Launching Keynote

You can launch Keynote by double-clicking its icon in the Applications/iWork folder of the Finder -- to learn how to access that icon, refer to my earlier post: Do I already have Keynote?

However, that's not how everybody launches Keynote! Look in your Dock and you'll find an alias for Keynote there, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Keynote alias on the Dock

As you hover over all the aliases, you'll see a tool tip that provides the name of the application the alias belongs to. Click the Keynote alias and the program should spin to life, asking you to choose a theme to create your first presentation (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Choose a Keynote theme to proceed

At this point, you have several choices:

Select a theme and click the "Choose" button so that Keynote launches with a new presentation based on the selected theme. You can also set a resolution for your new presentation at this time from within the Slide Size drop down box -- or if you don't want to get into this aspect right now, leave the default values untouched.
Check the "Don't show this dialog again" so that you are not prompted to choose a theme the next time you launch Keynote.
Choose the "Open an Existing File" option so that you can browse and open an existing Keynote file (or open a PowerPoint presentation in Keynote).
Click the "Close" button so that the Keynote minimizes itself on the Dock. Click the Keynote alias on the Dock, and Keynote springs back instantly to life with the same dialog box asking you to choose a theme!

As you can see, you still haven't created a single slide in Keynote yet! I'll teach you how you can do that after I explain the Keynote interface to you in the next few posts. As always, do send your feedback through the contact page...

Labels: apple, basics, finder, geetesh bajaj, iwork, keynote, launch, theme

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