Use Keynote’s animation tools

Draw a sketchy line

Animating lines can be a subtle way of adding movement. Use the Shape button in the toolbar to create a line, select the line, then open the Format inspector’s Style pane to give the line arrowheads and a hand-drawn look.

Dynamic data

Interactive charts bring data to life. Click the toolbar’s Chart button, choose Interactive, and pick column, bar, scatter or bubble. Each comes with sample data; select the chart, then click Edit Chart Data to provide your own.

Magic Move

Copy and paste objects from one slide to the next, then change their looks and position – or duplicate the first and change the copy. Select the first slide, open the Animate inspector and set Magic Move as the slide’s transition.

Animate the line

Open the Animate inspector from the toolbar, go to its Build In pane, then click the Add an Effect button. Select Line Draw from the list and tweak its settings; try setting a duration under one second. Add a few more lines like this.

Animate together

The Animate Inspector’s Build Order tool works with interactive charts too. Try animating a chart alongside other objects. With thought and practice you can produce effective combinations of movement for infographics.

Magical text effects

If there’s a text box present on both slides, the options to match by word or by character can fade or slide things around. You can use the latter to reveal the solution to an anagram, say. Try them out to get a feel for their behaviors.

Set the build order

Click Build Order to show all of the objects on the slide that have animations applied. Select the first line and set it to draw automatically (After Transition), then select the other lines and set them to build with the first one.

Split into steps

Change a chart’s Delivery setting in the Build In pane. You can choose to build all sets continuously, or specific sets from your data. Use the latter to focus on a particular set, pausing the animation’s progress till a later slide.

Effects sequence

In the Animate inspector, set the slides to start automatically. Build effects on the first one will play, then the Magic Move transition, then any build effects on the second slide – tailor their durations, as most are a little long by default.