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Keynote - A solid presentation application Pick of the Week
Keynote imageThe macosxhints Rating:
7 of 10
[Score: 7 out of 10]
This weekend, based on a comment in the current poll, I spent some time playing with Keynote. I wanted to graph the responses based on year, and figured playing with Keynote was a good way to do it. I really hadn't spent much time with the application since its launch, and I came away mostly impressed. The final result of an hour or so fiddling with Keynote can be seen in this graph [119K] of Apple operating system usage over time (and OS versions).

On the good side, the graphing functions are easy to use, the templates are beautiful, and it's amazingly easy to make great looking graphs and presentations. I understood Keynote's "master" metaphor quite easily, though if you have tons of PowerPoint hours, it might require a bit of a learning period. I also liked the easy to understand building (animation) functions, coupled with the output to QuickTime. I actually created a QT movie of the graph I made, but it's a relatively boring chart to see in motion, so I didn't bother to upload it. The ability to scale, rotate, and add transparency to objects, and the use of OpenGL transitions makes it very easy to put graphics to good use in your presentations.

On the down side, the program is still a bit pokey (even with the 1.1 update) on my G4/733. Even worse are the limitations on the export options. I wanted to create a JPEG of the graph I'd created, but the only export options are QuickTime movie, PowerPoint presentation, and PDF. PDF works, but it loses some subtle elements, such as the shadows behind the columnar bars in my final graph. I ended up taking a screenshot and then editing that in Photoshop; a "Save slide as JPEG / PNG / whatever" option would be very useful.

Overall, for $99.00, Keynote is a very solid presentation tool that beats PowerPoints in many areas (and falls short in others), but has no peers in terms of beauty of provided templates ... which may not turn you into the next Steve Jobs, but at least you'll have great looking slides!
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Keynote - A solid presntation application
Authored by: ceffe on Sep 29, '03 01:38:02PM

I fully agree on the lack of jpeg export.

Yet, as a presentation app I have found it outstanding and I've used PowerPoint for years. First, you can draw stuff so that it comes out nice much more swiftly. Second, you can present on a second monitor while watching the clock and the notes on your PowerBook screen. This might seem like a little advantage, but in my experience that makes for a huge difference in how your presentations work.
/ceffe



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Keynote - A solid presntation application
Authored by: tshehan on Sep 29, '03 03:57:12PM

ceffe - a question about your posted reply for Keynote.
If I were using an LCD projector with my powerbook, are you saying Keynote allows me to control the video that is sent to the projector separate from what appears on my laptop screen? I don't have the luxury of having an Apple store or reseller within a 200 miles and finding this information on the web has proven frustrating.

What I would like to do is be able to switch the order or slides that keynote would present while it is sending an image to the projector. I don't know if that is even possible yet. I haven't yet purchased the program for fear that I will find a 3rd party solution and would rather purchase that.



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Keynote - A solid presntation application
Authored by: ceffe on Sep 29, '03 07:13:48PM

Well, yes and no.
You can have the workspace with notes and outline viewed on your powerbook screen while having the slides being shown on a second screen (Note this depends also on the graphic capabilities of your computer. I think you would need a Powerbook and I'm not sure all PBs cut it).

However, You cannot work in the app while displaying slides in this way. It is presentation mode on your own "speakers" screen as well.

For what you appear to be wanting, you would need a freeze feature that is available on some projectors, where they can hold the slide shown, regardless of what video data the computer emits at the moment. I've used such a feature a few times for on the fly reorganising of slide order without letting the audience see what I'm doing. <freeze, stop presentation and reorder, go to correct slide, start presentation, unfreeze>

Such a feature is completely independent of KeyNote's ability to present a "speakers note screeen" in addition to the slide show shown to the audience.

Hope this was a clear and useful answer. I'm way past midnight here and needs some sleep.
/ceffe



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If I may criticize...
Authored by: germ on Sep 29, '03 03:55:45PM

Your choice of the ticks for the vertical axis is awful. It looks like an Excel graph....

Just use 0,250, 500, 750.

Also, I would reverse the fill gradient in the bars and have the lighter blue at the top (this is a matter of taste).

You may also use too many colors (another matter of taste).



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If I may criticize...
Authored by: robg on Sep 29, '03 08:43:50PM

Whoa ... I didn't notice the vertical axis changed! When I made the graph on Sunday, it had nice even numbers. I updated this morning with the new poll results, saved the image, and never bothered to look at it :). I'll add today's tallies and put a fixed axis version up...

As for the gradients, I had them the other way first, but it looked odd to me, so I flipped them. Now you know why I don't do presentation creation for a living :)

-rob.



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If I may criticize...
Authored by: DeltaTee on Sep 30, '03 08:05:34AM

If you are going to make this somewhat of a standard feature:
- The yellow number on some of the smallest bars are ifficult to read (yellow on tan).
- This might make more sense as a pie chart.



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Keynote - Wows those used to PowerPoint
Authored by: BrentT on Sep 29, '03 08:15:52PM

I just came back from presenting a paper at a national convention using Keynote. The 3-D cube transitions, the cool fading transitions, and the beautifully clear charts wowed the audience. I had several people asking for the name of the program, and were disappointed when I told them it only worked on a Mac.

It does run too slow for my taste on my 500mHz iBook. I look forward to an upgrade that provides some more flexibility with imported images (like cropping an image) and with slide builds.

I have tried importing my PowerPoint presentations into Keynote and generally have been disappointed with the results. They run fine but don't take advantage of Keynote's strengths. It is best to create your presentations from scratch using Keynote themes.



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Current Price Promo
Authored by: HouseSold on Sep 30, '03 04:45:50PM

Apple offers a current promo for Keynote for $49. with the purchase of any Mac:

From Sept. 16, 2003, through Dec. 27, 2003 buy any Apple Macintosh and save $50, instantly, on Keynote.

TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OFFER:

1. Return to the front page of the Online Apple Store.
2. Select and configure a Macintosh computer.
3. On the "Do you need anything else?" page, add the "Keynote Promotion Bundle" to your order.

I wasn't aware of the offer last week and couldn't/didn't buy my Mac from the Apple Store, but was eligible because my registery showed up for the Apple Store rep that helped me when I called Apple. They honored and shipped Keynote to me.

Hope this helps someone



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Keynote - Wows those used to PowerPoint
Authored by: colinlai on Oct 01, '03 01:50:26PM

It's elegant to look at, but it's far too sloooow. Especially when you have a lot of text on the slide. I'm using a PowerBook G4/867 and I still can't type at 80% of my full speed, so I can't practically use it for any serious work.

Moreover, the inability to have two bulleted lists on the same slide is lame. I'm forced to stick with PowerPoint then.

And, if Apple really wishes to make Keynote a success instead of just a personal plaything of Steve Jobs for his keynote speeches, add a Clip-Art Gallery, or at least bundle a 3rd-party collection with it.



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Keynote - A solid presentation application
Authored by: langer on Oct 01, '03 08:12:41PM

Keynote is a very good start towards a presentation program. I've been using it instead of Powerpoint, on principle, but it's missing some important features. It doesn't have reasonable arrows, a way of rescaling all the fonts on a page, or a way of making more than one bulleted text object.

On the other hand, the automatic alignment is excellent. And equations inserted with Equation Service or TeXshop can be created more easily and look better than in any other presentation program I've used.

-- Steve



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