Filed under: Software, How-tos, Productivity, Tips and tricks, Apple
Things mom may not have told you about Keynote: Presenter Display
I consider myself a power Keynote user, and overwhelmingly prefer the app over PowerPoint (on both the Mac and PC) -- even though though I'm just as well-versed at PowerPoint. Only on rare occasions do I start my presentation workflow in PowerPoint (if the deck is going to be chart-centric, to avoid the limited axis and error bar support in pre-09 versions of Keynote).
While both Keynote and Powerpoint get you from Point A to Point B, it's the "little things," such as alignment guides and better graphics support (i.e., native support for Photoshop PSDs and Illustrator AIs), that make the presentation journey that much more enjoyable and more presentable.
One of these little things is Presenter View. Although PowerPoint has a similar feature (in both Mac and PC versions) it lacks the polish and ease-of-use found in Keynote. Presenter View allows you to look at your slide's notes, and upcoming slides and builds, without your audience's knowledge.
So while your audience sees this:
You see this, full of notes and upcoming builds and slides:
Setting up Presenter View requires several steps. The first step is to display your Keynote presentation on a secondary display, which is accessible via the "slideshow" pane within Keynote's preferences. Secondary display, in most cases, will refer to a projector. So, if your display preferences are set for mirroring, make sure remove the checkmark from it.
Next, within the "presenter display" pane of Keynote's preferences, you'll want to enable "Use alternate display to view presenter information." Most people's "alternate display" will be their MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air -- unless, of course, you happen to lug your iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro with you to meetings.
Voila, you'll now be one step ahead of your presentation, and appear to be extremely prepared for it as well -- as if you weren't already.
(Note: Black turtleneck, Levi's, and Grey New Balance 993's sold separately.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mmendoza27 said 10:46AM on 7-23-2009
Another main reason I use Keynote. For professional presenters, it has all the right tools to make your presentation impressive. I've used this at work many times and the audience has no idea. It keeps your organized and ahead of the game, which makes a BIG difference.
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William said 10:54AM on 7-23-2009
As far as I know, Keynote [or iWork] is not available on the PC; your first sentence implies that it is.
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Sang Tang said 10:58AM on 7-23-2009
Thanks for the head's up. I meant to say that I prefer it over the PC and Mac version of PowerPoint.
Michael Rose said 11:00AM on 7-23-2009
I read it as: he prefers Keynote over both the Mac and PC versions of PowerPoint.
William said 11:01AM on 7-23-2009
That's what I assumed too, but since it can also be read the other way, I thought I'd point it out in case he wanted to clarify.
JD S said 11:03AM on 7-23-2009
Hate to rain on the parade, but PowerPoint '08 for Mac does pretty much the same thing with the preview/notes display - and I didn't need to monkey around with the prefs before I started.
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Quinn Taylor said 1:03PM on 7-23-2009
No worries, you're not raining on anyone's parade, for several reasons...
First, the author stated that "PowerPoint has a similar feature". PP'04 had it as well, but it's virtually unchanged in PP'08. In any case, it's not an uncommon feature, and Keynote has had it from the get-go.
Also, "pretty much the same thing" (as you say) is typical of Microsoft-Apple competing products. Keynote implements the feature in a much more useful and configurable way. For example, PP'08 shows the current state, full slides in the sidebar, and a tiny line of text describing the next action. To see what's coming in the same slide, you have to bring up a window that floats over everything else. In Keynote, you can move the elements around and show only what you want to see, where you want to see it, and size each element independently. You also get an indicator of how many animations are on the slide, and how many have been completed, plus a (highly visible) timer and clock, which can BOTH be visible at the same time. Plus the timer auto-starts on the first advance. It's all about polish.
In PP'08, I also couldn't find a way to turn the presenter display feature off, which is important because not everyone wants it by default, or all the time. For example, I have 2 monitors connected to my desktop, and I may want presenter display on for rehearsing, but not if I'm showing off a preso at my desk.
As of 2008, Keynote caught up with virtually every feature that PowerPoint had to boast about, and generally implements them in a more polished way. It also has had several aces up its sleeve from the get-go which PP has yet to match.
Pixls said 11:10AM on 7-23-2009
I've never actually used keynote, but I have to say that I'm very pleased with PowerPoint, but in my experience, porjectros aren't always available. Generally, yes they are, but i've had times when i need to have everyone gather around my 15" mbp, so for me, just knowing my slides is a great advantage. Not to mention just having awesome slides.
