Keynote vs. Powerpoint

[queshy]

Hello everyone,

So I decided to try Keynote (my trial was actually expired because I opened it once then closed it...) - so I can't save/print anything.

But let me tell you, I am extremely surprised. Keynote mops the floor with Powerpoint (PC + Mac version)!

Wow.

First of all, the entire UI is really neat and easy to use. Everything makes sense. Particularly, though, is that it's so easy to animate the items in each slide. Creating visually appealing presentations is so important and it's so much easier on Keynote than on Powerpoint. I can't believe I've been using Powerpoint for the past like 5 years! I tried opening a powerpoint presentation on keynote and it worked perfectly - probably because there was no powerpoint eye candy within the presentation (I gave up doing that stuff because it just takes too long, and is too annoying).

I find that the Keynote effects are extremely impressive. Does anyone know if the new version of office that just came out for PC has similar effects?

I want to buy Keynote, but hte problem is that in my experience, the computers I've had to run the presentation off are PCs...so if I ever do buy a Mac laptop, I WOULD definitely pay for iWork. I can't say much about Pages as I haven't tried it - and hte lack of a spreadsheet program is pretty big. I wouldn't replace MS OFfice with iWork, but I would definitely replace powerpoint with keynote.

So for those frequent powerpoint users out there - go give keynote a try - it's really great.

 

[M@lew]

It's also UB, which makes it faster.

 

[Chaszmyr]

I want to buy Keynote, but hte problem is that in my experience, the computers I've had to run the presentation off are PCs...

Keynote can export to Powerpoint or Quicktime format for the presentation to be run on PCs.

 

[clevin]

keynote is about the only thing in iwork that is obviously better than M$ office's counterpart. but

1. keynote does not have a windows version, unless u can show me link to show otherwise,

2. I bought M$ office for excel and word, can't afford another office suits anymore..... apple should make iwork free of charge, I don't think they profit from it very much anyway. why don't use free stuff to attract more ppl?

 

[MisterMe]

... apple should make iwork free of charge, I don't think they profit from it very much anyway. ...

Now that is bizarre logic. iWork sells for $79. Let's say that Apple makes $1 on each sale. If it gives away this package, then it will lose $78 on each package. Not only would Apple hurt its own bottomline, but it would also hurt its third-party developers. This makes no sense at all.

 

[clevin]

Now that is bizarre logic. iWork sells for $79. Let's say that Apple makes $1 on each sale. If it gives away this package, then it will lose $78 on each package.

lol, I don't believe that.
with your logic, openoffice.org is losing billions of $$$ already. open source/freeware has no place in your opinion?

 

[72930]

Now that is bizarre logic. iWork sells for $79. Let's say that Apple makes $1 on each sale. If it gives away this package, then it will lose $78 on each package. Not only would Apple hurt its own bottomline, but it would also hurt its third-party developers. This makes no sense at all.

If iWork was included with all new macs like iLife, it would boost mac sales and provide another incentive to switch to OSX. Also, part of the cost of sale is packaging, shipping etc. which would be saved.

 

[72930]

keynote is about the only thing in iwork that is obviously better than M$ office's counterpart. but

Well, it is half of the suite. For my needs (as a note-taking student) Pages works great, and better than anything in Windows. I use NeoOffice for more complex work.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I don't think iWork should be free, but I do think they should make it a subscription model, similar to iLife: you get the current version preinstalled on a new Mac, and pay for upgrades. But as it is, iWork is ridiculously cheap -- Pages and Keynote for less than the price of either Word or PowerPoint alone. I mean, come on -- don't people know a bargain when they see one?

 

[clevin]

But as it is, iWork is ridiculously cheap -- Pages and Keynote for less than the price of either Word or PowerPoint alone. I mean, come on -- don't people know a bargain when they see one?

for home users, yes, but they need to be osx users first, which is, 4.1% of computer users

for business users, its all come down to "power of standard" and "excel"
in reality, there are too many places ppl can get student version M$ Office, 3 license for $149, I know, i know, against EULA, bla, bla, bla, but hey, ppl is doing it, and M$ aren't gonna sue them!

 

[queshy]

Keynote can export to Powerpoint or Quicktime format for the presentation to be run on PCs.

So if I make a presentation on Keynore I can export to Powerpoint with NO loss of formatting? (i.e. effects, fonts, backgrounds, etc).

If so, I'm sold.

and what does UB mean?

 

[IJ Reilly]

So if I make a presentation on Keynore I can export to Powerpoint with NO loss of formatting? (i.e. effects, fonts, backgrounds, etc).

If so, I'm sold.

I suppose if you kept the formatting very simple, yes -- but otherwise, no. Keynote does so many more and better effects and transitions, it would be a major downgrade in presentation quality to export to PowerPoint.

Anybody who really cares about their presentations should be using Keynote. Anybody who really, really cares about their presentations should bring their own equipment (Mac and projector).

and what does UB mean?

Universal binary, e.g., fully compatible with both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

 

[Cromulent]

lol, I don't believe that.
with your logic, openoffice.org is losing billions of $$$ already. open source/freeware has no place in your opinion?

The difference which you seemed to have ignored is that open source applications are written voluntarily by a flexible group of individuals. These projects are funded by donations from the public and business.

Apple on the other hand have to pay their developers before they will write a single line of code. They also do not get any donations and must make all there money from sales.

Even if they gave their software away at cost price and made no profit whatsoever it would still cost us money.

 

[queshy]

I suppose if you kept the formatting very simple, yes -- but otherwise, no. Keynote does so many more and better effects and transitions, it would be a major downgrade in presentation quality to export to PowerPoint.

