Hello there! Welcome to this video! Let’s see quickly all you need to know
to start using Apple Keynote!
Leave us comments to improve our next videoguides!
Keynote is a powerful Mac software used to create and organize
presentations.
When you click on it, the main Browser appears, in order to open Keynote
presentations made in the past. To create a new presentation, click on New
Document in the bottom left corner.
First thing to do, is to choose the basic theme to start with. Above,
choose between Standard themes, that use a 4:3 aspect ratio, and
Wide themes, that use a full-HD presentation with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
To understand how Keynote works, let’s pick a simple presentation, such
as the Black, the White or the Gradient one. Click on a theme to select
it, and then go to Choose in the bottom right corner.
First of all, let’s understand what a presentation is. A presentation
is a list of static or animated Slides, which are simple sheets
containing several elements, such as pieces of text, charts, tables or
media, used to show or represent a particular theme.
The Keynote workspace is composed by four main parts. On the left, you
have the Navigator panel, that lists all the Slides composing your
presentation. On the center, you have a big preview of the Slide
currently selected. On top, several buttons to add elements. On the
right, you have another panel used to edit and adjust several
properties related to the Slide or element selected on your workspace.
Let’s start with the first Slide. All the tools you need are inside the
Format panel, that you can show clicking on the Format button right
above.
Each Slide shown in your workspace is composed by two parts: the
elements, such as the Title text and the Body text you can see, and the
background, also called Slide Layout. The way they are placed is
defined by a default Slide template (or Master) called “Title &
Subtitle”, as you can see from the Format panel. You can use another
template going to Change Master below and choosing in the list. Some
of these templates can also have a slot for pictures.
Once the template is chosen, you can quickly edit all slots. For
example, type and edit text by double-clicking on the text areas. To
customize your image, simply click on the image symbol in the bottom
right corner and browse for your picture, or simply drag and drop your
image directly.
In case you want to change the template again, you can select the
background by clicking on it and using the Format panel. Here, you can
quickly hide the Title, the Body text or add any Slide Number at the
bottom. More below, under Background, you can personalize the
background color and style as you like.
This is the fastest way to create a presentation, by using ready-made
templates. However, you can also make completely customized
presentations if you need, working directly on the elements of your Slide.
There are several elements you can add inside a Slide, listed all above:
tables, charts, pieces of text, shapes, images and videos through Media,
and annotations through Comment. Let’s see how to edit
and manage each of them.
Pieces of text are contained inside a Text Area, which is the contour
you see around it. You can move it clicking and dragging it on your
workspace. Keynote helps you with the correct text alignment through
yellow guidelines. You can scale the Text Area by clicking and dragging
from the white nodes in the corners. This does not scale the text typed
inside, unless you reduce the Text Area so much that the text must be
shrinked.
You can also rotate the Text Area by holding CMD down while using the
white nodes. This will also rotate the text inside.
For more advanced editing, you must use the Format panel on the right.
Click on the Text Area to select it, and the Format panel will show all
properties related to such text, divided in several sections above.
For example, use Style to change the Text Area appearance, in order to
add any background filling, any colored border, or any additional effect,
such as Shadow, Reflection and Transparency.
Remember that a white rectangle with a red diagonal means no color and so
full transparency. Under the Text section, you change anything regarding
the typed text instead: any text font, size, style, alignment and
distribution.
If you have more complex text, such as whole paragraphs, switch to
Layout above, in order to adjust indents, columns and rules.
If you want to use the default font styles available, select from the list
above.
Under the Arrange section, you can adjust the correct visibility between
the text and the other elements. For example, if text is covered by a
picture, you can use Front or Forward to put it on such picture. Plus,
more below, you can finely adjust Size, Position and Rotation.
To add other pieces of text, click on Text above. These are equal to
the Title and the Body text. To be able to scale and rotate, just
right-click and go to Make Editable.
Another kind of element is the Media, such as images, music and videos.
To add them, you can click on Media and browse, or simply drag and drop
your media file on your Slide.
