You can solve both of these problems if you use @MMTalker’s suggestion of creating a PDF from a Keynote file. I’ve done this for years (since Keynote was first released?) and it works well. You have to avoid fancy animations and transitions but you can do basic builds. As you note, a lot of bells and whistles are nice but unnecessary.
I was reminded of just how over-reliant presentations are on slides when watching this video of Jean-Louis Gassée introduce the Mac Portable. This is one of the best tech presentations I’ve seen, but it’s a completely different style and pace to what we get today. Much more intimate and conversational. I find the use of slides these days can be feel unrelenting (depends a lot on the specific presentation and presenter of course).
Brilliant! Gallic charm, self-assurance (based on grounded knowledge) tempered by modesty, and striving for easily-understood simplicity. Absolutely perfect to show off a product and win hearts and minds. The specifics may not be transferable to all presentations, but the style and spirit certainly is. Excellent model. Thanks!
Cool presentation. I love the idea of him assembling the computer on-stage while talking about the parts. If anybody would do that today, iFixit would fall in love with the product.
I also noted that when talking about the RAM expansion card, he immediately said that third parties would be developing larger cards than the one offered by Apple. What a complete contrast to everything else that’s ever been sold - both then and now. Probably not the best marketing (Apple should be able to sell the maximum compatible card, even if its expensive), but really consumer-friendly.
Although the video stops before the end of the presentation, I noticed that he was talking about changing the battery. I assume later on there was a demo along the lines of hot-swapping the battery while the system is running (with the power cord temporarily connected, of course), since he sort of hinted at it during the battery installation step.
The only thing that surprised me was that he turned the computer around to show the screen to the audience. When describing the motherboard, he mentioned a video connector for driving a projector, but he didn’t proceed to hook it up to the theater’s projector. I can only assume that the adapter needed for that port wasn’t ready yet (or maybe 640x400 just doesn’t look good when projected on a giant theater screen).
Just for context… I have a box sitting on a shelf in my studio, with Photoshop 1.0 written on it. I bought it because a client talked to me about it and I went to his house where he showed me beta ~7 (don’t remember the exact beta, but it was around there). His was the first computer I’d ever seen up close. I didn’t know anyone who owned a computer and they were non-existant in advertising/design/publishing at that time. I bought my first Mac, specifically to run Photoshop. Nothing else.
What I’m musing about is how Adobe were so aggressive with buy and kill strategy and how they were innovative at a glacial rate. A long time ago, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter, critising them essentially for this, but primarily because they were fighting so hard to force Apple into enabling Flash on the iPhone. (Flash probably broke more Macs than any other single thing). He was spot on in my view. Serif are the first really serious competitors in a very long time and the price difference is sooo gigantic, it’s worth buying for trying alone. Better in many ways, missing some stuff in others. The ‘better’ bit is because Adobe haven’t moved with the times, which has left a door open.
Jeez! I totally forgot all about Flash! You are 100% correct; Flash was a battery devouring, buggy, insecure, crash causing horror. Steve Jobs was 100% correct to put it out of its misery. Adobe acquired Flash from Macromedia and they wasted a lot of time and money promoting it as the future of Internet animation and gaming. Even Facebook ended up putting the kabosh on it.
I also agree that Adobe pretty much allowed Flash to slowly die on the vine without intervention. They probably could have created an enormous PR/legal stink like Epic Games did with Fortnight, but they didn’t.
Oh, and who can forget those horrible, slow and overdone websites built entirely in Flash. Some web developers went mad with it and those paying the bills soon had regrets, not to mention us users trying to navigate them.
In a time long past I was a Director and Secretary of a very large organisation which advocated for newspapers. Every year I created an extensive Keynote presentation which included many different videos, timed pauses, sound stings and extensive use of animation.
Whenever we negotiated with a venue we made it clear we were using Macs and we’d bring our own machines. Typically we’d use a Thunderbolt to svga/dvi style adaptor to get into their video and a simple 3mm plug into the headphone jack for audio. The only problem I ever struck was staff who were simply lazy, or unable to work Macs.
These days I’m not sure what I’d do with only HDMI and USB-C. I’m sure good staff would be able to make it work somehow, regardless of what they normally do. It really shouldn’t be an issue.
Converting any sort of sophisticated Keynote presentation to Powerpoint or PDF sounds like misery.
If my presentation is only presented in a one-room setting, where various I/O ports are available at the podium, there’s usually no problem (but “usually no” is still not “never”). The problem arises almost always at those large conferences where there are simultaneous presentations in many rooms. At such events, the usual requirement is that the material, on a Windows-formatted memory stick, need to be given to the IT center (somewhere in the building), from where it’s served with a Windows server to the various rooms. Sometimes there’s no physical way to hook a Mac up, and even when there is, Mac apps (Keynote) won’t play. And when I’ve exported the KN to PPT it often won’t play as it should.
A key concept here is “good staff”, who are able and willing to make it work. I’ve also been told that a server can’t serve both Windows and Mac; it’s either/or, and that means Windows-only. Seems to me that for only a relatively small investment the IT center should be equipped to serve both formats, but I’ve never encountered that. Bottom line, there’s no way to know that what I’ve created at home on my Mac will play as intended other than to try it out at the venue on their equipment beforehand, and that’s not always possible. %@#&!!!
