I'll be replacing my almost 5yr.old G3 iBook with a new Macbook in the next couple weeks. I'm a college teacher, school starts end of Aug., & the iBook died. In asking advice on the hardware buying forum, an issue came up that is more appropriate here. Is Powerpoint problematic on the Intel Macbooks? Would it be advisable to purchase a copy of Keynote when I make my purchase from the Apple Store? I often make my powerpoint slides available to my students, so compatibility with Powerpoint for the Windows users is an issue also. Thanks in advance for you opinions!
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Keynote vs. Powerpoint on Macbooks
- Thread starter MountainMamma
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Keynote is just so much better than PowerPoint. If you have the choice, the choice is clear. You can always save your slides as pdf files.
Now that isn't quite true. Quite a bit can be lost in the translation. Exporting to QuickTime is the better way to share across platform, if fidelity with the original presentation is the goal. The downside is the file size, which will be heavy. For simple sharing of slides, nothing makes more sense than PDF.
I've been posting my Powerpoint slides as slide shows rather than as templates, for I've found that a lot of students are apt to let their attention slide during class when they know they can print out the slides later, and since I'm constanly tinkering with slides right up to class time, I don't usually post them prior to class. So, posting them in Quicktime would probably be the best solution. I usually post in a "shared files" option of our course management system, so the file size wouldn't be a big problem. Another question though--since I have a LOT of powerpoint files that I would be revising for this year's classes, how well do the powerpoint slides import into Keynote? Is importing in less problematic than exporting out?
The problem is that just as much is lost when using PowerPoint between platforms. Windows does not like the formatting/fonts/colors or pretty much any details of the Mac PowerPoint. So, at that point you are better off using Keynote to save a PowerPoint file (as it does some translating and aids in making it compatible) or as a PDF. I did presentations using Keynote slides saved as PDFs and then had Acrobat on a PC running in fullscreen mode. I was the only presentation that day that didn't have issues of some sort.
Importing PowerPoint into Keynote is dependent on each file I guess. I haven't had many issues, and if anything, it is usually text fonts and sizes that need tweaking.
Keynote presentations with the slides saved as a PDF for your students is the way to go. As a student, I love when professors use PDFs because I know I am going to be able to open it up quickly with no problem. When I am sent Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, then I can almost guarantee formatting issues, no matter what computer I am using. PDFs also make it easier to search for certain terms afterwards. It is just as easy to create PDFs in PowerPoint as it is in Keynote, but I find Keynote to be much easier to work with as it gives me the freedom to do what I want.
I've never really understood the impulse to post proprietary files for sharing (mind you, we're talking sharing, not collaboration). Not only are you expecting the reader to own precisely the same software you own, right down to the version (and why should they?), you also restrict yourself seriously in formatting. Any font you can't be sure everybody else has, you can't use. Maybe that's why so many Office users create their documents with only the two most common fonts, Times and Ariel. Yuck. You're turning your powerful computer into a typewriter. This is not progress.
These are the main barriers to importing/exporting between PowerPoint and Keynote. On a crude level it works -- but unless you're not fussy about formatting and appearance, or don't mind making repairs, you won't be happy with the results. This why I recommend creating the presentations in Keynote and exporting to either Quicktime or PDF. Not only do you get better options for creation, your readers see what you created, not their computer's unpredictable interpretation of what you created.
Depends on how you will be using it. If you will only be viewing others presentations or only making your own briefings, Keynote is much better.
But if you will be collaborating with others, and they insist on using powerpoint, you will be better off with powerpoint. It can be done with Keynote but it can get complicated ESPECIALLY if your group is trying to do fancy things in your briefings.
But if you will be collaborating with others, and they insist on using powerpoint, you will be better off with powerpoint. It can be done with Keynote but it can get complicated ESPECIALLY if your group is trying to do fancy things in your briefings.