These media elements can be moved, scaled and rotated as seen for Text
Areas before. Plus, if you double-click on an image, you can adjust its
position, and eventually crop it to show off just what you like most. Use
the bar to zoom in or out. To apply all, click on Done.
As for text elements, you can select media and use the Format
panel to edit it. If you select pictures and videos, you can use Style
to add Border and any Effect. Under Arrange, adjust visibility, Size,
Rotation and Position.
If you have an image selected, you can use the Image section to edit it.
Use Replace to change the image; use Edit Mask to crop and zoom, and use
the Adjustments to correct Exposure and Saturation. For more advanced
corrections, click on the button next to Enhance.
Whereas, if you select an audio file or a video file, you will have the
Audio or the Movie section where you can adjust volume or trim
audio or frames to cut parts you don’t like.
Then, you have the Chart and the Table elements. These are especially
used in a professional environment in order to show data. We won’t see
these in detail in this video.
Charts and Tables can be imported from the buttons on top, and can be
fully edited through the Format panel on the far right.
Tables are elements composed by columns and rows, that you can fill up
double-clicking on each cell. Whereas, Charts are direct and graphic
data representations, whose table is saved a part, inside Edit Chart Data.
Then, you also have elements used to highlight and annotate on your
slides, which are the Shapes and the Comments.
If you click on Shape, you can select the shape to paste. As you can see
from the Format panel, the shapes are simply Text Areas that do not have
any text yet.
The open paths, such as the lines, are different. These can be moved,
scaled, rotated and edited through the Format panel as seen for other
elements. Here you choose the stroke style, color and thickness.
Use Endpoints to change both endpoints of your line. You can also apply
effects and use Arrange to set the visibility order on your Slide.
Besides shapes, you can add comments to help you through annotations
during a presentation.
Comments are small notes linked to a selected object. These open if you
hover on them. These elements can’t be personalized, unless their
content inside.
Once the first Slide is done, you can add another one in your presentation
by clicking on Add Slide on top, and choosing the Master template to
start from. This new Slide will be added right below the selected Slide
you have at the moment.
In case you want to delete any element or a whole Slide, just right-click
and go to Cut.
To preview your whole presentation, click on the Play button above.
The presentation will follow the Slides list on the left, always
starting from the selected Slide. You can use the Down and the Up Arrow
Keys to shuffle, and use the Escape key to exit from the fullscreen
preview.
A part from creating and customizing your presentation, Keynote is able
to make animations on both slides and elements through the Animate
panel on the far right.
If you click on the Slide background, you will select it, and the
Animate panel will open on the Transitions. These are animations used to
pass from the first Slide to the following one with a nice effect. If you
click on Add an Effect, you can select the transition effect to add. The
new transition will be added to the current Slide, and will appear on the
Animate panel with all its settings, such as duration, acceleration, and
so on. More below, on Start Transition, you can decide when the Slide
transition has to start. If you choose On Click, the transition will start
when you change the Slide; if you choose Automatically, the transition
will start after a defined delay from your click. Often check the
presentation preview.
Slides with transitions do have a blue corner. To remove it, just
click on Change in the Animate panel and choose None.
You can also add animations on single elements, called Effects. There are
three kinds of Effects: Build In Effects are used to make an element
appear on your Slide; Action Effects are applied on an element
on the Slide; Build Out Effects are used to make an element disappear.
All these Effects can be added and edited just like the Slide Transitions.
Remember that each element has its own set of independent Effects.
Plus, each element can have more than a single Action Effect, just use
Add Action to add more Action Effects. All these Effects are applied in
order, according to the Build Order list.
The Build Order lists all the elements Effects present inside the current
Slide. You can also select each of them in order to edit and adjust them
through the Animate panel, or change the order by clicking and dragging
an effect up or down.
Keynote plays all the animations in the same order: first of all, the
Slide transitions are played to go to the following Slide. Then, all the
elements Effects are played, following the Build Order list.
When a Slide has animated elements, this shows three white dots in the
bottom left corner.
Once your presentation is done, save it, going to File and then to Save.
If you need to export it, go to File and then to Export To…
Thanks for watching this video! Check out our channel to discover more
amazing video guides!