26 min read
Morph Transition and Object Animation
Use Morph to animate movement between slides. Combine with object animations for a polished Open Day tour map.
What Morph Does
Morph is a transition that moves objects smoothly between consecutive slides. It compares objects on slide pairs and animates position, size, and rotation.
James Okonkwo builds a two-slide campus map in NorthgateOpenDay.pptx. Slide one shows the Main Hall label. Slide two shows the same label beside the Sports Block — Morph animates the move during the live Open Day talk on Saturday 14 March 2026.
Duplicate slides before you edit positions. Morph needs matching object names on both slides.
Morph vs Object Animation
| Morph transition | Object animation |
|---|---|
| Runs between two slides | Runs on one slide |
| Matches objects by name across slides | You pick each object and effect |
| Great for maps, timelines, before/after layouts | Great for bullet reveals and photo entrances |
| Set on Transitions tab | Set on Animations tab |
Morph shines when the same object appears on two slides in different places — a map pin moving from Main Hall to Sports Block, or a department icon growing when you focus on Science.
Duplicate and Name Objects
Morph needs two slides with the same objects in different positions.
- Click the slide that shows the campus map (or add a Title Only slide with a map picture).
- Right-click the thumbnail → Duplicate Slide.
- On slide 1, click the map label Main Hall. Open Home → Arrange → Selection Pane.
- Double-click the name and type TourPin.
- On the duplicate slide, select the same label and name it TourPin in the Selection Pane.
- Expected result: Selection Pane shows TourPin on both consecutive slides.
Apply Morph Between Map Slides
During Slide Show, the pin appears to travel across the map.
- Click the thumbnail before the duplicate map slide.
- Click Transitions → Morph.
- On the second slide, drag TourPin to the Sports Block area.
- With slide 1 selected, click Transitions → Preview.
- Expected result: Preview shows smooth movement between slides, not a hard cut.
Fix: If Morph plays a fade instead of moving the label, open Selection Pane on both slides and confirm both objects share the exact name TourPin.
Layer Object Animation After Morph
Dr. Helen Marsh lands on the Sports Block, then reveals tour times one line at a time.
- On the second map slide, click the bullet list placeholder.
- Click Animations → Appear.
- Click Effect Options → By Paragraph.
- In the Animation Pane, set the first bullet to After Previous so text waits until Morph completes.
- Press Shift+F5 to test from the current slide.
- Expected result: Map morphs first; bullets appear on the second slide after the transition.
Keep Morph Subtle
Keep Morph subtle for Open Day — one or two moving highlights per section is enough. Save flashy spins for marketing decks, not parent talks.
If slide two has completely different pictures with no shared names, Morph falls back to an ordinary fade.
| Morph readiness checklist | |
|---|---|
Example — Fix a Morph that fades instead of moving: Open Home → Arrange → Selection Pane on both slides. Both objects must share the exact same name — e.g. TourPin. Renaming only one slide's object is the most common Morph failure before Open Day.
Practice
More lessons in Microsoft PowerPoint · Next: Automatic Timing and Rehearsed Slides · Previous: Animations