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New stuff in Keynote version S
Posted by | Posted in Opinions & Thoughts | Posted on 01-20-2008
There is always a version S of Keynote in development. The S could stand for Secret or Steve’s, but whenever there’s a presentation given, you can almost bet that Apple’s number 1 tester of iWork’s premiere app will be showing some off something new. And we weren’t disappointed. We counted two clearly new features and one that COULD be a new feature, but could also be done in the current version of Keynote. Read on and, if you want to jump right to those parts of the video, use the following link to open a new window and use the Chapter Markers to skip to the described points.
Chapter 1, Grouped Slices
At the first chapter, you’ll find the following slide. As you can see it shows three slices of a pie chart being pulled out as one unit to display a grouping of smartphones (Palm, Motorola, and Nokia’s marketshare). Since this isn’t something you can do with the current version of Keynote (you cannot select three parts of a pie chart, group them together and pull them out as one unit), we examined the video as closely as we could to see if there was some indication of this being a new graphic effect or just some visual sleight of hand. When showing the slices going from the middle, the transition is a cut, not a movement or an animation, so while this COULD be a cool new feature, it could just as well be the clever use of several image copies of the same pie chart with the unwanted parts masked out.
Chapter 2, Fold Transition
At this point in the video, at the end of the “Second Thing”, you’ll see the iPod touch and the iPhone take a bow. Unlike the “Fall” transition, this transition folds the slide at the middle including a nice shadow on the upper half that falls to the lower half and finally reveals the next slide. It’s used several times in the presentation to change ideas or sections to good effect. Because there currently isn’t a way to convincingly fake this one out with the current version of Keynote, we’re pretty sure what we’re looking at is a new transition. One question that remains is whether or not the feature will include the ability to fold horizontally or upward. (The “Fall” transition only goes in a downward direction)
Chapter 3, Twist Transition
Finally, we have what we’re calling the Twist transition. A logical variation to the current “Flip” transition, this was used as another good way to avoid bulleted lists. When listing several items in the same category graphically, this gives a little more definition to the discrete elements than a “Dissolve” would while being more eye-catching than a “Flip”. Again this is another one that can’t be done in Keynote so we’re sure this one is new as well. Again, the question remains whether or not the options will allow the twist to progress in the opposite direction or twist horizontally.
These aren’t the only places in the presentation where these transitions occur (in fact, the first Twist occurs before the Fold), so watch the whole thing to see how they’re used and if you catch something we didn’t, let us know and we’ll point it out as well. Since Keynote is so impressive graphically already, the changes we’re likely to see during presentations won’t be as drastic as in the past, but we’ll keep looking whenever we get a chance and let you know what we find!
I believe the next generation of Keynote will be a full complementary app to be able to communicate with Final cut studio, like the other pro app, EX: Live Type in Final cut pro you have the option- send to- or- open in Editor-, that will be really cool, that will save a compression process, when you want to export a Keynote work to Quick Time
at the end that will be a must for HD format size
AlRobi
I’d love to see any form of formal integration of Keynote with the other apps. As it is, sometimes it appears to be a half version in the future or a half version behind other apps, just slightly out of synch
I’d heard there would be a “Keynote API” with Leopard, but this was either a rumor or never materialized. While the UI and features are fine, I’d like to see a core rewrite in order to fully make use of Core Video and Core Animation. Right now, video performance is still lacking.
@ AlRobi: I don’t see a lot of Pro Apps integration coming. I’m an FCP editor (and Keynote user), and there’s just no market demand for advanced Keynote integration. Difficult to do, and there’s Motion for animation.
I think it’d be an interesting kind of enabling technology if any app could properly read and write the iWork/iWeb XML. For example, while Motion can handle anything Keynote can, what if a Keynote user could produce a cinematically animated presentation (which they’d have no hope of completing using Motion due to skill required) then present that to their Motion team for final rendering or use in HD disc creation? Then you’d have a very high quality master that could be copied and pasted into DVD Studio Pro or even Final Cut.
I don’t think there is currently a demand, but Apple has this way of creating demand for something where no demand existed before.
to Allan W. , you are absolutely right, but i believe, the way you think, Apple better throw out Live Type because we can do it in Motion, Hum.. , say your editing in FCP and you have to make a special 3d transition, there great ones in Keynote and so simple to do, so why not from FCP -send to Keynote- option and for correction -open in Editor-, just think about , say 10 lines moving text with bullets to do it in Motion or FCP what a time consumming for nothing and so easy in Keynote
AlRobi
PS Adobe connect everything
What I’d like to see is Quicktime be able to read Keynote files the way it can read Motion files now. We sort of have this with the ability to preview in the FInder, but you can’t simply open a Keynote file in the QT player and have it play like you can with Motion files.
Are Motion files some form of .qtz? I haven’t used it and was wondering how QuickTime reads the files.
I love Keynote and use it whenever I can, but Apple needs to release a PC version, as they did for iTunes. Like most scientists I have to give a lot of presentations at conferences or other large meetings away from my home office and lab. Such meetings almost never have Macs available, and certainly not Macs equipped with Keynote and, even if bring you own computer, which is a LOT less convenient than just carrying a flash drive with a Powerpoint presentation, they often don’t want you to take the extra time needed to hook up your Mac to the conference room projectors. Unfortunately Keynote translations to Powerpoint are very imperfect at best for complex presentations and take many hours of fine tuning to look good. Most of my colleagues use Macs and love Keynote but just cannot put up with the hassles of it’s being a local program that can’t play in the 93%-dominant PC world. This is the only program in iLife or iWork other than iTunes that I have always thought needed to be released to the PC universe. Feel even more strongly with every passing day.
I think it’s be a great idea to have at least a Keynote Player on Windows. Since the files are just .xml and all of your media, it COULD work. But having the whole app would likely be more support dollars than Apple can spare to spend (for a niche market).
The one thing in the way of this, of course, is the fact that the underlying XML has not been published. If they ever lock it down, then anyone with an interest could create an open source Keynote Playback tool so that you could even view the presentations on Linux.
On a Keynote-to-Motion pathway – that would indeed be cool and practical. I see the value in that.
On Keynote for Windows – unlikely, due to Keynote’s reliance on Mac APIs like Core Image. Interesting though, I’d love to have that. Right now I have to recommend to cutting-edge presenters that they buy, borrow, or rent a Mac for their presentations, which (you can imagine) doesn’t go over well.
If there was a way to translate Keynote’s animations to the Windows Presentation Framework (does the same thing), that might be the key (har). It’s technically possible, but probably not trivial. I like the idea of a Windows player.
Yeah, no one wants to be told that they need a Mac… until they hear that their direct competition is pitching presentations using a mac