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Quinn Taylor said 12:29PM on 7-23-2009
Keynote's presenter display is entirely optional, and can only be enabled when a second display (monitor, projector, etc.) is connected. Thus, it still works perfectly to have people gather around a laptop to view slides without any presenter-related distractions.
n8inazusa said 11:45AM on 7-23-2009
I'm a power user of Keynote.
I prefer it over PPT, any day.
I agree with all that's said before. It presents professionally and well. I also knew that PPT offered a preview option too.
Keynote DOES do some things that PPT does not:
-Such as - allow the overlay of text over video.
-Superior animations.
-Greater ease of use
Along the way, I've composed some hope for Keynote (which I've posted here: http://nateconklin.tumblr.com/post/84291664/apple-ideas )
My hope is that, down the road, Keynote will continue to be a reliable and excellent app and that it will take things to the next level and incorporate some elements that Pro-Presenter and MediaShout offer (ie - the ability to work on slide while something else is presenting or a better interface for jumping back and forth between song lyrics, let's say..)
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Chris said 1:20PM on 7-23-2009
Keynote was made for presentations. I don't think Apple will ever add those features. Keynote is made for Apple own presentations. If there is a feature that would benefit those then they will do it.
This is why we have great apps like Pro Presenter. They would go out of business if Keynote did those things.
Josue R Sencion said 12:37PM on 7-23-2009
Just as everything Apple makes: Keynote is a presentation software that works! and it works because the people who made it are people who use it, not like powerpoint made by nerds who never leave their basement...
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csb1227 said 7:43PM on 7-23-2009
I prefer the PPT presenter mode. It shows you more slides than just the next one. You can go back say, two slides, if you need to with a single click.
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Wombert said 3:17AM on 7-24-2009
You can do that in Keynote, too. Use the scroll wheel on a mouse and it brings up a list of all slides you can go through.
Chris said 1:09PM on 7-23-2009
Keynote has owned Power Point for years.
Keynote 09 + iPhone app Stage hand = the best presentation setup you can have.
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zoffdino said 2:50PM on 7-23-2009
I consider myself to be very proficient in PowerPoint. Back in the old days, I made wicked presentations that have all my classmates and profs drooled over. My slides became synonymous with beautiful graphics and excellent animations (things like mimicking a Polaroid camera takes a picture and then a paper rolls out at the bottom of the camera.)
Having said that, I now much prefer Keynote over PowerPoint. Sure, I can't stack animations on top of one another to reproduce that Polaroid camera effect. But for whatever animations that I can utilize, the quality is so high. Text run-in was smooth, sparkles spark beautifully on the screen, as if an aluminum plate was being carved by a laser. And the superior typographic control, graphics format, video and audio integration really sealed the deal. (Plus it can be controlled with a dead-simple, elegant remote that I couldn't find on Windows).
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Tariq said 3:29PM on 7-23-2009
Great tool, and great over view of it! Thanks for this, it helped me and I'm sure it will help a lot of other people find this hidden gem in Keynote.
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Emmess said 7:06PM on 7-23-2009
Nice article this. Thought I'd share my Keynote experiences - I use Keynote for building retail point of sale material for LCD display units (via AppleTVs, funnily enough) and it really does the job superbly. Big plus for me is the ability to drag and drop PSD, AI and PDF files - ideal if you have images with backgrounds knocked out without having to use gifs or PNGs. Ability to output to MOV for the AppleTV is a huge plus. Nice easy workflow too. Probably the most underrated piece of software Apple make, and it makes me think that Apple really aren't pushing the capabilities of Keynote when combined with an AppleTV. Now AppleTV supports looping video playlists this really is a cheap and easy POS solution.
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Jon Kessler said 1:03AM on 7-24-2009
While I would LOVE to use Keynote (and Pages for that matter) I simply haven't found the export to ppt / import from ppt reliable enough to assure that the things I create in Keynote remain as nice once they're shared and edited by windows users and then come back to me. Is there any third party software that does an better job of the conversion than Keynote itself?
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kyle said 10:33AM on 7-24-2009
The reason Keynote's interaction with PowerPoint isn't "reliable" is because PowerPoint doesn't support some of the features that Keynote does. Because of that, it is not even *possible* to have 100% compatibility when going back and forth between Keynote and PowerPoint. Keynote has to dumb down some of the transitions, animations, etc. in order to export them to PowerPoint. Keynote is not PowerPoint, and PowerPoint is not Keynote.