I've also found this a frustration when I recently prepared a SUPERB Keynote for a government client who not only run PCs, but totally and rigidly refused to allow me to plug my Macbook into their conference projection system. Sigh. Exporting to powerpoint, like you said, didn't work . . . with 10 minutes before showtime, I was sweating. . .

Until I discovered Export as Flash. That creates a shockwave file which you can operate from within Internet Explorer and transition from slide to slide with a clicker or the normal arrow keys. It loses some of the Keynote transitions, but all of my animations and embedded movies worked fine.

Andrew

PDF export also works well for letting PC users see or present (they can use Acrobat in full screen mode to present).

A vote of confidence in the Kensington product too. I've used this for over a year and it's brilliant. Now I get clients coming up to me after presentations saying, "What on earth did you use to create . . . ?" and also, "What's the little gadget you use?" It's all the Apple way: deceptive ease and simplicity.

Andrew

Thanks for those tips... off to try them now. It should liven up my student portfolios!
Deb

Although I have been reading MacTalk for some time, this is my first post.

Just to establish my credibility here - I have been a Mac advocate for over 20 years. I currently run over a dozen macs, from a 13" laptop through the latest top-specced Mac Pro to an X-RAID server.

I also use Keynote for my presentations - probably around 40 a year, including yesterday at an international conference.

And yet, and yet...

I have to say that Keynote is VERY clunky. It does not have the famous Apple ease-of-use. It has plenty of eye candy, and its range of transitions is great.

I never thought I would say this but the opposition's product is actually more user-friendly, in terms of adjusting format of text, customising themes, etc. Even the help file is very unhelpful (eg try designing a new theme complete with custom bullets - not possible unless you are a pro designer). I know ppt has had a longer period of development, but Keynote has now gone through a few versions and really should have been more streamlined by now.