Animations & Transitions

Add motion and polish to your slides with transitions between slides and incremental reveals within slides.

Slide Transitions

Transitions control how slides animate when moving from one to the next. Tap supports five transition types.

Available Transitions

Transition	Effect
none	Instant switch, no animation
fade	Crossfade between slides
slide	Slide horizontally (left to right)
push	New slide pushes old slide out
zoom	Zoom in/out effect

Setting Transitions Globally

Set a default transition for all slides in your frontmatter:

---
title: My Presentation
transition: fade
---

All slides will use this transition unless overridden.

Setting Transitions Per-Slide

Override the global transition for a specific slide using a directive block:

---
title: My Presentation
transition: fade
---

# Slide One

This uses the default fade transition.

---

<!--
transition: zoom
-->

# Slide Two

This slide zooms in for dramatic effect.

---

# Slide Three

Back to the default fade transition.

Best Practices

• Use fade for most presentations—it's smooth and professional
• Use none for rapid-fire slides or when you want instant switches
• Use zoom sparingly for emphasis on key slides
• Keep transitions consistent within sections for a polished feel

Fragments (Incremental Reveals)

Fragments let you reveal content step-by-step within a single slide, perfect for building up ideas or keeping your audience focused.

The Pause Directive

Use <!-- pause --> to create manual breakpoints in your slide:

# Three Key Points

First, we'll discuss the problem.

<!-- pause -->

Second, we'll explore solutions.

<!-- pause -->

Third, we'll choose the best approach.

Each <!-- pause --> creates a new fragment. Press the next key (Space or Right Arrow) to reveal each section.

Automatic List Fragments

Enable automatic fragments for bullet lists by setting fragments: true:

Globally in Frontmatter

---
title: My Presentation
fragments: true
---

Per-Slide in Directive Block

<!--
fragments: true
-->

# Features

- Easy to use
- Fast performance
- Beautiful output

With fragments: true, each list item appears one at a time as you advance.

Combining Pause and List Fragments

You can use both techniques in the same presentation:

---
title: Product Launch
fragments: true
---

# Why Our Product?

Key benefits:

- Saves time
- Reduces costs
- Improves quality

<!-- pause -->

**Ready to get started?**

In this example:

1. The heading appears
2. Each bullet appears one by one (from fragments: true)
3. The final text appears after another advance (from <!-- pause -->)

Disabling Fragments for a Slide

If you've enabled fragments globally but want a specific slide to show all content at once:

<!--
fragments: false
-->

# Reference Slide

- Item one
- Item two
- Item three

All items appear immediately on this slide.

Animation Timing

Themes control animation timing and easing. Each built-in theme has its own animation style:

Theme	Animation Style
minimal	Subtle, quick fades
gradient	Smooth, flowing animations
terminal	Minimal/instant transitions
brutalist	Sharp, sudden reveals
keynote	Elegant, professional timing

Quick Reference

Feature	Syntax	Scope
Global transition	transition: fade in frontmatter	All slides
Per-slide transition	transition: zoom in directive	Single slide
Manual pause	<!-- pause -->	Single slide
Global fragments	fragments: true in frontmatter	All slides
Per-slide fragments	fragments: true in directive	Single slide

Next Steps

• Learn about Themes which control animation styling
• Explore Writing Slides for more markdown features
• See Presenter Mode to practice your timing