[Tex/LaTex] How to place text with tikz under beamer at an absolute position on the slide

beamerpositioningtikz-pgf

I want to place some text on a beamer slide next to a figure. The problem is that if I simply use tikzpicture environment, LaTeX places the text after whatever is placed before, be it hidden or shown. How can I tell tikz to use page coordinates and not count whatever it counts from the current position?

Edit:
Minimal working example. Apparently, this has something to do with my choose of columns. 

\documentclass[bigger]{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
  \begin{columns}
    \begin{column}{0.6\textwidth}
      \only <1>{
        \begin{tikzpicture}
          \node at (0,0) {a};
        \end{tikzpicture}
      }
      \only <2>{
        \begin{tikzpicture}
          \node at (0,0) {b};
        \end{tikzpicture}
      }
      \only <3>{
        \begin{tikzpicture}
          \node at (0,0) {c};
        \end{tikzpicture}
      }
    \end{column}
  \end{columns}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

When I compile this, 'a', 'b', and 'c' doesn't appear on the same place but rather one after the other .

Best Answer

Your text contains spaces that are outside of the scope of the \only commands, namely the newlines after the final brace of \only{...}. To remove these you need to add a final % sign:

\only<1>{...
...}%

Your complete code will then be something like:

Sample output

\documentclass[bigger]{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
  \begin{columns}
    \begin{column}{0.6\textwidth}
      \only <1>{
        \begin{tikzpicture}
          \node at (0,0) {a};
        \end{tikzpicture}
      }%
      \only <2>{
        \begin{tikzpicture}
          \node at (0,0) {b};
        \end{tikzpicture}
      }%
      \only <3>{
        \begin{tikzpicture}
          \node at (0,0) {c};
        \end{tikzpicture}
      }
    \end{column}
  \end{columns}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
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