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Has anyone else been ruined by Keynote?

SLC Flyfishing

SLC Flyfishing

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 19, 2007
1,486
1,717
Portland, OR
This has probably been discussed before, but here it goes.

I downloaded a trial of iWork 09 last year with the intent to use Keynote for a presentation I had. I really enjoyed it, and the app for the iPod touch to control keynote presentations was awesome.

But then the trial expired and I had other presentations to make, suddenly Powerpoint seemed clunky, unrefined, and a general pain in the ass.

So I found ways to re-do the trial (I have multiple email addresses) and that took care of me for a while.

Now I have another presentation due monday, and no ability to re-use the trial. I had some spare money for once so I finally bought the licence.

However I prefer Microsoft Word to Pages, so I'm left using two suites of software right now.

Keynote is lightyears ahead of Powerpoint for my use, and I used Powerpoint for years!

Anyone else stuck using both Office and iWork apps?

SLC
 
Interesting situation you're in. I'm in a similar bind myself, using OpenOffice.org for my formatted text documents and spreadsheets, and liking Keynote a LOT for presentations. The only difference is that I'm using Oo_O instead of MSOffice.
 
Keynote is indeed awesome, but personally I prefer Pages to Word. I just find it gets less in my way. It took a little time to get used to how Pages does things differently from Word and OpenOffice Writer but after that it has been smooth sailing for the most part. Hopefully Apple keep improving the iWork package a lot, I would like to see better controls for images in Pages for example and Numbers is still mere an acceptable alternative for Excel.
 
If you like Keynote, why not just BUY IT! It isn't that expensive, you can get it online for about $49.99 to $69.99, just do some shopping around.

It was one of the best purchases I have ever made, Pages, and Numbers have become a staple in my tool chain. Love it.
 
kasakka said:
Keynote is indeed awesome, but personally I prefer Pages to Word. I just find it gets less in my way. It took a little time to get used to how Pages does things differently from Word and OpenOffice Writer but after that it has been smooth sailing for the most part. Hopefully Apple keep improving the iWork package a lot, I would like to see better controls for images in Pages for example and Numbers is still mere an acceptable alternative for Excel.
Click to expand...

+1

and to the OP: just buy it already
 
I can't use Powerpoint anymore after I used Keynote just like you, I would delete MS Office if it wasnt for excel. Numbers dosen't stand a chance against excel :/
 
I am glad Keynote works for you - it did not work for me.
I honestly tried but just run into to much trouble tying to use Keynote my way. The availability of Powerpoint really made it possible for me to use the Mac as my primary work-tool.

I think the Zen-like presets of Keynote are nice, if you are giving a presentation where people focus on the presenter.
​
It is not so great for general lectures, where people need to focus on a topic with lot's of detail. I usually have no use for slide-transitions and other eye-candy effects.​
Why don't you think it is great to have all this choice of tools available on a nice platform? So everybody can use what is working best for him/her?
 
Detektiv-Pinky said:
I think the Zen-like presets of Keynote are nice, if you are giving a presentation where people focus on the presenter.
​
It is not so great for general lectures, where people need to focus on a topic with lot's of detail. I usually have no use for slide-transitions and other eye-candy effects.​
Why don't you think it is great to have all this choice of tools available on a nice platform? So everybody can use what is working best for him/her?
Click to expand...

every presentation should focus on the presenter. i hate sitting through tons of slides of text and bullet points. i don't care for transitions and eye candy either, but it's not all or nothing in that respect

you might find Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds interesting to read
 
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bocomo said:
every presentation should focus on the presenter. i hate sitting through tons of slides of text and bullet points. i don't care for transitions and eye candy either, but it's not all or nothing in that respect

you might find Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds interesting to read
Click to expand...

