tikz picture in column disturbs other column

Question

I would like a slide with two columns in which one column is text and the other is a tikz picture. The problem is that when I make one column a tikz picture, it does not allow the text to start at the top of the page but instead pushes the text below the level of the tikz picture. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The source code that illustrates this is below:

\documentclass[10pt]{beamer}
\title{My title is quite short}
\author[My Team]{My Name}
\date{\today}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[t]
\frametitle{My slide title -- What I want}
Both columns start from the top of the page, which is what I want.  I
just want one column to be a tikz drawing.
\begin{columns}[t]
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item A
\item A
\item A
\end{itemize}
\end{column}
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item B
\item B
\item B
\end{itemize}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}[t]
\frametitle{My slide title -- Not what I want}
The text column begins vertically where the tikz picture ends.
\begin{columns}[t]
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item A
\item A
\item A
\end{itemize}
\end{column}
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
\draw (0,-2) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Answer 1

You can use an a ppropriate value for the baseline option; for example current bounding box.north:

\documentclass[10pt]{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}[t]
\frametitle{My slide title -- What I want}
Both columns start from the top of the page, which is what I want.  I
just want one column to be a tikz drawing.
\begin{columns}[t]
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item A
\item A
\item A
\end{itemize}
\end{column}
\begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(current bounding box.north)]
\draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
\draw (0,-2) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 2

beamer provides two top modes:

• t will cause the first lines of the columns to be aligned. Default if global option t is used.

• T is similar to the t option, but T aligns the tops of the first lines while t aligns the so-called baselines of the first lines. If strange things seem to happen in conjunction with the t option (for example if a graphic suddenly "drops down" with the t option instead of "going up"), try using this option instead.

Here your example using T instead of t:

\begin{frame}[t]
  \frametitle{My slide title -- Not what I want}
  The text column begins vertically where the tikz picture ends.
   % T instead of t !!!
  \begin{columns}[T]
    \begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
      \begin{itemize}
      \item A
      \item A
      \item A
      \end{itemize}
    \end{column}
    \begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
      \begin{tikzpicture}
        \draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
        \draw (0,-2) circle (1cm);
      \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{column}
  \end{columns}
\end{frame}

Answer 3

I have a partial solution. Load \usepackage{multicol} and then you can do:

\begin{multicols}{2}

\begin{itemize}
\item A
\item A
\item A
\vfill 
\end{itemize}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
\draw (0,-2) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{multicols}