Keynote 2 for Mac OS X: Visual Quickstart Guide

reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher

Keynote takes on the Big Boy Powerpoint. I have used Powerpoint as most people have, at one time or another. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal in effect said that using Powerpoint for many is a way to “bore people to death with words, words, words during a lecture/presentation.” There are still some parts of Powerpoint I find difficult and less manageable then I would like. Maybe Steve Jobs also thought about this and had in mind to spice up presentations with Macintosh machines could utilize. Enter Keynote.

Well I have tried both and after awhile I stopped using Keynote because I did not see enough to make me want to use it more. So when Keynote 2 came out, I decided to take another look back, not to bash Powerpoint but to see whether Keynote 2 can make a better presentation.

This series does not have long winding passages of instruction, which is good. The author, a writer of dozens of books and is a frequent presenter at industry trade shows and conferences, has included in this book informational that may convey ideas and have you considering Keynote 2 instead of Powerpoint for your next presentation.

The Visual Quickstart Guide series does what it says throughout all its books. The series gives you a “visual guide” to starting and using an application through the use of illustrations, screenshots, tables of information, which are sprinkled throughout the book. But all illustrations are Black and White, and I believe a visual guide should have more than B&W pictures.

While fairly effective in conveying information related to step-by-step instructions, the pages are bland and structured all in the same fashion. There are little tip sections, but I don’t get a better visual presence and go beyond visualization. Other guiding pointers that I like to see in other tutorial type books (lines, more pointers, different types of screen shots, arrow pointers) take instruction to a more visual heightened sense of understanding, and they are missing in this book. That is not to knock the author and how he presents Keynote 2, because the writing is done well, but I need more information to understand how to use Keynote 2 beyond Powerpoint.

While Powerpoint files can be interchanged (exported and imported), I wanted to know if it does better job and if so how. One nice idea that I thought about (but the author does not mention) is that if you get further versions of iWorks (which cost less then Office) you don’t have to update to another costly copy of Powerpoint.

A nice addition to the instructions is that in many of the instructions utilize either pull down menus or the pressing of the various keys that duplicate essentially the same efforts. It is all a matter of style or preference according to your preferences. The tips are helpful.

The 14 chapters provide step-by-step instruction. Initially the first chapter includes use of Keynote, getting started with presentations, viewing the slide like screens of your presentations and working with text. Then the information becomes more graphic, literally.

The possible most helpful sections are for intermediate and advanced users. Chapter 11 covers using multimedia files - images, PDF files, QuickTime, Flash, audio and video format files – in presentations. It would have been nice for the author to include additional examples how to use the new application, but perhaps this is best left to the theme section.

The author highlights how to use themes, make your own and much more. There is a great resource section for getting free or commercial themes. Since there are a host of themes to use, this might be a way to use Keynote versus Powerpoint, at least starting up and developing.

I have not found many Keynote books on the market. This book does not have color and perhaps is a little lackluster but it does provide well done instruction and resources. The book might not have all the pizzazz, but that does not mean your presentation have to be drab. This book is fine and priced right and can assist with making your presentations better. Given the better intuitive feel of Keynote, I feel I might try to see if I can integrate more multimedia capabilities into presentations in the future. I could not really say that about Powerpoint so in this way the book has accomplished, in part, what I was looking for. In that way it may help you improve your presentation either in Keynote or exporting later to Powerpoint format. So if you don’t use Keynote now, try it and use this book to help make your presentation stand out from the crowd.