So i finally used keynote (v4, iWork 08) after years of averageness with powerpoint... and i must say it is fantastic.

The ability to customise to ones needs, including the presenter display - could you ask for more! I will be converting all of my powerpoint lectures (over time) into keynote given how impressed i am.

I also used a Kensington presentation remote - it is also fantastic. The simple and ergonomic design - i regret having recently ordered a Griffin iClick USB. If it does not hold up to what i want, it might be listed for sale here so i can partly fund the Kensington model (i only want it for presentations)

I felt i had to share/rave about it! I will be given it another run and an international event in a few weeks - i don't foresee any issues

yeah its awesome - i impressed a group of people at work with a presentation that i made.

our workplace of about 800 computers are all windows machines - so everyone knows powerpoint but they were all amazed with the smoothness and quality of the keynote presentation.

I love hearing the "after years" stories.

We apple owners are always telling people what products are better, we even demonstrate how apple products are often easier to use and can do more, so it never ceases to amaze me how often it takes people years to actually listen. I suppose it must be true, you just can't tell people anything...

Good on you for finding something that works really well.

Keynote was hand-crafted for Steve Jobs himself (he uses it to do his keynotes, hence why it's called Keynote), so I wouldn't expect anything less than perfect if the S-man uses it too.

Every so often I'm handed a Powerpoint and just shake my head in despair at the "crudness" of presentation standards.
With keynote - you don't need design skills to suddenly kick goals!
Powerpoint is a brilliant tool. Problem is most people think it's a hammer and not a screwdriver.

Keynote rocks. Possibly one of the best apps Apple make.

Best thing about keynote: I know that I can usually throw together the entire presentation in less than 30 mins if all the source material is ready. It's just a joy.

I try to find excuses to use it.

Oh and Powerpoint makes me want to stab people in the eye with a rusty fork. No comparison.

such a well balanced comparison.

Don't hold back Marc , tell us what you really mean!

Stewie

Keynote is great I did a presentation in it for Uni and got a High Distinction

Just ask me about Word... I dare ya!

Seriously though, working on design docs all day in InDeisgn (which is far from perfect), then switching to PowerPoint because you've been asked to make someone's presentation prettier makes you think "WTF were the team who designed this thinking?". There's no redeeming features. It's an abortion from start to end.

I never got that... using the "hard to use" pro apps has always been easier than the "tools for the masses" Word & PowerPoint. Well, until Pages and Keynote came along. I now use Pages instead of InDesign sometimes, just because some things are painful in InDesign. It's all about workflow!

Keynote looks great. I particularly like the Blackboard style - very retro.

My only problem with it (and I've not used it enough to know if there is a nice solution) is there is no nice way to format mathematics in a presentation. Until that happens, I'll be using TeX and it's variants to generate PDFs for my presentations.

The thing is, you don't need to be a mathematician to want this - all scientists (at least proper ones ) use mathematics at some point.

I love it too... my only issue is that when I embed a video in a slide, it won't work when I export it as a powerpoint to share with PC people. Does anyone know a way around this?
Deb

True.

I don't know if Keynote or Pages can do that. Send Apple some feedback! I'm sure they'll listen if enough people want it:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/keynote.html

I once worked in a department that used Powerpoint for ALL their word processing documents! The howler was a 256 page tender document - 80% of which was in Times Roman font at 12pt size.

I guess they have NEVER heard of Word???

I recently managed to wow everyone with Keynote - we had a company getaway at Hamilton Island and to go through 5 hrs of presso's by management and three of our vendors before we started partying.

Everyone commented on how much better ours was compared to the other standard PowerPoint pressos.

def - I found a workaround for getting mathematics into Keynote: open Grapher, bring up the Equation Pallette, create the equation and format as required, then select and copy it. When you paste into Keynote it changes into a vector image, with transparency and you can scale it as required. Not exactly smooth but gets the job done.