Next-level bullet point reveal used by big tech companies

You know something is good when it looks simple and natural when executed.

Also, if both Google and Apple use it in their presentations, it’s another vote in the right direction 👍

I’m talking about this bullet point reveal:

From 2023 Apple WWDC

From 2023 Google I/O conference

Let me show you how to build this for your PowerPoint presentations.

How to:

As simple as this looks, there are a few important tools that bring it all together. The most critical of which is the Morph Transition effect.

If you’ve never heard of the Morph Transition, then hold onto your hats. It’s probably the single most used animation effect by professional presentation designers in PowerPoint. It helps to get that cinematic look by allowing you to animate smooth movement from one slide to the next.

Step 1: Begin with the end in mind

The best tip for using the Morph Transition is to begin with the end in mind. I often work backwards and mock up the final slide. In this case, it’s a 5 bullet-point slide
Create a text box that you will use as a template for each of your bullet points. Chose the size, font and colour (I used gradient text fills here)
Duplicate the template text box 4 more times using Ctrl+D or by copying and pasting
Arrange the text boxes using Distribute Vertically to create equidistant spacing
Select all the text boxes and Align to Centre. They are now aligned to a common centre axis

Create your end template or slide to visualise the final outcome

Group all the text boxes and Align to Middle of the slide. Then Ungroup the text boxes. This will ensure that the text boxes are positioned in the middle of the slide

Align the bullets to the middle of the slide to create the focal point

Step 2: Set Appearance Animation

Apply the Fade animation to the last text box. We will be revealing each bullet point (text box) individually per slide
Tweak the settings to get the Fade In effect that you would like. Here I chose it to start With Previous and to animate text By word

The Fade animation can be customised to get the desired effect. I love the By Word setting for text

Step 3: Setting up the Morph

We are now ready to apply The Morph Transition and take it up a level

The Morph Transition creates a fluid motion between how objects (like shapes, images or text) change between two slides. The key is to use the exact same objects and PowerPoint takes care of matching the changes between the slides
To make this happen, first set Morph Transition for your current slide. Remember that animations are for objects on a slide, while Transitions are animation effects between slides
Tweak the settings by reducing Duration to 0.75 seconds

Set up your Morph on one slide and it will be consistent across all slides that are created from this template

Step 4: Creating the Duplicate

It’s now time to duplicate the slide to bring the Morph Transition into effect. Use Ctrl+D or copy and paste the slide
We are working backwards now, so select the newer slide
Select the lowest bullet point (i.e. text box) > remove the Fade effect > move the text box to the bottom of the slide > recolour it to match the font colour to the slide background. This will make the text box seem invisible and also have it seem to appear from the bottom of the slide
Group the other 4 text boxes, Align to Middle, Ungroup and apply the Fade effect as in Step 2

Morph Transition highlights all the changes between objects on slides

Step 5: Test your Morph

Before duplicating this to the rest of the slides, you can test how well the transition works. Put it into slideshow mode from your first bullet slide and navigate between the two slides
This is the Morph Transition at work 😁

Test your animations or transitions before building the rest of the slides

Step 6: Rinse and repeat

Now that you have the idea of what Morph does to objects across slides you can repeat step 4 above for the rest of the slides
Duplicate the slide > Select the earlier slide > Remove the Fade animation > Move the bottom-most text box to the bottom of the slide > Recolour text > Regroup the remaining text boxes > Align to Middle > Ungroup > Apply Fade animation to bottom bullet
You should have 5 slides in total. Each slide will provide the animation per bullet point. The only difference is the Fade animation for the first slide will start On Click

The final slide effect. Transforming your bullet points into something pretty cool

And that is how you can create this awesome bullet point reveal that the biggest tech companies in the world use.

💡Pro-Tip: This effect works best with 3 to 5 bullet points. I would not recommend more than 5

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