Set the Build Order for Objects on a Keynote Slide

0:02
In this video, we’re going to look at how we can set the Build Order of our objects within a slide in Keynote on the Mac. Let’s go into my Mac. Let’s first review, adding builds to objects within a slide and Keynote. I’m looking at my presentation here. And I have these three different objects here. When they enter into my presentation into my slide, I have them building in and building out, which means that when I go to the slide, when I’m in presentation mode, they’re going to have some kind of an effect, like a transition. Let’s go and click on play here and see what I mean. I click on it. And now when I tap the spacebar, it’s going to build in that object. Now what it’s going to do is it’s going to build it out, tap on the spacebar builds in the next object, and you can see that they have various transitions.

0:56
And now it’s going to build it out. We have one more object here, I build it in, it’s going to apply an action, it’s going to rotate it. And now what it’s going to do is build it out. That’s what buildings and build outs are, they’re basically transitions for objects. Now what we can do is we can set the order of these buildings and build outs. So right now I have the square coming in first, and then I have the rounded corners coming in. And then I have the arrow coming in. That’s the Build Order. Let’s say I wanted to change that around. How do I change around this build order, all you have to do is just go down to build order. When I select this, we have a new window that comes up. And from here, what I’m able to do is change my build order. So we can see that the squares coming in, and then it builds out, and then it goes to the rounded rectangle, and then it goes over to the arrow.

1:50
So that’s the build order to change this around, all I have to do is just drag them around. So let’s say I wanted to have these arrows come in first, all I do is just move them up, they are selected, all three of them are selected. So I just move these up. And then the arrow will come in first. So now it’s going to go to the arrow first. And then it’ll go to the square. And then it’ll go to the rounded corner rectangle. So that’s now the new builder. In addition to changing the Build Order, we can also set when they’re going to build in right now it is set to On Click, I have to click the spacebar each time. Well, let’s say what I wanted to do was have it built in and then build out immediately, I do not want it to pause and wait for me to tap the spacebar. So all I have to do is just go over to my arrow here, I select it. And then I go down to start. And I say after the transition. So now what’s going to happen is this is going to build in after the transition here. Let’s go over to my second one, this is where it spins. When do I want this to start? Well, I’d like to have this one start after build one. And then this third one here, arrow, I would like this one to start after build two. And I also wanted to pause, I’m going to have a pause for two seconds. So now what’s going to happen is after transitions into this slide, it’s going to build in, then it’s going to apply the action, it’s going to rotate, and then it’s going to pause two seconds, and it’ll build out.

3:34
After that, it’s going to wait for me to click before it goes on to the next build in. So what I want to do is I want this one to build in as well. So I click on it, and we go after build three, so we can see that we can set when I want these to build. So now, after I’ve selected all these, and I’ve applied the builds, what’s going to happen is it’s going to be all automatic, I won’t have to do anything. So let’s go ahead and see how that works. I click on play. We can see it’s coming in, I’m not going to touch the keyboard at all. It pauses to seconds. Now it’s going to build out it’s going to go to the next one builds out, goes to the next one. And then after that builds in, it’s going to build out. It’s all automatic. Now it’s waiting for me to tap on the spacebar to go to the next slide. So that’s all done with our build order here. Now I have these all going in sequential order, they’re going to build in one at a time, we can also have them build in and build out with other builds. So let’s say I wanted to have the arrow, the square and the rounded rectangle two all built in at the same time.

4:53
How do I do that? Well then what I do is I drag this up to below the arrow so I’m going to place it below the Arrow. And now you can see that they’re grouped together. Let’s go and do that with the rounded rectangle, I want to have all three of these built in at the same time. So now I just drag this up, and I placed it below my square. So all three of those are now grouped together.

5:15
Now what I need to do is I need to set when they build, so this is build one, we can see we have a number one to the left, I want the square here to build with build one. So now I just go over to the bottom here. And being that they’re next to each other, what I’m able to do is say with build one, the key is to moving these builds next to each other. So now I select this. And now we go over to rounded rectangle. And being that it’s next to these other two here, I’m able to have a build with those. So it’s now going to build with build one. So my square and rounded rectangle now will build with my arrow, they’re all going to come in at the same time. So now let’s see how this works. Click on Play. And watch what happens when I tap the spacebar. They all came in at the same time. And now they’re going to build out.

6:25
Now again, the key to making this work is you do need to move these next to each other. If I wanted this rounded rectangle to be applied at the same time, what I would have to do is move this up to this area here, then I can have a built in with the other builds, it does have to be next to each other. So as an example, if I go to square here, I am not going to be able to build the cin with build one watch what happens when I select after build five here, I can only have it be with build five, I want to have it be with build one or with build two, what I need to do is I need to move this up. And then I can have it with build one or with build two or wherever it’s at. Now this also applies to actions and build outs, I’m showing you what the built in. So what we can do the same thing here with all of our different buildings, build outs and actions. So that’s how we build the build order for a different objects. In Keynote on the Mac, basically, we just go to animate and then down at the bottom, you’re going to see Build Order, a new window will open up and from there, you can just drag the different objects around to reorder how they are built.

7:36
If you want to build them together, have them come in together, then what you need to do is you need to move them next to each other and then down at the bottom you can set when you want it to start and you can set it to start with another build. They do have to be next to each other before you can select it to start with that specific build. So that’s how we set our build orders for our different objects within slides and Keynote on the Mac.