Animated GIF in articles

What software do you use? 

Creating animated GIFs with GIMP is fairly simple. If you created your images in another program (exported slides from PowerPoint, etc.) use the Open as Layers function in GIMP to import them all at once. You'll want to arrange them in order so that the bottom layer is the first frame of the animation.

You can preview your animation under Filters > Animation > Playback, as well as adjust the playback speed. 

To save your animation, File > Export As and select GIF as your file type while making sure to check the As animation box. More on that here and here.

Insert your finished animation using the Insert Image dialog in the article editor (or in the source code using the <img> tag if you prefer.)

I've also been experimenting using version 2.6 GIMP with the GAP (Gimp Animation Package) plugin and it works OK for a free tool. We've also got CamStudio, which we use to screen record which we can then convert into a GIF. 

I found this article handy (note - it refers to GIMP v2.6) http://lifehacker.com/the-complete-guide-to-making-animated-gifs-1503276993?commerce_insets_disclosure=off&utm_expid=66866090-48.Ej9760cOTJCPS_Bq4mjoww.1 

Thanks for the kind advice to you both. I tested stacking images in GIMP and it worked pretty well. I also ended up using Snagit for Chrome which has a built in Animated GIF option for >20 second video clips which works very well. It integrates with Google drive as well so it makes storing your files pretty seamless. 

I recommend storing your images elsewhere and linking to them from outside of Zendesk as there is no way to manage or edit them within Guide.  This is now a maintenance issue for us as we have animated *.gifs throughout our help documents and they each have to be updated individually.