Using Keynote on iPad

KEYNOTE
In ways a useful app for presentations, meetings and the odd bit of general graphic design malarkey. Today however I have found a few time wasting drawbacks that have caused a spell of seething irritation.

Lacking features, fonts and formats the iPad 2 app is not up to date with the mac version of Keynote. Having spent a good hour on a presentation for my WIZmedia website plans I had only to find that a good half of that time (lovingly spent on the design) was a total waste.

The presentation was meant to be an easy way to fit all my website requirements - Design ideas, portals, images, content - into one editable document that I could carry around with me and edit before presenting it (in it's final shining glory) at a meeting with a website designer. I created the presentation on my mac then with relief found that the presentation transferred easily to my iPad using Keynote file transfer (method explained below). However, I then discovered that notes are not transferable, pictures are not transferable (even if the picture is in fact on the iPad) and a number of fonts and styles are missing. I found myself copying out my notes for all slides and spending another half hour changing fonts and filling in gaps. Most disappointing.

I'd like to say I am rarely disappointed by the apps of Apple and this came as a complete shock but actually. . . It didn't. I suppose the lack of surprise did soften the blow of extra work I was faced with and it did urge me to solve the issue for future reference...

If you do not want to edit your presentation once it is on your iPad you can export your presentation from your Mac as a JPEG slideshow, PSD file or Quicktime movie. However, if you are looking to then present on your iPad beware that all three tend to lower the quality of your slides so small writing may become illegible.

If you are looking to ultimately present using your iPad as the device for delivery in a meeting, boardroom, lecture etc. or by plugging the device into an external screen (e.g using a VGA cable) then my advice would be:

• Get all your written information in any old font down on mac in slide order 
• Gather all photos/images/music you may wish to use in the presentation into one folder
• Plug your iPad in to transfer the saved Keynote document using keynote file share through iTunes (see picture & notes below)
• Also transfer the folder containing other media you may use to iPad (using iTunes-you can also do this through iPhoto) 
• Then use the iPad version to focus on the design - Choose your colours, fonts, images, spacing, sounds and effects on your iPad and also add any notes you wish to the slides at this stage rather than through your mac (to avoid inevitably losing them in transfer)
• Give it some funky graphics and get ready to impress

This way you will know exactly what you're going to be presenting on your iPad, still having access to all your mac's files and will avoid any nasty design shocks caused by this particular app's mishap.

If you're often away from your mac it is a good idea to get into the habit of emailing files to yourself you may want for presentations so that you have access to them on your iPad wherever you are. Although watch out. This may sound easy but Apple's many file sharing systems are often not quite as simple as they seem. Check to see what format your iPad will download and read and Keynote will recognise before relying on an email system. Remember the notes section on iPad can be very useful for copying and pasting words from other documents.

In the apps section of iTunes you will find the above section. Click on keynote and you should find your Keynote documents. Once you've found your desired presentation click on it and then click sync. Your presentation will then be saved in Keynote on your iPad.


Hope this was useful!