Animations and Slide Transitions in LibreOffice Impress

LibreOffice Impress provides a comprehensive set of visual effects to create engaging, dynamic presentations. Users can apply slide transitions to control how slides move from one to the next, as well as object animations to animate individual text boxes, shapes, and media elements on a slide. This guide outlines the full range of transition and animation features available in LibreOffice Impress and how to configure them.

Slide Transitions

Slide transitions are visual effects that play when advancing from one slide to another. These settings are located in the Slide Transition deck within the right-hand Sidebar.

Available Transition Effects

Impress includes dozens of transition styles categorized by motion type, including: * Wipes and Pushes: Wipe (up, down, left, right), Push, and Slide. * Fades and Dissolves: Fade Smoothly, Fade Through Black, and Dissolve. * Bars and Checks: Horizontal/Vertical Bars, Checkerboard, and Comb. * Geometric Shapes: Box (in/out), Circle, Diamond, Split, and Wedge. * 3D Transitions: Venetian Blinds, Roll, Wheel (variable spokes), and diagonal uncover patterns.

Transition Properties and Modifiers

Every transition effect can be customized with the following parameters: * Variant: Sets the direction or orientation of the effect (e.g., from top, from bottom-left). * Duration: Controls the playback speed of the transition in seconds. * Sound: Allows the attachment of default system sounds or custom audio files (.wav) to trigger during the transition. * Advance Slide Options: Defines whether the slide advances manually On mouse click or Automatically after a specified duration. * Apply to All Slides: Applies the selected transition settings across the entire presentation with one click.

Custom Animations

Custom animations control how specific elements—such as text, images, shapes, and charts—enter, emphasize, move across, or leave a slide. These effects are managed through the Animation deck in the Sidebar.

Animation Categories

When adding an effect to an object, Impress organizes animations into five primary categories:

1. Entrance Effects: Control how an object appears on the slide.
   • Examples: Appear, Fly In, Fade In, Zoom, Wipe, Rise Up, Peek In, and Spiral In.
2. Emphasis Effects: Draw attention to an already visible object without changing its entry state.
   • Examples: Spin, Grow and Shrink, Change Font Color, Flash, Transparency, and Blink.
3. Exit Effects: Dictate how an object leaves or disappears from the slide.
   • Examples: Fly Out, Fade Out, Disappear, Wipe, Zoom Out, and Shrink and Turn.
4. Motion Paths: Move an object along a predefined or custom-drawn route across the canvas.
   • Path Types: 5-Point Star, Circle, Crescent, Diagonal Lines, Loops, Spirals, and user-drawn Curve, Polygon, or Freeform Line paths.
5. Misc / Media: Provides control actions for audio and video objects, such as Play, Pause, and Stop.

Animation Behavior and Timing Controls

After applying an animation, Impress provides granular controls to adjust its execution:

• Start Triggers:
  • On Click: The animation runs when the presenter clicks or presses advance.
  • With Previous: The animation plays simultaneously with the preceding animation.
  • After Previous: The animation plays automatically as soon as the preceding animation finishes.
• Duration and Delay: Sets the total time the animation takes to complete and introduces a waiting period before the effect starts.
• Direction and Effect Options: Configures axis directions, smooth start/end acceleration, and repeating cycles.
• Text Grouping: When animating bulleted or numbered lists, text can be set to appear As one object, All at once, or By 1st level paragraphs (progressively revealing bullet points one by one).