Anybody who really cares about their presentations should be using Keynote. Anybody who really, really cares about their presentations should bring their own equipment (Mac and projector).



Universal binary, e.g., fully compatible with both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

Oh, I didn't know it was also called UB...I just thought it was called a "native" app. And yes it's much faster.

I would have no problem bringing in a laptop, except that I use a dell now! I like my 24" iMac so much more, but too bad it's not portable enough...

That being said, the only way I'd ever b uy keynote is if I get a Mac laptop. I'll probably be being a laptop sometime this summer, and it will only be a Mac if apple releases an ultraportable. *fingers crossed*.

 

[clevin]

Apple on the other hand have to pay their developers before they will write a single line of code. They also do not get any donations and must make all there money from sales.

its egg and chicken, if it were set off to be a freeware, then apple can find ppl who would like to contribute for free. if openoffice/neooffice can be freely available for OSX, there is no reason apple can't afford that.

and also, "pay the developers before they write a single line" is a murky description. safari borrowed 80% code from KHTML, OSX borrowed major portion of code from BSD, etc, how much did apple pay them? and how do you differ which code is OSX essential and can be free of charge? why quictime/itunes/iphoto/iDVD/garageband can be free while iwork can't? its not like iwork are much professional anyway.

 

[SMM]

keynote is about the only thing in iwork that is obviously better than M$ office's counterpart. but

1. keynote does not have a windows version, unless u can show me link to show otherwise,

2. I bought M$ office for excel and word, can't afford another office suits anymore..... apple should make iwork free of charge, I don't think they profit from it very much anyway. why don't use free stuff to attract more ppl?

yes and MS should make office free of charge, right?

 

[queshy]

Does iWork have a way to create equations? (like equation editor in Word?)

 

[GFLPraxis]

Now that is bizarre logic. iWork sells for $79. Let's say that Apple makes $1 on each sale. If it gives away this package, then it will lose $78 on each package. Not only would Apple hurt its own bottomline, but it would also hurt its third-party developers. This makes no sense at all.

Software doesn't work the same way as other products.

You put in millions of dollars to develop the software, and once you have it, it only costs you a dollar or two to make the packaging and disks, plus shipping.

The software costs almost nothing to make, but you have to guess about how many people will buy it, and sell it at a price that'll make up for the money you spent to develop it. Once you pass that development cost, then everything else is profit.


Apple is probably making $78 in profit on every sale of iWork at this point. Still, giving it away free would be a nice way to hurt PowerPoint's marketshare, but then that means Apple would be doing the same tactics as Microsoft...

 

[GFLPraxis]

yes and MS should make office free of charge, right?

They did, IIRC. I remember new PCs used to come with Word at least. Then they got marketshare and quit the bundling. Again, IIRC.

 

[GFLPraxis]

its egg and chicken, if it were set off to be a freeware, then apple can find ppl who would like to contribute for free. if openoffice/neooffice can be freely available for OSX, there is no reason apple can't afford that.

and also, "pay the developers before they write a single line" is a murky description. safari borrowed 80% code from KHTML, OSX borrowed major portion of code from BSD, etc, how much did apple pay them? and how do you differ which code is OSX essential and can be free of charge? why quictime/itunes/iphoto/iDVD/garageband can be free while iwork can't? its not like iwork are much professional anyway.

You really don't understand the concept of Open Source, do you?

Opening up iWork to become an Open Source product would be downright stupid. There's a lot of good Open Source products, but let's be honest; freebie developers tend not to follow interface guidelines. Apple wants complete control over their applications to ensure they follow their specifications.

 

[MisterMe]

lol, I don't believe that. ...

It is called simple arithmetic. Why am I not surprised that you don't understand it?

 

[yojitani]

Hi there:

I thought I'd chime in and say more or less what everyone else has said. Keynote is fantastic but, you'll have to export to ppt to use it on pc's. While good in theory, sometimes the exported versions don't work so well thus it helps to have a copy of ppt to test out your exported version.
things that go wrong: my biggest problem has been with embedded media. It doesn't behave the way it should. For example, I gave a talk in which it was important for a sound file not to start until x - I set it to play after one click on the slide BUT on ppt it played as soon as I opened the slide. Also, you'll notice that colors don't look as sharp on ppt and that also sometimes images are not aligned as nicely as they were in keynote.

Basically, I'd recommend keynote for people who present on macs. Maybe MS will have learned something from Keynote for their upcoming officemac package (I doubt it though )..

YT

 

[irbdavid]

My 2 cents -

Keynote does a very good job of opening up Powerpoint created files. Far better than OpenOffice does. Keynote exporting to .ppt is also slightly better than open office.

I use keynote when I can be sure that I'm presenting off my macbook. If not then I still draw it up in keynote, then export to .pdf and present from acrobat. I find those to be the most reliable - fonts, graphics turn out as you expect them etc. Sure, you lose the fancy transitions, but they're a bad idea to start with anyways.

Last resort - I'll fire up Powerpoint under rosetta and wait half an hour for it to launch

*Waits for Office 08 for Mac*

 

[queshy]

Yes, I agree.

Powerpoint is ridiculously slow on my 24" iMac w/ 2GB ram. Exporting to powerpoint probably causes there to be errors...but if oyu know you're presenting on a Mac, keynote kills powerpoint. Aside from being faster, I find it cool how everything always turns out perfectly aligned.

 

[smueboy]

I like the idea of using Keynote - i've never tried it but i'm glad to hear that people like it. I'd probably go out and buy it if i didn't have the Office suite provided free from work. That said, office is now the only non-UB program that i use, and it sucks!