PowerPoint Morph transition: how to use it and build it in code

What the Morph transition can animate

Morph works from two finished slides, not from animation settings: you design where things start and where they end, and PowerPoint works out the movement. It moves text, shapes, pictures, SmartArt graphics and WordArt. Charts are the exception: Microsoft says they don’t morph, they cross-fade. What you see depends on what you change on the second slide:

The changes combine: one object can move, resize, rotate and change color in the same transition.

How to apply the Morph transition

1. 1

   Step 1: Build the starting slide

   Place everything where the movement should begin.

2. 2

   Step 2: Duplicate it

   Duplicating is the easiest way to get the same objects on both slides. You can also copy an object and paste it onto the next slide.

3. 3

   Step 3: Change the second slide

   Move, resize, rotate or recolor objects, add new ones or delete some. This slide is where the movement ends.

4. 4

   Step 4: Apply Morph to the second slide

   Select the second slide in the thumbnail pane, then on the Transitions tab select Morph. In PowerPoint for Android it is Transitions > Transition Effects > Morph.

5. 5

   Step 5: Pick an effect option and preview

   Select Transitions > Effect Options to choose Objects, Words or Characters, then select Preview to watch it.

Morph effect options: Objects, Words or Characters

The effect option sets how finely Morph matches what is on the two slides. Microsoft’s file format documentation defines all three, and the last column is the value a .pptx file stores for each:

Make objects match with !! names

Morph pairs objects that are on both slides. When it pairs the wrong ones, or you want two different objects to turn into each other, name them. The rule from Microsoft: begin the name with !! (two exclamation points) and give both objects the same name. A circle named !!Shape1 on one slide and a square named !!Shape1 on the next morph from circle into square.

1. Open the Selection Pane. On Windows: Home > Select > Selection Pane, in the Editing group. On a Mac: Home > Selection Pane, in the Arrange group.
2. Click an object’s name to select it, then click it again to edit it.
3. Press Ctrl+A to select the whole name, type !! and the rest of the name, such as !!ShapeForMorph, and press Enter.
4. Give the object it should turn into, on the next slide, exactly the same name.

The rules Morph follows with these names:

• Two objects of the same type with the same !! name on successive slides morph into each other: two different shapes, two pictures, two tables, or two copies of a shape with different text.
• A !! object never pairs with an object whose name doesn’t start with !!.
• Morph expects one-to-one pairs, so use each !! name only once on a slide.
• Charts still cross-fade, whatever their names.

Custom shapes need care. PowerPoint can’t geometrically morph a shape with more than one hole in it. For shapes with edit points, give the before and after shapes roughly the same number of points in matching places, drawn in the same direction. The !! names need a recent build, such as Microsoft 365 for Windows version 1903 (Current Channel) or 16.23 on a Mac.

Which PowerPoint versions support Morph

Microsoft’s article also lists PowerPoint 2024 for Windows and Mac among the versions it applies to. For Microsoft 365 subscribers in PowerPoint for the web, Morph works on files stored in OneDrive for work or school or in SharePoint in Microsoft 365. For PowerPoint 2016, open File > Account in an Office app: an Update Options item means Click-to-Run.

How Morph is stored in the .pptx file

A .pptx is a ZIP package, and each slide is its own XML part inside it: ppt/slides/slide1.xml, slide2.xml and so on. A transition is a <p:transition> element, stored on the slide that appears after the transition, so Morph lives on the second slide in the file as well as in the app.

Morph isn’t one of the transitions in the original standard. Microsoft’s [MS-PPTX] extensions add it: a morph element in the namespace http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/2015/09/main, with one required attribute, option, set to byObject, byWord or byChar. A slide carries it inside an mc:AlternateContent block, which says “Morph, if you can read it; something else if you can’t”. This is the block the Lookbk deck skills write into every slide after the first, right after </p:clrMapOvr>:

<mc:AlternateContent xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006">
  <mc:Choice xmlns:p159="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/2015/09/main" Requires="p159">
    <p:transition spd="slow">
      <p159:morph option="byObject"/>
    </p:transition>
  </mc:Choice>
  <mc:Fallback>
    <p:transition spd="slow">
      <p:fade/>
    </p:transition>
  </mc:Fallback>
</mc:AlternateContent>

The rule that makes the fallback work is in the markup compatibility part of the standard, ECMA-376 Part 3: an app takes the first Choice whose Requires namespaces it understands, and otherwise the Fallback. A PowerPoint that knows Morph reads p159:morph; an app that doesn’t gets a plain p:fade. The spd attribute is the transition’s speed.

