PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Slide Navigator or Outline in Apple Keynote

If you followed our last post on the Keynote interface, you know there was nothing mentioned about an Outlining pane or something similar, and that’s something keenly observed by a PowerPoint user.

Well, there actually is a very similar Outline pane, and it’s where you would expect it to be! Yes, it’s in the same screen real estate as the Slide Navigator. Choose the View | Outline menu option, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: View Outline option

Doing so changes the left pane from the Slide Navigator to the Outline. You can see both views in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Slide Navigator view (left) and Outline view (right)

To change back from Outline view to Slide Navigator view, choose the View | Navigator menu option.

Filed Under: Keynote
Tagged as: Apple Mac OS X, Interface, iWork, Keynote, Outline

The Apple Keynote Interface

The Apple Keynote interface is clean and simple, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: The Keynote interface

The interface comprises three (or four) visible areas:

• The Slide Navigator on the left side shows thumbnails of all slides in the open presentation.
• The Slide Area shows the active slide you are working on, or viewing.
• The Toolbar over the Slide Area comprises icons for commonly used commands and several other options.
• The Presenter Notes panel may not be visible, as shown in Figure 1, above. To view Presenter Notes, choose the View | Presenter Notes menu option, as shown in Figure 2, below.

Figure 3, below, shows you the Keynote interface with Presenter Notes visible. Note that this is a toggle option. So, you can choose the same option repeatedly to alternate between viewed and hidden states of the Presenter Notes panel. With the Presenter Notes panel visible, this option will be View | Hide Presenter Notes.

Figure 3: Interface with Presenter Notes

You can also hide and view the toolbar in the same way. Choose the View | Hide (or Show) Toolbar option to do so.

In addition to the interface elements described above, you might also see the Ruler and one of four floating panels called Inspector, Media, Colors, and Fonts. Also, the Toolbar may have spawned an additional bar called the Format Bar right under itself. In subsequent posts, we’ll explain these and more interface elements.

Filed Under: Keynote
Tagged as: Apple Mac OS X, Interface, iWork, Keynote

Working in a Microsoft Office-Apple iWork World

Although this topic is more of a Mac only thing, it’s also relevant if you are a Windows user of Microsoft Office and receive files from iWork users on the Mac who save to Microsoft Office file formats.

We read this article on the MacWorld site that goes into all the details of co-existing in a dual format/platform world, and understanding the pitfalls and precautions required. We must say that this is probably the best content we have seen on this particular topic, and it is must-read.

PowerPoint users will understand how Keynote imports and exports PowerPoint files, and that if there are any presentation notes in their original Keynote files, the exported PowerPoint format files won’t open in PowerPoint 2008 on the Mac although they should pose no problems in PowerPoint 2004 for the Mac, or PowerPoint 2007 for Windows! We’ve bookmarked the page. Read it here.

Filed Under: Keynote
Tagged as: Cross Platform, iWork, Keynote, Office for Mac, PowerPoint

Apple Keynote Slide Size (aka Resolution)

When you launch Keynote and choose a theme for your new presentation, or apply a new theme to an existing presentation, you can change the Slide Size of the presentation.

Now the Slide Size is actually almost the same as the resolution of your presentation and is related to the resolution capabilities of your monitor display and projector. This is not as geeky as it sounds. Just remember that the most common and safe resolution for all new projectors is 1024 x 768 pixels, so, if you never bother changing the slide size, Keynote will continue creating your presentations in this resolution. In fact, Keynote defaults to 1024 x 768 pixels. Just stay with the defaults until you get a little more Keynote-savvy.

Older projectors worked at only 800 x 600 pixels, and most of the higher-end projectors can support much higher resolutions. Of course, if you want to choose a Slide Size that’s different than 1024 x 768, you must have a compelling reason to do so. Maybe, you want to use a wide-screen aspect, or you have been asked to use a different slide size.

You can choose your Slide Size in the drop-down list of the same name, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Slide Size in Keynote

As you can see in Figure 1, above, Keynote provides you with five slide sizes for this particular theme (Harmony). On the other hand, look at Figure 2, below, and you’ll find that this theme (Blackboard) has only two slide sizes. This makes it obvious that all themes don’t have all slide sizes.

Figure 2: Slide Size in Keynote

You’ll find a more detailed explanation of slide sizes in Keynote on the Apple site.

Filed Under: Keynote
Tagged as: Apple Mac OS X, iWork, Keynote, Resolution, Slide Size

Launching Apple Keynote

You can launch Keynote by double-clicking its icon in the Applications/iWork folder of the Finder. To learn how to access that icon, refer to this earlier post: Do I Already Have Apple Keynote?

However, that’s not how everybody launches Keynote! Look in your Dock and you’ll find an alias for Keynote there, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Keynote alias on the Dock

As you hover over all the aliases, you’ll see a tooltip that provides the name of the application the alias belongs to. Click the Keynote alias and the program should spin to life, asking you to choose a theme to create your first presentation, as shown in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Choose a Keynote theme to proceed

At this point, you have several choices:

1. Select a theme and click the Choose button so that Keynote launches with a new presentation based on the selected theme. You can also set a resolution for your new presentation at this time from within the Slide Size drop-down box, or if you don’t want to get into this aspect right now, leave the default values untouched.
2. Check the Don’t show this dialog again option so that you are not prompted to choose a theme the next time you launch Keynote.
3. Choose the Open an Existing File option so that you can browse and open an existing Keynote file (or open a PowerPoint presentation in Keynote).
4. Click the Close button so that the Keynote minimizes itself on the Dock. Click the Keynote alias on the Dock, and Keynote springs back instantly to life with the same dialog box asking you to choose a theme.

As you can see, you still haven’t created a single slide in Keynote yet! We’ll teach you how you can do that after we explain the Keynote interface to you in the next few posts. As always, do send your feedback through the feedback page.

Filed Under: Keynote
Tagged as: Apple Mac OS X, iWork, Keynote