master the Magic Move tool

1 Prepare the initial slide

Set up your first slide. Any object you place on it can be animated using the Magic Move tool, but remember the ‘less is more’ mantra of good design; don’t clutter the slide with too many competing elements. Next, select the slide in the navigator on the left and press ç+d to duplicate it.

2 Animate image

The new slide should be selected by default. If you’re animating an image or a shape, select it and then drag it to its desired ‘end’ position. You can also resize it using its drag handles, and rotate it by holding ç when dragging them – Keynote will smoothly animate any changes you make.

3

Create text effects

You can also apply Magic Move to text, to move, resize and rotate it just like you would an image. You can also make changes to the text itself: apply stylistic changes such as bold or italic, or animate the text itself by word or character using the Match setting (see the ‘Word Play’ tip about anagrams).

4

Apply Magic Move effect

Once your object is in its end position, select the first slide again in the navigator. Open the Animate inspector, click Add an Effect and choose Magic Move. If it doesn’t automatically show a preview of the effect, which can take some time to generate, click the Preview button to see it.

5

Change effect attributes

The effect can be customised. All animations last two seconds by default – alter this using the Duration slider. Leave Fade Unmatched Objects ticked to smoothly remove (or introduce) objects that aren’t on both slides. The Match options of By Word and By Character apply to text only.

6

Tweak acceleration settings

By default, Acceleration is set to Ease In & Ease Out, which means the animation smoothly speeds up at the start and slows down at the finish. Changing it to Ease In will give you an abrupt finish, while Ease Out makes it start abruptly. Choosing None gives a constant speed for the duration.

7

Set transition start

The Start Transition item determines whether the Magic Move transition starts as soon as you advance from the previous slide (with an optional delay) or, as is the default setting, when you click. When done, move on to the next Magic Move effect in your sequence by adding more slides.

8

Smart animations

Each Magic Move transition allows an object to move from one point to another. To move it more than once, create more slides with Magic Move effects for each step of the journey. For example, you’ll need two Magic Move transitions to move an object from left to right and back again.