Keynote 1.0.2?

[MacRumors]

ThinkSecret reported on Friday that a minor update to Keynote is expected soon.

Testing on the 1.0.2 update reportedly brings improvements in exporting, compatability, and minor preference and interface tweeks.

The update is expected to be complete by month's end.

 

[joelc]

Well, let's celebrate. Or not. Does anyone use Keynote? I don't get that strategy. How much market is there for people who need to make presentations but don't already have powerpoint?

 

[CharlesVan]

I have PowerPoint but I prefer Keynote any day! It just looks better... more elegant.

 

[Foocha]

Keynote has a lot of potential. I do a lot of presentations, and I bought a copy to try out a few months back - but there were so many bugs & glitches that I gave up and went back to PowerPoint. If they fix it up, I'll certainly consider using it.

 

[macmax]

they did and let me tell you , those guys with pp, which i also have, just turn their heads in admiration when they see a keynote presentation.

 

[BaghdadBob]

I've heard from a couple of people in these forums about Keynote.

One is from a Professional PowerPoint Power User, who is frustrated because he was trying to use Keynote and his clients/associates with PPT couldn't consistently read his exports from KN. He liked it, but it is professionally unviable as long as it has compatibility issues.

The other was Snowy, who also likes it. He said of all the presentations he sees, one was with Keynote and it didn't correctly identify the projector. And there were other problems...but everyone seems to think it has a lot of promise.

What's the strategy? I think I'm starting to pick this up. As far as I can tell, Apple is trying to have a version of every important (from an enterprise POV) piece of software that MS has. There are a lot of people out there that would like to be using macs but don't really see the point as long as the software they need is on the PC and can be run on much cheaper equipment.

Basically, if Apple can replace everyone's need for MS, while still being compatible with MS products, they will push a lot of people over the edge to make the switch. In enterprise this means huge market share pickup.

Let's face it. Other than gamers, users of Windows on a whole do not like MS. The fact is that most people/businesses just can not find it practical to use a Mac.

So let's say that the 970 is everything it's cracked up to be. Let's say that Panther is the fighting-weight, lean, mean, optimized OS that X was meant to accomplish. Then let's say Apple makes a whole grip of software that is not only easier to use and better, but also fully compatible with MS products...What you have suddenly is people who now have a choice. People who didn't have a choice to say "OK, you keep sucking at the teat of Microsoft, I'll be over here with my Mac" might start having that choice.

What we could be seeing is a slow, deliberate coup waiting to happen.

Everyone's tired of Microsoft's security issues, their overpriced software, their megalomaniacal MO...all you need is a practical -- which means, in current market share, compatible -- alternative to start what could be a slow and steady tipping of the scales.

Oh, and did I mention that with iTMS Apple has a lot more revenue to lower their margins with? And if the 970 is really as fast as all that, then the price wars will stop being so outrageous because the older 970s, when there are a couple newer revisions, will still pack some competitive punch.

Maybe I'm being too optimistic....but I smell good things. KNOCK ON WOODx1,000,000....

 

[Jaykay]

Lets hope they add some of powerpoints more advanced features...

 

[gernb]

keynote is a beautiful idea poorly executed. alpha channel graphics and full use of quartz features are definitely the right direction. but it's hard for me to believe that the people writing software at apple could be so dense as to leave out important features like timed animations and a slide sorter view.

my biggest complaint against keynote is that it fails to play back quicktime video at frame rates that are any where near usable. c'mon...quicktime is apple's technology, yet powerpoint runs circles around keynote when it comes to playing back clips placed in a presentation.

Can anyone explain THAT?!

 

[Steamboatwillie]

A different twist

I never really used Powerpoint for anything in the past but I found Keynote very helpful for some of the video based promo cd-roms and DVD's I produce. I find working with text very easy in Keynote and I can knock out a demo in no time. When I am done I export it as a Quicktime then bring it into Premier to tweak it out. Then shoot it off to iDVD and presto!

I have had some troubles with certain transitions exporting to video but I have just learned to work around them. I hope these get fixed. Even with it's shortcomings it still is much easier than trying to do what i do in Flash or other programs.

Bring on the updates!

 

[mcrain]

Originally posted by Jaykay
Lets hope they add some of powerpoints more advanced features...

I'd like some of those advanced features too. As it is, if you want to create a self running quicktime of your presentation, you have to have every slide the same length and the build lengths are all the same. That's fine if all you are showing is homogenous slides, but if you have an audio track, it doesn't work. PPT has the ability to add triggers into a single long audio track, where those triggers run the slide show and the builds, but KN can't do that. We had to put the audio on each individual slide and then run it by hand while exporting. This created sound drop-offs between slides, and the timing could have been better.

On a side note, my exporting of the content from KN to PPT was fine, but looked horrible. The slide backgrounds transfer over, sort of, but the text formatting and the set-up, and a lot of othter things got messed up. If they can make an export to PPT that keeps the set-up, then they will have true cross platform compatibility.

 

[kwajo.com]

i agree keynote is lacking a few tools, but I love it anyway. I could never get used to powerpoint. it always looked cheap (I blame lack of anti-aliasing) and common. but keynote presentations are sleek, professional and elegant. I use it often just to show friends ideas. In a couple minutes I can whip up a golden presentation, export to quicktime (or PDF works great too) post it on my .mac webspace and IM the url to someone to see. Now that's what technology is about!

 

[XnavxeMiyyep]

Keynote has very nice transitions, and is just nicer than powerpoint overall. But they need to add the vast amount of features that Powerpoint has.