What do you think of Keynote for the Mac?

[Guest]

Hi...

I was just wondering if there are any experienced PowerPoint users out there
who have also tried out Keynote. Keynote looks like a very slick
presentation program. The animation options also seem to be superior to the
current release of PowerPoint.

I haven't had the oportunity to try out Keynote yet... I've seen some
videos and pictures... but I was wondering if I could get some opinions about
the software from people who have tried both programs.

However... even if Keynote is the superior presentaion program, there are
still a couple of reasons why I would stick with PowerPoint.

1) PowerPoint presentations are playable on a PC. As far as I know, a
Keynote presentation will *only* run on a Mac. But if there is a way to
create a Keynote presentation on a Mac, and then save it/convert it so that
it can be played on a PC, please let me know. (Kind of like the PowerPoint
viewer for PC's without PowerPoint).


2) PowerPoint has integration with the rest of the Office Suite. I build
corporate presentations, and every business that I have been involved with
uses MS Office. I would need a presentation program that is able to link to
Excel Spreadsheets and Word Documents. Let me know if Keynote is actually
able to do this as well...


Also... for anyone who has had the chance to use PowerPoint 2007, does the
new version of powerpoint offer any new animations/transition effects similar
to what Keynote offers? Does it look like PowerPoint 2007 is going to
significantly improve and change the way we build presentations?

For anyone who has an opinion on any of these matters... please let me know.
Thanks!

art.

 

[Echo S]

Also... for anyone who has had the chance to use PowerPoint 2007, does the
new version of powerpoint offer any new animations/transition effects
similar
to what Keynote offers? Does it look like PowerPoint 2007 is going to
significantly improve and change the way we build presentations?

The animations and transitions are the same in PPT 2007 as they are in 2003.

I think PPT 2007 will significantly change the way many of us work if only
because of the "Ribbon" and lack of customization and tearoff menus. It also
significantly improves our ability to make good looking slides with just a
few clicks. The various new effects (shadows, reflections, 3D, etc.) are
very cool (I just hope people don't go crazy with them.), and the slides in
general look much more sophisticated. Text handling is much improved. The
"selection and visibility" pane lets you rename objects -- and the new names
show up in the custom animtion pane, so complex animations will be easier to
deal with in that respect, at least.

Take the test drive at
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/testdrive.mspx so you can see
for yourself!

 

[Guest]

The animations and transitions are the same in PPT 2007 as they are in 2003.

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow, wow....

Over 4 years and not even a single new slide transition? That's really
disspointing to hear...

I mean... the thought that Microsoft would not be updating a single
animation never even occured to me! My thoughts about the new PowerPoint
were more like: "So how many new effects will the animation pane have this
time?" "Will the advanced timeline feature keyframing?" and "Will they
finally drop raster-based animations for scalable vector based animation?"

Oh man... but you say they haven't changed anything from 2003? That just
about blows my mind! That's like dropping the POWER from PowerPoint...

So what about Vista's highly touted graphics system, Avalon? Even if the
animations have not been updated for PowerPoint2007 installed on XP... surely
they would have taken advantage of Avalon to add some great animations in
PowerPoint2007 installed on Vista!

?



Maybe it's time to buy a Mac? At least Apple doesnt take half a decade to
update their software...

art...

 

[Ute Simon]

Oh man... but you say they haven't changed anything from 2003? That just

about blows my mind! That's like dropping the POWER from PowerPoint...

Microsoft did change the whole UI (User Interface). That needs a lot of
programming (Jensen Harris described a lot about that in his blog). And
they added graphic effects like SmartArt, which make life a lot easier.
Plus enhancements which are not visible on the first glance like XML file
format. Thus I can understand that animation were not changed in this
version. (Most users don't use the full power of the existing animations and
their combinations.)

Best regards,
Ute

 

[Echo S]

I mean... the thought that Microsoft would not be updating a single
animation never even occured to me! My thoughts about the new PowerPoint
were more like: "So how many new effects will the animation pane have this
time?" "Will the advanced timeline feature keyframing?" and "Will they
finally drop raster-based animations for scalable vector based animation?"

Oh, so you're disappointed Microsoft didn't turn PPT into Flash?

Seriously, what exactly would you expect a PPT keyframe to be/do?

One of the fantastic things about PPT is its relative ease of use. I expect
that the animations will be updated in PPT 14, but I know the challenge will
be to keep it user friendly while doing so. (And just for the record, this
is my own guess -- I don't have any inside information or anything like
that!)

Oh man... but you say they haven't changed anything from 2003? That just
about blows my mind! That's like dropping the POWER from PowerPoint...

Well, the whole Office UI was completely revamped, so I know the PPT team
had a lot of work just to get back to baseline.

And the grapics capabilites really have been stepped up. I think that is a
tremendous improvement, one that is, in my opinion, even more important to
PPT than animations.

Just my $.02

Maybe it's time to buy a Mac? At least Apple doesnt take half a decade to
update their software...

Go for it. But what's with the gratuitous slam?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Maybe it's time to buy a Mac? At least Apple doesnt take half a decade to
update their software...

Ah. Religion.

Worship at whatever altar makes you happiest.

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Dawgma,

A very fair and balanced mac users powerpoint of view of keynote versus
powerpoint
http://www.indezine.com/blog/2006/07/apple-keynote-vs-microsoft-powerpoint.html

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

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