Running Keynote for the first time

When you run Keynote for the first time (or when you run Pages or Numbers), you are asked to input the serial number of the product, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Enter your iWork serial

The serial number can be found within the packaging, typically on a sticker pasted on the Installing iWork booklet. If you bought the product at an online store without a physical delivery, the serial number can be found in the subsequent email you received.

Type in the serial number including all the dashes, and click the Continue button. Thereafter, you'll be asked to provide registration info as shown in Figure 2. And yes, my email address really isn't abc@xyz.com!

Figure 2: Send in your registration info to the folks at Apple

Thereafter you'll see a small Connecting window -- this means your registration info is transmitted to Apple's user database. Normally, this takes a few seconds, and you then see the "Thank you" window, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Your registration was successful

Thereafter, Keynote will launch. If there's an update available at that time, you may be provided with an option to download it immediately.

Labels: about, apple, geetesh bajaj, install, iwork, keynote, registration

What about PowerPoint?

So what is it about PowerPoint? I knew that question was bound to come up sooner or later and it's best I answer this one now.

For those of you who don't know, I have authored four PowerPoint books and run a huge PowerPoint related site called Indezine.com -- I do a lot of presentations for high-end clients from my presentation design studio based out of Hyderabad, India. And I use PowerPoint all the time -- on both Windows and the Mac.

So why am I doing this series of posts on Apple Keynote? That's because I have plenty of Macs and every version of Keynote released so far. I have played with Keynote, and I think it's a cool program. And to take a discussion route far removed from flame wars, I'm so glad that Keynote exists. Keynote provides competition in the presentation program marketplace and competition is good because it leads to huge improvements in both Keynote and PowerPoint.

However, it doesn't take too long to notice that there isn't too much content available on Keynote -- not too many books, web sites, or even sites with themes to buy or download. That's why I created this corner on the web -- to write some content on Apple Keynote.

Labels: about, apple, content, geetesh bajaj, indezine, keynote, microsoft, powerpoint

Keynote System Requirements

Make sure you are aware of the system requirements for Keynote and the rest of the iWork programs before you buy a retail box. That's one of the reasons why you should download a trial version of the product.

The current version, Keynote 08 (or Keynote 4) runs on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard only (and later versions of OS X). And if you are running an earlier version of OS X, you'll have to find an earlier version of Keynote and iWork as well (or upgrade your OS X version).

You can find older versions of Keynote and OS X on auction sites like eBay but be aware that the newest version of Keynote always has more features. Also, you might not be able to open Keynote presentations created in the new version inside older versions of Keynote, although the opposite is not true.

Labels: about, apple, buy, iwork, keynote, system requirements, trial

Installing iWork (and Keynote)

In this post, I'll show you how you can install iWork (and Keynote) on your Mac. Remember, as of now iWork comprises Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. You can also get a trial version of iWork before deciding to buy a retail version.

To install iWork, follow these steps:

Insert the iWork CD/DVD in your optical drive (and if you downloaded the trial version, just double-click the downloaded file).
Either way, you'll see the iWork installation screen that looks like what you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: iWork Install Screen
Now double-click the Install iWork or similar option, and you'll see a screen that says that iWork wants to determine if it can be installed, blah, blah, blah (see Figure 2). As you must have realized by now, you hardly have any choice but to click the Continue button. Do that!

Figure 2: iWork needs to determine something
Click Continue in the next screen as well, and behold the Read Me screen. Read if you want, or just press Continue to welcome the venerable License screen (see Figure 3) that allows Apple to own your computer, home, bank account, and car (just joking) -- it's comparatively harmless, just click the Continue button to get this moving. Click Agree in the popup screen that comes up.

Figure 3: iWork Install Screen
Select the Destination drive to install iWork -- if you have just one drive, that decision is already made for you. Then click Continue. Groan...now click Install in the next screen! And if that wasn't enough, enter your computer password in the popup window that comes up, and click OK. Phew!
Now if all goes well, the Installer will work for a while. Let the poor thing do what it is meant to do -- and after a while, you will see a screen that says everything went well, and iWork was successfully installed on your Mac (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: That was a successful iWork installation
Click Close and you are done with the installation.

Labels: about, apple, install, iwork, keynote

Buying iWork (and Keynote)

You can buy a copy of iWork (and Keynote) as a retail boxed product on CD at any of the Apple stores or resellers. You can also buy the same boxed product from the Apple online store at the Apple web site. There are different Apple stores on Apple's various international sites.

In addition, you can buy an electronic download version of iWork from the Apple web site.

Do remember that there are essentially two versions of iWork available:

The Single User pack can be installed on one system.
The Family Pack allows you to install on up to 5 systems in your household.

The Family Pack costs just a little bit more than the Single User pack -- so it makes a lot of sense to get that version even if you just need to install iWork on 2 systems. As you can see the pricing in Figure 1, a single user pack as of today costs $79, whereas a family pack costs $99.

Figure 1: iWork Purchase Options

No wonder everyone wants to buy the Family Pack!

Labels: about, apple, buy, iwork, keynote

Getting a Trial Version of Keynote (and iWork)

Unless your Mac came with a trial version of iWork, you'll want to download the evaluation from the Apple site. You'll also want to get the trial version if you are using an earlier version of Keynote and iWork -- and want to see all the new improvements before you buy a retail copy of iWork.

You can download the trial version from the Apple iWork Trial page, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Apple iWork Trial Download

As you can see in the figure above, the current version of iWork is iWork 08 that includes Keynote 08.

Be prepared for a long download though -- as of today, the download is a whopping 469 megabytes.

Labels: about, apple, download, iwork, keynote, trial

Do I already have Keynote?

If you bought a new Mac, chances are you already have a trial version of Apple iWork that includes Keynote. Even otherwise, you can download a trial version of iWork from the Apple site. However before you download the trial, just check if you already have iWork. To do that, follow these steps:

On your Mac Dock, click the Finder option (normally the first option from the left) to launch the Finder.
In the left pane of the Finder, click Applications to see a list of installed applications in your Mac (as shown in Figure 1).

Figure 1: Applications in your Mac
Scroll down the list, and you'll find a folder called iWork -- my folder is called iWork 08 since "08" denotes the version of the programs contained within the iWork suite. Your version may have a different suffix -- that doesn't matter. For now, just double click the folder.
Inside the folder, you'll find a shortcut for Keynote (and perhaps for Pages and Numbers as well) as you can see in Figure 2.

Figure 2: iWork folder within your Applications folder
Double-click the Keynote shortcut to launch the program.

If your copy of Keynote is a trial version, it will run for the trial period.

Labels: about, apple, finder, iwork, keynote, trial

What is Apple Keynote?

Apple Keynote is a popular presentation program that helps you create slides with all sorts of textual, visual, and multimedia content.

Keynote was launched as a standalone program, but Apple subsequently launched word processing and spreadsheet programs called Pages and Numbers -- now all these three programs are sold as a combined suite of applications called iWork. Presently, iWork is a Mac only suite of programs that has no compatible option on the Windows platform.

Being the oldest of all programs in iWork, Keynote is the most evolved and capable program of the lot. On these set of pages, I'll jot down my experiences of working with Keynote. Please feel free to add your thoughts, opinions, and ideas through your comments.

Have a great day.

Labels: about, apple, iwork, keynote