A transition is the second or so where one photo becomes the next. It is easy to dismiss as decoration, but it is the only moment in a slideshow that you have any control over the rhythm — and a rotation that always cuts hard between images feels quite different from one that occasionally sweeps or dissolves.
There are 29 of them, on the Effects tab in Settings. They are not the same thing as Soft Effects, which act while an image is on screen — these act only in the change between two images.
What the 29 effects cover
Every effect is listed individually with its own checkbox, so this is less a menu of presets than a palette to pick from. They fall into a handful of families:
- Eight directional wipes — the four edges (left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top) and all four diagonals.
- Two spins — rotating in from the top-left corner, or from the centre.
- Maximize and rotate — the new image growing outward from the centre, or turning into place.
- Three shape reveals — circular, elliptical and rectangular, each opening the new image through an expanding shape.
- Four splits — horizontal, vertical, quarter, and an outward "boom" split.
- Three chessboard reveals — a full board pattern plus horizontal and vertical variants, replacing the image in tiles rather than in one sweep.
- Three panorama moves — a general panorama plus dedicated horizontal and vertical versions, which suit wide images particularly well.
- Two spirals — a spiral wipe and an outward spiral "boom".
- Two fades — a straight fade, and a cross-dissolve between the two images.
Effect names appear in whatever language you are running the app in, so the list on your Effects tab will read in your own language rather than in English.
Including the option to use none
Alongside the 29 there is an explicit "none — instant swap" entry. That is a small but thoughtful detail: an instant cut is offered as a deliberate choice sitting in the same list, rather than as something you get by switching the whole feature off. If you want most changes animated and some of them abrupt, that is a setting rather than a compromise.
Duration, frame rate, and preview
- Duration in seconds — how long the transition takes, starting at 1.0. Shorter feels brisk; longer turns the change itself into part of the show.
- Frame rate in fps — starting at 30. Worth knowing about if an effect looks less smooth than you expected on a particular machine.
- Preview before saving — try a combination and watch it, rather than committing and waiting for the screensaver to show you what you chose.
Enable one, some, or all 29
There are Select All and Unselect All buttons, because both extremes are reasonable. A single effect everywhere gives a rotation one consistent house style — every change a slow fade, say. Enabling all 29 gives you something closer to variety for its own sake, where you rarely see the same move twice in a row.
The middle is usually the most pleasant: pick three or four that suit your material and disable the rest. Spirals and chessboard reveals are striking once and tiring on repeat; fades and directional wipes bear far more repetition.
Randomly skipping effects
A skip-chance percentage — 25 to begin with — leaves that share of image changes as plain cuts with no effect at all. It is the same principle as the random skip in Soft Effects, and it does the same job: variety comes from effects being occasional rather than constant. Over a long evening it is the difference between a slideshow with rhythm and one that performs at you.
Transitions run screen by screen and can be affected by your display hardware. If an effect stutters on one monitor but not another, that is where to look first — try lowering the frame rate or shortening the duration before assuming something is broken.
Transitions and Soft Effects are separate settings
This trips people up often enough to be worth stating twice. The Effects tab controls what happens between images. The Soft Effects tab controls what happens during one — Ken Burns motion and the eight collage layouts. Enabling all 29 transitions will not produce a single collage, and enabling every collage layout will not animate a single change.
On more than one monitor
Because each connected display runs its own rotation on independent timing, two screens will generally be mid-transition at different moments with different effects. The Windows multi-monitor guide and the Mac equivalent cover per-display setup.
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