Rotating text with Javascript

Question

I'd like to cycle through an array of words creating a text rotation affect. I have most of it working as expected. Is there any way I can use a css transition on the length of the p element?

When traversing from an object with char.length > 10 to an object with char.length < 5 (for example) the movement isn't smooth and I'd like to ease the movement of the text around the word rather than abruptly jumping backwards (or forwards depending on the length of the word)

HTML:

<p><span id="description-rotate"></span> something built on something else.</p>

SASS:

@-webkit-keyframes rotate-text

    0%
        opacity: 0

    30%
        opacity: 1

    50%
        opacity: 1

    70%
        opacity: 1


    100%
        opacity: 0

p
    font-family: 'Helvetica', sans-serif

.rotate-text
   -webkit-animation: rotate-text 3050ms cubic-bezier(0.645,  0.045, 0.355, 1.000) infinite
    -moz-animation: rotate-text 3050ms cubic-bezier(0.645,  0.045, 0.355, 1.000) infinite
    -o-animation: rotate-text 3050ms cubic-bezier(0.645,  0.045, 0.355, 1.000) infinite
    animation: rotate-text 3050ms cubic-bezier(0.645,  0.045, 0.355, 1.000) infinite

Javascript:

var descriptionArray = ['some text', 'some more text', 'some even longer text'];
var descriptionLength = descriptionArray.length;
var description = $('#description-rotate');

function loop(i) {
     description.text(descriptionArray[i%descriptionLength]);
     setTimeout(function() {
        loop(i+1);
        description.addClass('rotate-text');
    }, 3050); // This duration must match the length of the animation
}

loop(0);

I realize this may be a poor way of explaining my goal, check out the CodePen for a better idea of what I'm trying to create.

Thanks!

See: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/JueGx

Answer 1

A simple example using jQuery
is by storing the desired looping / swapping words into the data-* attribute:

$("[data-words]").attr("data-words", function(i, words) {

    var $self = $(this).text(""),
        words = words.split("|"),
        tot   = words.length,
        c     = 0; 

    for(var i=0; i<tot; i++) $self.append($('<span/>',{text:words[i]}));

    var $words = $self.find("span");

    (function loop(){
      $self.animate({ width: $words.eq( c ).width() });
      $words.stop().fadeOut().eq(c).fadeIn().delay(1000).show(0, loop);
      c = ++c % tot;
    }());
    
});

/* DATA-WORDS Loop/swap words in sentence */
[data-words] {
  vertical-align: top;
  position: static;
}
[data-words] > span {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  color: #0bf;
}

<p>
  This is <span data-words="some|an interesting|some longer">some</span> text
</p>

<p>
  Say <span data-words="hi|wow">hi</span> to <span data-words="Javascript|Stack Overflow">mom</span>
</p>


<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.0.js"></script>

• The | -delimited words will be converted to Array and finally to child <span> elements
• Such span elements need to be absolutely positioned inside the parent span
• jQuery will than init a recursive loop, calculate the next word width, and animating it (fade + width)