The !! names are in the file too. A shape, picture or text box keeps its name in the name attribute of its <p:cNvPr> element (non-visual drawing properties). A shape named for Morph looks like this:

<p:cNvPr id="2" name="!!sun"></p:cNvPr>

Generate Morph decks from code

A Morph deck written from code needs two things: the same !! name on every object that should travel, and the AlternateContent block on every slide that should morph in. PptxGenJS, the JavaScript library the Lookbk deck skills use, names objects through its objectName option, but version 4.0.1 has no option for slide transitions. So the skills write the slides with it, then open the finished file as a ZIP and add Morph themselves. The steps work with any library that can name objects:

1. 1

   Step 1: Name everything that should travel

   Give each object the same !! name on every slide it appears on, unique within the slide. Morph Deck names its shapes !!sun, !!pill and !!dot and the product picture !!object; Kinetic Type Deck names text boxes by role, such as !!head and !!kicker.

2. 2

   Step 2: Write the slides

   Build the deck as usual. The first slide gets no Morph: a transition plays on the way into a slide, from the one before it.

3. 3

   Step 3: Add the transition to the XML

   Unzip the file and, in every slide after the first, insert the AlternateContent block after </p:clrMapOvr>, with option set to byObject for shapes and pictures or byWord for type that rearranges. The skills also renumber each <p:cNvPr> id in this pass, so every id on a slide is unique.

   Node.jsCopy Node.js

   // After PptxGenJS has written the deck: Morph on every slide but the first.
   // MORPH holds the AlternateContent block above, as one string.
   const zip = await JSZip.loadAsync(await pptx.write({ outputType: 'nodebuffer' }))
   for (const name of Object.keys(zip.files)) {
     const n = /^ppt\/slides\/slide(\d+)\.xml$/.exec(name)?.[1]
     if (!n || n === '1') continue
     const xml = await zip.file(name).async('string')
     zip.file(name, xml.replace('</p:clrMapOvr>', '</p:clrMapOvr>' + MORPH))
   }

4. 4

   Step 4: Work around what Morph won’t do

   Charts cross-fade, so Morph Deck draws its chart bars as plain shapes. A new object only fades in, so when a bar should grow from the baseline, Morph Deck puts a flat, see-through copy with the same name on the slide before, and Morph grows it up.

5. 5

   Step 5: Preview it in PowerPoint

   Step through in Slide Show. When something fades instead of moving, compare its name on both slides in the Selection Pane.

Let your agent build the Morph deck

Four Lookbk deck skills build their PowerPoint file around Morph. Your coding agent writes your notes into the deck’s layouts, builds a browser deck and a PDF, and exports a PPTX with the !! names and the transition in place, its shapes and text boxes still editable.

slides

Morph DeckClaude CodeCodexCursor+3 more agents

slides

Kinetic Type DeckClaude CodeCodexCursor+3 more agents

slides

Product Tour DeckClaude CodeCodexCursor+3 more agents

slides

Chapters DeckClaude CodeCodexCursor+3 more agents

Install one with curl -fsSL https://lookbk.dev/cli.js | node - add morph-deck, start a new session and ask for a Morph deck from your notes. Install a skill in Claude Code covers the details; the same folders work in Codex and Cursor. To change a deck later, edit its deck.json and build again, since edits made in PowerPoint don’t flow back. The Claude PowerPoint skill guide covers the other deck designs, and animated presentation templates compares the decks by the motion they carry into PowerPoint.

Morph troubleshooting

• An object fades instead of moving

  Morph didn’t pair it. Check it is on both slides, then give both copies the same !! name in the Selection Pane.

• A chart fades instead of animating

  Charts don’t morph; they cross-fade. Draw the bars as shapes.

• Words move as one block

  Set Effect Options to Words, or to Characters for single letters.

• You can play Morph but not add it

  PowerPoint 2016 only plays Morph. The mobile apps need a Microsoft 365 subscription to create it.

• Someone else sees a plain fade

  Their PowerPoint can’t play Morph: for example, PowerPoint 2016 installed with MSI but without Microsoft’s listed updates.

• A custom shape distorts on the way

  A shape with more than one hole can’t morph geometrically. Match the edit points and draw both shapes in the same direction.