Importing Files into Keynote

Keynote works with a TON of graphics formats and seems to only be missing a few. The easiest way to get items into Keynote is to just drag them there. You can drag objects/images from SOME programs, but not all. Another way is to use Copy and Paste. This works from pretty much any applications, although with many you'll get an object with a white rectangular background behind it. You can also "Place" an image using the Place command in the Edit menu and select "Choose..." I kept looking for an Import command under the File menu and this one totally escaped me. This will teach me to not just skim the manual! Right there on page 36.

AppleWorks
You copy and paste objects from all AppleWorks files into Keynote. For those who have it, this makes AppleWorks a nice free object editor that compliments Keynotes lack of robust drawing tools (such as the Arc tool). See below for more info on importing files from AppleWorks.

PowerPoint
You copy and paste objects from PowerPoint to Keynote. This is handy for Formulas.

EPS
Keynote 1 cannout open native EPS images, they must be converted to PDF using another program. Keynote 2 and 3 rely on the EPS conversion built into the OS, so dropping an EPS onto a slide in Keynote usually works.

PDF
PDF documents import fine, but if you have a tiny object on a big page, it makes a mess for editing (Your resize handles are the size of the document, not the object. I am going to test opening PDF's in something like the full Acrobat program or anything else that will hack a PDF. I did have one problem with a rather large PDF created in Illustrator 10. Trying to resize it in Keynote stalled the program and I had to force quit it several times. The BIG benefit to importing vector images in PDF format is that they are fully scalable and come in with no background behind them. See the Photoshop item below for a neat PDF tip for making smaller files and keeping your transparency intact.

Illustrator 10
I have heard that you get GREAT results importing transparent Illustrator 10 files. I haven't tested this, so there will be more info coming soon. Also, I have been able to Copy and Paste Illustrator objects into Keynote with mixed success. Sometimes they come in with transparency intact, sometimes they have a white background behind them.

Freehand 10
The only way I have found to get graphics out of freehand and into Keynote was to export them as a PDF. You CAN also copy and paste graphics from Freehand into Fireworks and save it as a PNG file. This works well if you want to add effects to it.

Canvas 8
The best way to get Canvas objects is to do a Save As from Canvas and choose Acrobat PDF from the Format pop-up menu. Just make sure your Canvas size is the same size or onl slightly larger than your image-otherwise you get a tiny image with a large trnasparent area around it that is still part of the image. Make for a mess when scaling in Keynote.

PNG/Fireworks
I tested Fireworks images and, while you don't get transparency if you just copy and paste a graphic in from Fireworks, you DO get it if you save the Fireworks file and then drop that into Keynote. Fireworks uses the PNG format as its native file format. When you use Fireworks images, you do lose scalability as Fireworks rasters the image to 72 dpi, but it looks great at 100% and you can always go back to Fireworks and make the image bigger there. Make sure you trim your Fireworks files though, or they come in with a lot of empty space around them.

Photo Objects
I was also able to take an image from my Hemera Photo Objects library with no problem. Using the "PNG with Transparency" format, you can actually just drag an image from the Hemera image viewer to your desktop, and then back into Keynote. I couldn't get drag-and-drop working between the programs, but maybe Hemera will release and update to do this.

iPhoto
You can drag iPhoto images from iPhoto right onto a Keynote 1 slide. Keynote 2 and 3 now have the media palette that displays your entire iPhoto library in the app.

GIF
I tested an animated GIF file and it worked. I wouldn't expect good results when exporting to a QuickTime file though. I would bet that the program isn't going to animate it upon export. One Tip, if you want it to LOOP, go to the QuickTime panel on the Inspector and turn on the Loop function or it will only play once.

OmniGraffle
This program comes on most Pro macs. It is mainly a flow charting program, but it can be used to make all kinds of shapes and images. You can copy and past directly from OmniGraffle into Keynote (in most cases). You can also export drawings as PDF files and then place them in Keynote.

