, click “Add animation” button to create a second animation for the object. Select “Spin” available at the bottom of the list again to maintain coherence.

For the time of appearance of the object, click “After previous” available as the second option on the list. This ensures the object appears after the first animation process.

Step-6: Repeat step 5

Depending on how long you want the loop animation to be, keep repeating the 5th step. After a certain number of repetitions, the list of animations should show.

It is vital to ensure all the animations maintain the same speed for the object. Click “Medium” to get a moderate spin on the object.

Step-7: Click Play

Click the “Play” button available on the bottom of the sidebar to see how the object spins in a loop animation. Click “Stop” when you want the preview to end!

8. Can you Animate in Google Slides using Mobile App? 

Google Slides has a very robust mobile application for both Android and iOS devices. It does have several functionalities built-in that can enable you to design a presentation on the fly!

Unfortunately, you can not add animation using the mobile app in Google Slides. Although the option to add an animation doesn’t exist on the mobile app in Google Slides, you can still view a presentation that already contains animations.

You can also present a Google Slides presentation that contains animations, using just your phone.

9. Do PowerPoint Animations Work in Google Slides?

If you have created a presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint that contain animations, and if you need to share it using Google Slides, you may be wondering whether PowerPoint animations will work in Google Slides!

In general, most PowerPoint animations are not supported by Google Slides. However, if you use animations in your PowerPoint presentation that are also present in Google Slides (for eg. appear, fly in, etc.), it will work in Google Slides.

If you try uploading a PowerPoint presentation that contains animations that are not supported by Google Slides, you will see a warning in the top part of the Google Slides window (as shown in the image above).

The error message will inform you that “Some PowerPoint features can’t be displayed in Google Slides and will be lost if you make changes”

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Credit to Wayhomestudio for the Featured Image of this article