Animations, when used in moderation, can help create visually appealing presentations. Like PowerPoint, Google Slides animations can be a great way to make the most out of your slide decks. While some Google Slides templates might come with pre-defined animated sequences, you can add your animations to add movement to slide objects and make them appear or move in different directions.
How to Animate Google Slides
To animate Google Slides, select an object from the slide you wish to animate and go to Insert -> Animate to select an animation to apply to the selected object.
The Animations panel provides various options to animate objects. You can select an animation type its trigger, and even apply multiple animations via the Add animation option.
Select Animation to Apply to an Object
Like PowerPoint, there are a range of animations that can be used in Google Slides, such as appear, disappear, fade (in or out), fly (in and out from various directions), zoom (in or out), and spin.
Select when to Trigger the Animation
The selected animation can be triggered on click, after, or with the previous slide.
Customize Animation Speed
You can also select the speed of the animation to customize how your object appears on screen.
Preview Animation in Google Slides
Once you add animations to your slide, click Play to preview the animation.
The below example shows an animated character in Google Slides. By animating objects, you can create interesting animated sequences in Google Slides to avoid making slide decks that might lead to death by PowerPoint.
Final Words
When presenters ask how to make Google Slides look good, Google Slides animations are an obvious answer by animating one or more objects. You can easily create a sequence that can help take the audience on a visual journey that cannot be offered with static slides that can often make the audience lose interest. Since many people are likely to have short attention spans due to the changing nature of the way people work and absorb information through digital devices, animations can be a good method to alert the audience from time to time visually. However, animations should be used in moderation and after careful consideration, or the slide deck might end up looking unprofessional, and the slides might seem out of place.
