PowerPoint Morph Transition: Animate Shapes Between Two Slides

When three small boxes on one slide become three large boxes on the next, a plain slide change just cuts from one to the other. The audience sees a different picture but not what changed, which is often the point you're trying to make.

TL;DR: Duplicate the slide, change the shapes on the copy, then apply Transitions > Morph to the second slide.

Steps

1. Duplicate the slide. On the copy, change only the boxes: their position, size or color.
2. Select the second slide and go to Transitions > Morph.
3. Click Preview. The boxes move and grow from the first layout into the second.

To slow it down, raise the transition Duration, for example from 2 to 4 seconds. Position, size and color all change together in one continuous motion.

Checked in the free PowerPoint for the web, using Preview in the editing view. Playback in a slide show on the web was not captured in our test, so that part is unconfirmed.

Where it works well

Before-and-after comparisons, a chart element growing to show an increase, zooming in on one part of a diagram, or moving a highlighted box from one item to the next. Anything where the change itself is the message.

Common mistakes

Morph matches objects that exist on both slides. Duplicating the slide is the easiest way to guarantee that, since the shapes on both slides are the same objects. Drawing new shapes on the second slide instead can make them fade in rather than move.

Changing too many things at once makes the motion hard to follow. Pick one or two properties to change per transition.

Morph is applied to the slide you're moving to, not the one you're leaving. If nothing happens, check that the transition is set on the second slide.

Morph needs a recent PowerPoint: Microsoft 365, PowerPoint 2019 or later, or PowerPoint for the web. In older versions the slide just cuts.

Compared with building animations by hand

You could get a similar effect with motion paths and grow/shrink animations on one slide, but you'd be setting each object's path and timing separately. Morph works out the in-between frames from two still slides, so editing the result means editing a slide, not an animation timeline.

AI helped draft this article. The steps were tested in PowerPoint for the web.