Get a includegraphic to stick in the same place for several beamer slides

Question

I am working with a presentation where I want a sequence of slides with a figure that changes slightly for each slide.

I want the figure to to stay in the same place for many slides and I want to have text describing what happens.

How can I do this? The text is of different lengths for each slide so the figure will move around.

I am guessing I need some sort of command that allows me to specify both the width and height of a "box" where I can but whatever I want.

Answer 1

I think with I am guessing I need some sort of command that allows me to specify both the width and height of a "box" where I can but whatever I want you are wondering the environments overlayarea and overprint.

Here is a short example that shows some pictures with relative text:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{mwe,lmodern}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\begin{columns}
\begin{column}{0.65\textwidth}
\includegraphics<1>[scale=0.6]{example-image}
\includegraphics<2>[scale=0.6]{example-image-a}
\includegraphics<3>[scale=0.6]{example-image-b}
\includegraphics<4>[scale=0.6]{example-image-c}
\end{column}
\begin{column}{0.3\textwidth}
\begin{overprint}
\only<1>{This is the text explaining picture 1}\only<2>{This is the text explaining picture a}\only<3>{This is the text explaining picture b}\only<4>{This is the text explaining picture c}
\end{overprint}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

The result:

Notice that one important aspect is the image dimension, as also said by Dror: here I used the package mwe as test and the images used have been scaled by the same factor.

For more details of overlayarea and overprint hava a look to the beameruserguide section 9.5 Dynamically Changing Text or Images.

Answer 2

Here's a MWE of a slide where what you're after worked for me:

\begin{frame}{Frame Title}
Some text
  \begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics<1>{fig1}
   \includegraphics<2>{fig2}
   \includegraphics<3>{fig3}
   \includegraphics<4>{fig4}
  \end{figure}
\end{frame}

The important thing is, that the bounding boxes of the figures are exactly the same here.