How to hide and reveal text in Google Slides

I am using Google Drive to create a presentation in which I have four square objects. I want one to be revealed each time I click (I think the old phrasing was: "incremental reveal").

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

How to Create “Tap to Reveal” in Google Slides:
Taking it to the Next Level
Displaying the Motion pane
Adding an entrance animation to make an object appear
Adding an exit animation to make an object disappear
Editing an animation
Running a slide show

Is there any way to do this other than creating four separate slides with each keyframe?

When I was a classroom teacher, I used to love to create games, incentives and interactive lessons using the Smart Notebook software because it gave me options to have students “Tap to Reveal” answers in different fun ways. Did you know this can be easily replicated in Google Slides??? Check it out – click on the balloon to reveal the answer:

How to Create “Tap to Reveal” in Google Slides:

Create a question slide.
In the example below, I created a simple slide with one question and a balloon covering the answer. (I don’t really have the answer behind there… it is all an illusion!)
Duplicate the slide by clicking the slide thumbnail on the left-hand side and using the keyboard shortcut ctrl + D (D is for Duplicate! It is copy and paste all in one!)
Now you have two slides that are exactly the same.
On the second slide, add your reveal. In my example, this is the answer to my question. I deleted the balloon so that the student has the illusion that they popped the balloon to reveal the answer.

Now here’s where the magic happens:

Go back to slide one. Click on the object that you’ve set up as your “Tap to Reveal.” In my example, I clicked on the balloon.
Add a link to this object by clicking the Insert Link button on the toolbar or using the keyboard shortcut ctrl + K.
Click the drop-down to select the slide that reveals the answer. In my example, that would be slide 2.
Now, in presentation mode, if a student clicks on the balloon, it seems to pop and reveal the answer! So fun!
To safeguard students from accidentally double-tapping or advancing through the slides by clicking instead of ONLY clicking on my balloon, I also inserted a square covering my whole slide, then set it to have a transparent fill and a transparent line. I linked this “invisible” square to the current slide so that if a student taps anywhere other than the balloon or the arrow, nothing happens – you just stay on the same slide.

Click here to grab a copy of this balloon “Tap to Reveal” that you can edit with your questions and answers – all links are already working for you!

Taking it to the Next Level

Ellen Jablonski, @MissJablonski, 2nd Grade teacher at Kirk Elementary, took this idea to the next level by creating an ocean themed behavior incentive with TONS of these “Tap to Reveal” links as sea creatures. Try clicking on a sea creature below to test it out. NOTE: Click the jellyfish in the top left corner to return “home” and choose a different sea creature:

Ellen was so kind to share the link so you can grab an EDITABLE copy and change the incentives to fit your classroom! All the links are set – all you have to do is change out the incentives that pop out from slide 2 forward. Grab a copy here!

Remember to put the slide deck in presentation mode (or publish to web) in order for the links to work as “Tap to Reveal!”

Check out this post for another example of a Tap to Reveal behavior incentive slide deck.

Does this spur any creative juices? How might you use the “Tap to Reveal” hack in your own Google Slides lessons? Please share what you come up with so that we can all benefit! We are better together!

View all posts by Meredith Akers

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated April 29, 2022

Applies to: Google Slides® (Windows)

In Google Slides, you can add both entrance and exit animations to make an object appear on a slide and disappear during a slide show. The animation can occur automatically or on click. An object is typically a shape, image, text placeholder or text box.

Recommended article: How to Add Audio in Google Slides

You will need to log in to your Google Drive account to work with Google Slides presentations. Go to drive.google.com to access Google Drive and your Google apps. Open the presentation with the slide(s) you want to animate.

Displaying the Motion pane

To apply animations in Google Slides, you will need to display the Motion pane.

To display the Motion pane by right-clicking:

Right-click an object on a slide.
Choose Animation from the drop-down menu. The Motion pane appears.

To display the Motion Pane using the Google Slides menu:

Click View in the menu at the top of the slide. If the menu is not displayed, press Ctrl + Shift + F.
Click Motion in the menu.

To display the Motion pane using a keyboard shortcut, press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B.

The Motion pane appears and displays options for transitions that occur between slides during a slide show and options for animations that can be applied to objects.

You may have to expand the Object Animations area by clicking the arrow below Object Animations.

Adding an entrance animation to make an object appear

To apply an entrance animation to an object to make it appear on click:

Select an object on a slide. For text objects, click in the text box or placeholder or click its edge. Google Slides should apply a default animation to the object. If it doesn't add an animation, click Add Animation.
In the Motion pane, click the arrow below Object Animations to expand it.
Choose Appear or Fade in from the Animation Type drop-down menu. Fade to expand it. You could also choose Fly in from left, Fly in from right, Fly in from bottom, Fly in from top or Zoom in.
From the Start Condition drop-down menu, select an option to start the animation. The default is On click but you can also select After previous or With previous which would occur automatically when you run the slide show (after or with the previous animated object).
If the object contains text, you can select or check By paragraph if you want. You may want to select this option if you want to animate bulleted text in a placeholder or text box
To change the speed of the animation, drag the Duration slider between Slow and Fast. Drag left to slow the animation down or right to speed it up.

In the example slide below, the user wants to animate the selected text object to make it appear by fading in:

The Motion pane appears as follows with an entrance animation to fade in:

Adding an exit animation to make an object disappear

To apply an exit animation to an object to make it disappear on click:

Select an object on a slide. For text objects, click in the text box or placeholder or click its edge.
In the Motion pane, click Add Animation.
Choose Disappear or Fade out from the Animation Type drop-down menu. You could also choose Fly out from left, Fly out from right, Fly out from bottom, Fly out from top or Zoom out.
From the Start Condition drop-down menu, select an option to start the animation. The default is On click but you can also select After previous or With previous which would occur automatically when you run the slide show.
If the object contains text, you can select or check By paragraph if you want.
To change the speed of the animation, drag the Duration slider between Slow and Fast. Drag left to slow the animation down or right to speed it up.

The Motion pane appears as follows with an entrance and exit animation:

Editing an animation

To edit an animation:

Select the object with the animation you want to edit.
In the Motion pane, click the arrow beside an animation to expand it (if necessary).
Choose a different animation, start condition and / or duration.

Running a slide show

The final step is to run the slide show to see your object appear and disappear.

To run a slide show, click Slide Show on the top right of the screen. You can also click the arrow to the right of Slide Show and choose Start from Beginning or Presenter View in the menu.

When you run a slide show, if you have selected On click for your animations, you will need to click or press the right arrow to start each animation.

To exit a slide show, press ESC.

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