OMNIGRAFFLE IMAGE TIP:

If you look through the Palettes full of images, you'll find one called Network. This Palette has a bunch of great computer and networking images. Great for charting out network or computer layouts and importing them into Keynote. Most of the Mac models are there, and there's even an Airport base unit. They are all fully scalable and look great in Keynote.

Photoshop
I also wanted to test using alpha-channels to get a semi-transparent image. I exported a PNG file again from Photo Objects, opened it in Photoshop, made sure it was on its own layer, copied a part of it to a new layer, made that layer semi-transparent, resaved it as a PNG file and dropped it in Keynote. It looked great. The portion I made semi-transparent showed through to the background and I was even able to lay this OVER a video clip and it showed through to the clip below. Playing this slide worked just fine with no jitters in the video. This means you can make crazy see-through overlays for your video clips and they'll still play properly (more on that later). I HIGHLY suggest the Hemera products for use in keynote. You can get their Photo Object series on DVD now. 50,000 isolated images that can be exported in all kinds of graphics formats. In Keynote they come in as a floating object with no background. Perfect for next generation presentation clip art.

Importing Data is a little different than graphics. This section will grow as I have a chance to test different apps with Keynote.



		Excel Copy/Paste generally works. A test in Keynote 3 showed you can paste right into Keynote and you'll get a new table with the excel info in it. Also, if you select the first cell in a Chart's data editor and choose paste, it will fill the cells correctly with your data.



		OmniOutliner OO can now actually save files as a .key Keynote file. This is handy if you use it to create outlines and you want to convert them to a presentation format quickly. Don't try to go FROM Keynote TO Outliner and expect to keep your slide formatting though.



		Word Copy and paste works for most things, though if you want to bring over a table, you'll need to create one in Keynote first, then select it and paste in the data you copied from Word.

While I haven't done extensive testing with this feature, it DOES work, and I would imagine that since Apple makes both programs, the files will import exactly like the original. One really nice feature is that all the shapes and line objects come in as Keynote object and they can have their lines and fills changed. They can even be resized without losing quality. Charts also come in just like the original. Keynote will only import an AppleWorks Presentation file and not any of the other file types. You can copy and paste just about anything from the other file formats.

Video works well in Keynote if you know a few things:

Note: this list is old and needs updating. Some items have been removed already...

Playing more than one movie at the same time IS possible and actually works pretty well.
Keynote doesn't know that your 720X480 DV file looks better if squashed to 640X480 (because DV files don't have square pixels but your screen does). Get around this by unlocking the Constrain Proportions box on the Metrics panel of the Inspector. Then change the size to 640X480. I tried taking a DV file up to 800X600 but it just didn't look good at all. I suggest instead making a cool graphic frame around the video, or just leaving a black background on the slide so it isn't as noticeable when the movie is smaller than the screen. See below for more video tips.
You may want to turn on the High Quality setting in your DV clips before using them in Keynote. You'll see an increase in quality, but possibly at the cost of performance on older machines.
QuickTime VR movies DO WORK, but they must be created to have auto motion, such as auto-rotate. Otherwise Keynote doesn't know what to do with it and just shows the first frame. NOTE: This feature was hit or miss in my tests. Sometimes the VR movie would rotate, sometimes it wouldn't. It ALWAYS rotated on the notes page, but only sometimes on screen two.

I tested a Flash file with Keynote and it worked fine, except that you can't get interactivity if you need to use the mouse and click things in it. Keystroke triggers in a Flash file MIGHT work in Keynote 3 now that there's an option to unlock the hold it has on the screen (expose, dashboard and FrontRow now work on top of a playing show) this might actually work (I haven't tested it)

I suggested to Apple that they make Dynamic Objects for the next version of Keynote way back when version 1 came out. I can see Objects that you can manipulate or that do things, like allow you to set a certain time and have a count down on the screen, or access a web site or database and get up-to-date info DURING your show, or even just a clock that shows the correct time. Now with Widget technology, I think Apple could deliver this in the next version. Even the guys from Market Circle are messing with this kind of technolgy inside an app (scroll down to Main Window with Contacts and look at #7).