[dadder]

If I've got a big presentation in 'Powerpoint' to do and I have no experience in Powerpoint. Would it be a good idea to buy the $99 Keynote app from Apple (I've always had excellent luck 'catching on' to Apple software than MS) and do the presentation that way? It says you can output it as a Powerpoint file. I could justify the cost of $99 in the job. Apple's coming out with so much sh*t lately, I can't tell heads from tales on which stuff is worth it. I'm actually trying out 'Safari' tonight.
Thoughts?

[sandsl]

Apple's coming out with so much sh*t lately

I don't think they are actually but thats your opinion.

If you do your presentation in keynote its likely that when you come to export it to powerpoint you will lose your transitions and effects because Powerpoint doesn't support them.

So if the presentation is intended to be run in Powerpoint i'd still do it in powerpoint.

If however your presentation will be run from your mac then use Keynote its a lot better than PowerPoint.

[Ghoser777]

Or you can just export to QuickTime format for presenting (although then you would probably be forced to follow the timing of the slide show exactly).

Matt Fahrenbacher

[PubGuy]

Keynote hasn't shipped yet. You're asking the wrong people. Call Apple and ask them the compatibility with PowerPoint and somehow the transitions will export to PowerPoint.

If it's suppose to be compatible with PowerPoint, then I should be able to create a bang-up slide show and export the entire thing to PowerPoint without loosing anything.

I'd vote on calling Apple to find out.

PS: Keynote really does blow the doors off of PowerPoint...plus look at the quality of the clip art...PowerPoint's is aweful.

[jmelrose]

I ordered Keynote off the Apple Education website this afternoon. Apparently it shipped within hours and will arrive tomorrow afternoon. It looks simply outstanding, and I echo the earlier post regarding how i just seem to "catch on" to Apple's stuff easily. Powerpoint, while not a mystery, just didn't seem as fun as Keynote sounds like it might be to use.

I'll report back after some use of it.
Jeff

[Adam Betts]

Originally posted by jmelrose:
I'll report back after some use of it.
Jeff

And please post some screenshots. We all would love to see it

[sandsl]

In the UK, Keynote has a build time of 5-7 days

[nforcer]

What the hell! Keynote is such a ripoff. OMG!! For Apple to make us pay $99 for this app, and still make us buy our own Evian water and then buy our own black turtleneck and jeans is just a rip. Hell. It doesn't even come with an instructional video that shows you how to fold your hands or show you how to pronounce common words like "Jagwire". I'm sorry but there just isn't any other way a keynote can be given.

I'm going to protest with the former iTools users now.

</sarcasm>

To tell you the truth, it all depends on what you are doing and how often you are going to be making these presentations. If you have access to Powerpoint for now, I would just use it because you can save the money and let Keynote mature even more (there's bound to be a few issues with a 1.0 release).

If you can try it out at an Apple Store or somewhere it might be a useful experience. Because personally, I usually don't spend money on something without trying it first and seeing if it meets my needs.

[Ric]

I would definitely buy Keynote - Powerpoint is awful. I just ordered my copy and I can't wait to ditch Powerpoint.

Can't go wrong for �68 + VAT in the UK!

[Gul Banana]

If you don't already have Powerpoint, there's only one answer. Get Keynote, now. It really is amazing how much it can do so easily.. I'd never used presentation software before, and out come these amazing looking things in ten minutes. Just how Powerpoint compatible it is is an issue, of course, so I'll just do a little test...

[Gul Banana]

Well, complex transitions and In/Out Builds (object movement) are not converted. The static part of each slide, however, looks exactly the same in Powerpoint as it did in Keynote.

[Guy Incognito]

http://www.apple.com/keynote/

Go to 'See Keynote in action'...it really is a PowerPoint-killer.

Looks very easy to use. Uses Quartz graphics making use of PDF picture files and other graphics format easy to manipulate (rotating, scaling, transparency effects).

I'm seriously sick of seeing the @ss-ugly PowerPoint default themes. I can't wait to buy an iBook or the 12" PowerBook, loading Keynote on there and wow people at school with a GOOD presentation for once.

[Guy Incognito]

So lessee here:

Safari...better than IE
Keynote...better than PowerPoint
OmniGraffle...better than Visio

The rest is a matter of opinion but:
Mail, iCal, Address Book...better than Entourage
Proteus/Fire...better than MSN 3.0
TextEdit with it's Services goodness still isn't on par with Word...but heck, I don't use half the Word features so TextEdit is a viable alternative to Word (now if it only could read Word docs.)

[scottiB]

dadder, two questions: Will the presentation be run on a Mac? How important is this presentation?

If the answer is affirmative to the first, the second is irrelavent. Buy it.

PPoint for Office X (or 2001) is not difficult to learn, so don't sweat it. It does, and those who have seen many PPoint presentations can probably attest, have a "canned" feel--to the point where I, probably unfairly, just sigh when I see a first slide pop up using Helvetica, the cheesy MS clip art, and the obligatory diagonal wipe or barn door transition with a sound effect. No matter how well it's designed, it feels like a laugh track.

Keynote is so refined, in contrast, that it could make an Enron board meeting a little easier to swallow--with the SEC agents throwing on the handcuffs saying, "Nice presentation."