What Are Transitions? Transitions are the tools used to create presentations where slides or media move, dissolve, or shift between elements with seamless fluidity.

ProPresenter offers several ways to apply transitions, from a single global setting affecting an entire layer down to individual objects on a slide.

The way you apply transitions in ProPresenter may look a little different than what you are used to if you’ve used previous versions of ProPresenter, but the good news is, they still apply in the same ways.

Global Transitions

At the broadest level, ProPresenter has two global transitions: one for slide content and one for media.

• The global slide transition sits below the slide view area, marked by an orange transition icon.
• The global media transition sits below the Media Bin when it's open, marked by a purple icon. If the Media Bin is closed, this icon moves next to the slide transition icon.
   

Each global transition offers three choices:

1. Cut — an instantaneous change with no duration, switching directly from one frame to the next.
2. Dissolve — a fade that can be adjusted anywhere from one-tenth of a second up to five seconds.
3. Advanced Transitions window — opens a dedicated window with far more detailed transition options.

These global settings act as the default behavior for every slide and media item in the program, unless a more specific transition has been set further down the chain.

Non-Global Transitions

There are several ways to apply transitions to individual elements inside ProPresenter.

Presentation-Level Transitions

If you want a particular presentation to behave differently from your global defaults, you can set a transition at the presentation level in one of two ways:

1. Click the transitions icon in the Presentation Header to open the full Transitions window and choose a transition.

In Edit Mode, with no slide element selected, open the Presentation tab on the right side and check the box next to Transition.

A presentation-level transition overrides the global transition for every slide in that presentation. If you do not apply a transition to a presentation, it will use the Global Transition for slide content (that we discussed above). At any point, if you want to revert to the Global transition, you can open the Advanced Transition Window and click the “Default” button in the top left corner.

Slide-Level Transitions

For even finer control, you can apply a transition to a single slide (or a handful of slides) so the effect only triggers when that specific slide appears. At any point, if you want to revert to the Global transition, you can open the Advanced Transition Window and click the “Default” button in the top left corner.

Right-click the slide or cue and select Transitions. As with presentation-level transitions, click Default in the Advanced Transitions window at any time to revert to the global transition. Alternatively, in Edit Mode with no slide element selected, open the Build tab on the right side and click Add Build… to set a slide transition.

Media Transitions

Media cues have their own transition settings, managed through the Media Inspector:

Right-click the media cue and select Inspector.

Open the Properties tab — the transition option appears at the bottom of the window.

You can either set this on the item in the presentation itself or set it prior to adding it to a presentation from the Media Bin. To do this, right-click on the Media cue and select Inspector. Under the Transition tab, you can set a transition at the bottom of the window for the Media Cue to use when it’s triggered.

Object-Level Transitions (Builds)

The most granular layer of control is the build — a transition applied to an individual object on a slide, rather than the slide as a whole.

Open the Editor and select the object.

Navigate to the Build tab on the right side.

Apply a build-in or build-out transition to that specific object.

Builds trigger automatically along with the slide they belong to, letting individual text boxes, images, or shapes animate independently of one another.

Transitions for Props, Bibles, and Messages

There are also several other locations where you can apply transitions to specific elements. There is a transitions button that will open the Advanced Transitions menu in the following locations: Props, Bibles, and Messages. The transitions applied via the transitions icon in these locations will only apply to those particular elements. One thing to note, however, is that these transitions will not follow your global transitions, so they must be set in the respective windows.

The Advanced Transitions Window 

So now that we have talked about the many places you can apply a transition, let’s talk about the Advanced Transitions window. No matter where you access it from, the Advanced Transitions window works the same way:

All available transitions are listed on the left side of the window.

Clicking a transition applies it and reveals its adjustable parameters on the right.

To preview a transition, place the cursor on the left edge of the preview box above the transition name and drag it to the right.

A dropdown menu in the top-left corner filters the transition list — by default it shows everything, but you can narrow it to recent selections, specific transition types, or your saved favorites. 

To preview a transition, place the cursor on the left edge of the preview box above the transition name and drag it to the right.

A dropdown menu in the top-left corner filters the transition list — by default it shows everything, but you can narrow it to recent selections, specific transition types, or your saved favorites. 

You can also change which transitions you are seeing in the Advanced Transitions Window by clicking on the drop-down menu in the top left. By default, it is set to show you “All”, but if you click on the drop-down, you will see all of the options. You can just see your favorites (which we will discuss in a moment), your recent selections, or just certain kinds of transitions.

Saving Favorite Transitions

If you find a transition setup you like, you can save it for quick reuse later:

Open the Advanced Transitions window and select a transition.

Configure the parameters exactly how you want them.

Click the star icon on the right side of the window, next to the transition name.

The name becomes editable — label it descriptively (for example, Fade Black .5s) so you can identify it later.

You can save multiple versions of the same transition type with different parameters, each as its own favorite. Once saved, access them anytime by selecting Favorites from the dropdown menu in the top-left corner of the Advanced Transitions window.

Bringing It All Together

ProPresenter's layered approach to transitions — global, presentation, slide, media, and object level — means you rarely have to choose between simplicity and precision. Set a global default that works for most of your content, then override it exactly where you need something different. Once you've dialed in a look you love, save it as a favorite so it's just a click away next time.