Keynote 1.0.1 - Jun/Jul '03

Keynote 1.0.1

When you take dead aim at the industry leader, you better succeed — even if it’s only partially. That is just what Apple did with its release of Keynote, a slick OS X presentation package with Microsoft PowerPoint squarely in its sights. Although this is a good first effort, the continuing success of Keynote will rely on how Apple matures the application.

Keynote is compatible with Mac OS X only and uses the Quartz graphics technology contained in X. It provides automatic anti-aliasing of text, some stunning animations and 3-D cinematic transitions, resulting in a more visually appealing presentation than Microsoft’s PowerPoint.

However, the sleeker presentation comes at a cost. You will need 32MB VRAM to use Keynote to its fullest potential. Less RAM will produce less acceptable results.

The application ships with an install CD-ROM, User Guide and a Quick Reference Card. After launching Keynote, you elect one of 12 themed template presentations that are unified by text, backgrounds and bullet points. If you decide to switch to a different theme, just select the new one and Keynote automatically applies the new theme to your presentation. You also can create your own custom themes using Keynote’s “Master Slides” and save the modified theme to your Favorites folder for future use.

Comparisons to PowerPoint are inevitable, and in the area of interface design, Keynote clearly prevails. Most functions are accessed through an uncluttered menu bar with clickable icons. A floating tool palette called the “Inspector” controls the placement of text and graphics, and the creation of pie charts, transitions and tables. It also provides for the timing of elements as they enter and leave each slide.

Slide organization is well-implemented. In “Outline View,” the title text and bullets of each slide are displayed. The “Navigator View” shows a thumbnail graphic of each slide. Slides are rearranged by dragging them to different positions in your presentation, or grouped with a master slide by simply indenting them under it. Notes for individual slides are added in a field below the slide canvas. If your computer supports dual or spanned monitors, you can display the notes on your computer and the slides on the second monitor or projector.
Keynote is excellent for presenting text, the mainstay of most law office presentations. The actual on-screen display is crisp and very good looking, and definitely much better than PowerPoint. Keynote also supports transparency and drop shadows for any on-screen element.

Unfortunately, Keynote lacks a feature similar to PowerPoint’s Word Art. You can still import TIFF, Photoshop and Illustrator art (using the Portable Document Format in OS X) if you have those programs. Keynote provides a small library of graphics for your presentations, and no doubt third parties will augment the collection. Graphics imported from Illustrator can be resized without resolution loss and display beautifully.

Actual arrangement of elements on a slide is greatly assisted with Keynote’s interactive “Alignment Guides.” When repositioning an element, Keynote automatically provides yellow guidelines to align the element to the center or edges of other slide elements.

QuickTime movies can be imported and displayed on each slide. You control playback by using the “Inspector” to set the movie’s start order. Movies either can be embedded in the presentation or saved externally to reduce file size.

Actual slide presentation is impressive. Text and graphics are sharp and the provided transitions are dramatic. Transitions to build rows and columns in charts can be animated to appear separately or as a group. I noticed an unfortunate quirk when creating a slide containing several photographs that would appear sequentially in one region of the slide and then disappear as another appeared with each mouse click. When building the slide, I placed each photo on top of the previous one so they would appear in the same area. Thereafter, I was unable to select the first slide to change its position because the succeeding ones hid its view. Although I could have created separate slides for each photo, it would be helpful if Keynote allowed me to select each photo in a slide for revision.

Keynote will import or export PowerPoint presentations, and export to QuickTime format or PDF. However, not all PowerPoint imports or exports were perfect. On occasion, text and graphics were misaligned and had to be correctly positioned. Also, when you export a Keynote presentation to PowerPoint, the benefits of the Quartz display technology are lost, and the presentation becomes noticeably less crisp. Because Keynote lacks the ability to create interactive links between slides or to launch external files, PowerPoint files with that element will lose interactivity. Also, you can’t create a presentation-wide soundtrack in Keynote, although individual sound files will play throughout slide length.

Apple Computer Inc.
(800) MY-APPLE

www.apple.com

Price: $99

Mac OS X 10.2 or later

Reviewed by David A. Saraceno, a practicing attorney and owner of Pixelcraft Studios, a presentation graphics consulting firm in Spokane, Wash.

Jun/Jul '03 Issue

PROS
Packaged themes are well-implemented and polished. Beautiful text, graphics and transitions.

CONS
Lacks interactive slide capability and external file support. High VRAM requirements, limited graphics import. PowerPoint import/export flawed in some cases.

VERDICT
Keynote implements most of the key features of PowerPoint at a better price and easier learning curve. Its presentation capabilities are superior. I recommend it.