Animation

An animation is a short video that plays like a GIF: silently, on a loop, starting by itself, with no player controls. It is the clearest way to show a small thing being done, such as a menu opening, a click, a drag, and a video file is a fraction of the size of the same GIF. The recordings in these docs are animations.

Insert it

Type the command at the start of a line, or after a space, and press Enter. Or choose + on the toolbar, then Animation. If you had text selected, the block takes its place.

Then choose a video in its File menu, or Upload one. Any video attached to the page works.

As an animation, or with controls

An animation

It starts by itself, plays with no sound, and loops. Use it for a clip of a few seconds that shows how to do one thing. For example, adding a table with the slash menu:

Typing / on a new line opens the slash menu; typing tab narrows it, and Enter adds a table.

Point at an animation and a small button appears in its corner to pause it; on a phone or tablet the button is always there. Readers whose device is set to reduce motion see it paused on its first frame, and can start it with that button.

The same video with controls

Here is the same file as a video with controls. Use this for anything longer, anything with sound, or anything readers need to stop at a particular moment:

Changing and removing it

• Show as switches between An animation: silent, looping, no controls and A video with controls.

• File chooses another video; Upload adds one.

• To remove it, click its edge to select it and press Delete. The video stays among the page’s attachments.

Good practice

• A few seconds, one action. Readers watch it loop; ten seconds is already long.

• End where it began, or hold the last moment, so the loop does not jump.

• Record only what matters. A small window, or a part of the screen, reads on a phone; a whole screen does not.

• Say what it shows in a line under it, as above. Some readers see it paused, and nobody can hear it.

• Use a common format. MP4 and WebM videos play in every current browser.

Related elements

• File or video shows a video with controls, a PDF, a sound or any other file.

• Embed shows a video from a site such as YouTube.

• Image shows a still picture.