Using Keynote '08 on a MacBook

[Palladium]

Hi,
First of all, apologies if there is another thread on this. I have looked but could not find one.
Over the years I have read many comments that Keynote is much better than PowerPoint but until recently I have not had the chance to use Keynote in earnest.
I am semi-retired but do some teaching in a local college. I regularly use PowerPoint as we have PCs in the classrooms and for security reasons, it is not really possible to connect my own MacBook in place of the college computer. Recently I came upon a room where I could easily use my MacBook and decided to give Keynote a go.
Preparing my presentation was fairly easy but when the time came for action and I connected to the data projector and tried to run my slideshow, I got an "insufficient video memory" message with advice to reduce the number of colours displayed. I changed it from "millions" to "thousands" but neither that or any other change I tried would get the show to run. Fortunately it was possible to export in PowerPoint format and use that program. I should say the keynote show runs perfectly on the MacBook when not connected.
Now I have a May 2006 (1st generation) PowerBook with 2GB memory and about 100GB free HD space. The Keynote file is almost exactly 1MB in size. Have others met this response on a MacBook? Is this a consequence of the integrated graphics and limited video memory?
Any comments or advice would be welcome. i would love to be able to demonstrate the superiority of Apple hardware and software.

 

[IJ Reilly]

This should not be happening. Do you get the message the instant you connect the projector to the Mac? Do you know the resolution of the projector?

I find it helps in similar situations to have the monitors setting showing in the menu bar so that you can quickly detect displays and change their settings (an option the preferences). Also you might want to check in the monitor preferences whether you are set up for mirroring or extended desktop.

 

[cdcastillo]

Reilly is right, that should not be happenning.

I have a 2007 MB, and during more than 6 months I went along only with 1 GB of RAM, giving lectures and conferences with Keynote 4 (the one in iWork 08), and only once I had a problem with projectors: this was about half way in one conference, where I had put about 8 videos to run on the same slide. When I reached this slide, the image on both the MB and the projector went nuts and displayed only green and purple vertical streaks.

Sleeping and waking up did nothing to resolve the issue, a reboot finally solved it, I deleted the slide and continued the conference after the 6-8 minutes unintended pause without any other hitches.

I also think that the problem may lie in a really big resolution on the projector matched with an extended desktop setting on the macbook. You should try mirroring displays or lowering the projector resolution.

Please answer the questions that IJ Reilly asked, so we can give you more specific advise.

P.S.

On a side note, more than a few years back (Around 2002) the teaching department at the hospital where I worked bought iBooks for projection purposes (classes, conferences, etc...) and we found out that certain old and partially damaged VGA cables that seemed to work ok with old PCs didn't work with the new iBooks, replacing the cable did the trick back then. So, Have you tried with another cable to connect the macbook to the projector? Just a thought...​

 

[Palladium]

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestions. I should get a shot on the "accessible" data projector again tomorrow so will see if I can make some progress.
Everything has worked OK except when I tried to run the Keynote slideshow. It projected the screen normally until I selected run slideshow and it does PowerPoint slideshows with no problem. It is definitely Keynote related. I don't know the resolution of the projector. I thought someone said VGA but I will check that tomorrow and also what the monitor settings are. I've put the monitors settings in the Menu Bar and will keep an eye on things.
I'm sure I am stuck with the the cable to the projector. It's a new projector and cable, only installed a couple of months so I can't see it being changed for me. I was using a new mini DVI-VGA adapter that I had bought specially.
Anyway I will update you on how things go tomorrow.

Thanks again

 

[Palladium]

Troubles resolved

Hi,

Thanks to cdcastillo and IJ Reilly for their helpful and informative replies. It did all come down to the resolution on the projector. I had never looked at this before. Today I deliberately varied it. With the projector set to its highest resolution the system was unstable. I didn't got the "insufficient video memory" message again but the computer was hunting for a good setting and never found it. Irrespective of what was running, it kept losing the picture and trying to reset the displays. Any lower setting gave a stable system allowing use of both PowerPoint and keynote.
It would seem the computer hasn't always found the optimum resolution for the projector and it was coincidence I tried to use Keynote when it picked too high a value. Now that I know what is going on, hopefully there will be no more problems.