I give you this, if giving presentations was what I am after, but let me elaborate on the second half of my explanation:

When I am giving a lecture, lets say on how to configure IPsec-Tunneling on Cisco Routers from the Command-Line interface, I want the students to damn focus on the details of the topic. And there is a lot of nitty gritty technical detail that needs to fit on the page - 3 line pages with 1 picture just don't cut it here.
I am not selling magical moments and I am not reading out bullet points either.
 
We're all Microsoft at work (Gold Partner), so I get all my software supplied. I've got to say the beta for Office 2010 is very nice and PowerPoint has some really nice features. Overall, I still prefer KeyNote, but switching to PowerPoint 2010 isn't bad either.
 
Detektiv-Pinky said:
I give you this, if giving presentations was what I am after, but let me elaborate on the second half of my explanation:

When I am giving a lecture, lets say on how to configure IPsec-Tunneling on Cisco Routers from the Command-Line interface, I want the students to damn focus on the details of the topic. And there is a lot of nitty gritty technical detail that needs to fit on the page - 3 line pages with 1 picture just don't cut it here.
I am not selling magical moments and I am not reading out bullet points either.
Click to expand...

that certainly makes sense
 
Yeah, I really like Keynote. I think one of its strengths was simply that it wasn't PowerPoint! After so many years of PowerPoint slides from university profs, then PowerPoint slides at work, at conferences, even at church, you begin to recognize the same old templates, the same old transitions. It's neat to see something different and it's even more fun when people come to you afterward and ask, "Whoa, how did you do that?"

PowerPoint is getting better though. Microsoft seems to have realized that it's not 1995 anymore and upped the quality of the transitions. Also, the presentation is only as good as the presenter (with the possible exception of lecture notes and training slides, in which case a printed copy of the slides can carry its own weight). Keynote emphasizes simplicity. Fewer words, more pictures, simpler animations. Keynote is telling you the slides should support your message; the slides should not be your message. Again, there are a few types of presentations where this doesn't really work well, but I believe that embracing this design style has helped me make better presentations. I would daresay it has made me a better presenter.

I have to say though, as someone who is not at all fond of public speaking: there is something inspiring about watching a Steve Jobs keynote, and then walking up onto your own stage and holding your own little clicker. It's a big confidence booster before running my own presentation.
 
gibbz said:
I might have to pick that up.

Also, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Good in Front of Any Audience
Click to expand...

Steve Jobs presentation style is non-confrontational, it is meant for audiences that are already on board, that need no convincing, that will buy your product because its called Apple, or Tomacco or whatever - you already have your audience convinced.

His style would not work in confrontational meetings where you have to convince an audience to your side from your competitor.

Don't get me wrong, I find him engaging when he presents, but then like most captains of industry he should be able to put over his ideas, right?

And product launch type presentations are VERY different than product sales presentations - they need a different style and wizzy cool graphics don't go down well in the PowerPoint averse boardrooms of today. I haven't used a slide build or animation for probably 8 years, I hate them, I find them boring, and so does my audience.

I do wish there was a good way of putting across values, USP's, capabilities etc without bullet points, but its mostly impossible
 
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I do like the iwork package and it does create much nicer docs and pres.

however, I just havent had the time to learn new ways. The reality is that so much of the world is still using ms office I dont have a great need yet to do it
 
Going back to the OP's original question: Yes, I use both Office and iWork. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you must switch to one or the other. Why not use both! If you need Office compatibility or the flexibility of Word or Excel then of course you should buy MS Office. But given how inexpensive iWork is, you might as well keep it around too.

I volunteer with an organization where I need to share documents with other people, like budget spreadsheets, training manuals, forms, and policy documents. These documents are expected to stick around for years and years and need to be opened and edited by "anybody", whether today or 5 years from now, using whatever software they might have at the time. Therefore, we pretty much have to stick with Word and Excel.

However, I'm also tasked with producing quarterly newsletters to send out to our mailing list, and I make presentations for fundraising events and info nights. I use Pages to create great looking newsletters to print and mail out, and Keynote to present slides. I save a copy of the slides in PowerPoint format for the archives, or to email to people who missed the live presentations.
 
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