Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Does Keynote play nice with Powerpoint?

W

wayland1985

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
557
29
I'm about to buy order Snow Leopard, and I'm contemplating adding iWork 09 or MS Office for mac to the order.

This year for school, I'll have to do several Powerpoint presentations for school. I'm entering a point in the program where I'll be rotating to different sites, having to give presentations. I've done a few simple ones in the past, using Google Docs or the PC's at school.

I'm curious, as to whether Keynote will play nice with the PC's at school and other rotation sites. I only have enough $$ to buy one or the other, so I'd like to get something that's nicely compatible with Microsoft office for PC.
 
wayland1985 said:
I'm about to buy order Snow Leopard, and I'm contemplating adding iWork 09 or MS Office for mac to the order.

This year for school, I'll have to do several Powerpoint presentations for school. I'm entering a point in the program where I'll be rotating to different sites, having to give presentations. I've done a few simple ones in the past, using Google Docs or the PC's at school.

I'm curious, as to whether Keynote will play nice with the PC's at school and other rotation sites. I only have enough $$ to buy one or the other, so I'd like to get something that's nicely compatible with Microsoft office for PC.
Click to expand...

Keynote can import and export in PowerPoint format, but it works in Keynote format. I don't have iWork myself, so I can't vouch for how reliable the import / export is, but someone on here probably can.

FWIW, Keynote has a reputation as being much better than PowerPoint.
 
devburke said:
Keynote can import and export in PowerPoint format, but it works in Keynote format. I don't have iWork myself, so I can't vouch for how reliable the import / export is, but someone on here probably can.

FWIW, Keynote has a reputation as being much better than PowerPoint.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I used iWork 08 for most of last year, but then I only used pages. It was very clean for me, but unfortunately, I can't find the disk :mad:.

I know Keynote has a stellar reputation, but I assumed those reviews are from people sticking on Macs. For me, I'd have to bring a thumb drive with my files on it, and play the presentation on a Windows computer hooked up to a projector.
 
wayland1985 said:
I'm about to buy order Snow Leopard, and I'm contemplating adding iWork 09 or MS Office for mac to the order.

This year for school, I'll have to do several Powerpoint presentations for school. I'm entering a point in the program where I'll be rotating to different sites, having to give presentations. I've done a few simple ones in the past, using Google Docs or the PC's at school.

I'm curious, as to whether Keynote will play nice with the PC's at school and other rotation sites. I only have enough $$ to buy one or the other, so I'd like to get something that's nicely compatible with Microsoft office for PC.
Click to expand...

I used to give presentations in PPT until one and a half year ago; then I switched completely to Mac and Keynote 08. Conversions of the PPT and PPTX files always gave me some problems with 'blank space' characters or with bullet-slides. In general everything is readable when converted from PPT but needs slight 'refurbishment' when used in keynote.

The other way round 'dito'.

I have the best results with presentations built in Keynote. If you want you can easily grab graphs from an 'old' PPT presentation. Adding keynote effects to 'clean up' your presentation is easy. On top of that I use an iPhone app in a pear-to-pear wifi-network to give my presentations (use it as remote, pointer-device, preview on iphone as in Keynote, speakers' notes, ...)

Glad I made the switch.
 
Out of curiosity, are you working with a Mac notebook? If so, what's keeping you from just taking your computer with you whenever you have a presentation?
 
whuybr0 said:
I use an iPhone app in a pear-to-pear wifi-network
Click to expand...

pears.jpg

Good thing pears play nice with Apples!
 
reubs said:
Out of curiosity, are you working with a Mac notebook? If so, what's keeping you from just taking your computer with you whenever you have a presentation?
Click to expand...

Yep, it's a Macbook Pro (The whole aluminum case, 1" thick form factor, backlit keys and BEAUTIFUL screens are the reason I switched to the mac in the first place (first mac = Powerbook G4).

The problem is our school has their PC's hardwired to overhead projectors. The workstations we present from don't have any additional display adaptors for an additional computers.

Also, I'll be traveling to various hospitals, so I wouldn't know their setup until I walk in. Being a student, I'm getting graded, so I figure the easiest way to do everything is to just use a thumb drive.




It seems like my best bet is to go with Office. I've been doing some digging around, and most are saying that if collaboration is necessary (which will be the case on several presentations), then Powerpoint is the way to go. It's too bad, I liked the streamlined, clean and lightweight feel of pages... I can only imagine how keynote stacks up... :mad:
 
I routinely use Keynote, but occasionally I have to present something in Powerpoint (the venue doesn't support using ones own laptop). When this happens I first consider how to back out of having to present or if I can force their hand on letting me use my laptop. If I can be moved up in the schedule to first, then you can usually get set-up before things really start to happen.

Anyways, I have had to convert to PPT files on occasion and it never works especially well. Fonts change, the layout get altered, builds don't work the same. In general it is a headache.

Lastly, the PPT file format is abysmal. With Keynote there is a single Keynote file, which is actually a folder that contains the images and movies you've used in your presentation. If you move the "file" around you *always* have everything you need. With Powerpoint I couldn't even transfer between two macs and have it still work. Their embedded "package" feature doesn't always pack all items and the new copy will be missing several images and/or movies.

PPT sucks. I really hate it.
 
hayduke said:
I routinely use Keynote, but occasionally I have to present something in Powerpoint (the venue doesn't support using ones own laptop). When this happens I first consider how to back out of having to present or if I can force their hand on letting me use my laptop. If I can be moved up in the schedule to first, then you can usually get set-up before things really start to happen.

Anyways, I have had to convert to PPT files on occasion and it never works especially well. Fonts change, the layout get altered, builds don't work the same. In general it is a headache.

Lastly, the PPT file format is abysmal. With Keynote there is a single Keynote file, which is actually a folder that contains the images and movies you've used in your presentation. If you move the "file" around you *always* have everything you need. With Powerpoint I couldn't even transfer between two macs and have it still work. Their embedded "package" feature doesn't always pack all items and the new copy will be missing several images and/or movies.

PPT sucks. I really hate it.
Click to expand...


Hmmm... This doesn't help! You're making Keynote seem more appealing in some ways, but also make it more apparent that Keynote wont work well in my application (since it's not very friendly with Powerpoint...)
 
mysterytramp said:
Very good! Did you make that up on the fly, or was this made in advance waiting for that typo?

mt
Click to expand...

Haha the fly. It's the first time I ever had a reason to use Instant Alpha.

Or did you mean the joke? Cuz that was never meant to be anything but bad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back