On Moving Backgrounds
January 03, 2007 Filed in: General Tips
In early December, Keynote theme developer Jumsoft released a pachage of
themes called Keynote Themes FX. Each of the
three themes in the package uses a looping video
as the background, creating a dynamic rather
than static backdrop for your slides. The result
is pretty unique, and, as far as I know, Keynote
is the only is the only slide presentation
software that can do something like this without
additional plugins or enhancements.
You can see the themes in action right here. Go ahead. I'll still be here when you get back.
The question is whether or not moving backgrounds enhance a presentation. They certainly add a certain "wow" effect, and it would come to me as no surprise if a future version of Keynote had a couple of built-in themes that featured moving backgrounds. However, fluid backgrounds will probably provide more distractions than enhancements to your slides.
Back in this post, I recommended using backgrounds that are simple and don't distract from your content. Animations will attract the eyes of your audience and draw their attention away from the content you want them to focus on. Perhaps there are occasions where an animates slide background will create the greatest effect – all "rules" are made to be broken after all. In general though, my recommendation would be to stick with simple, static backgrounds that get out of the way and allow content to be king.
Disclosure: I own a lot of Jumsoft themes.
You can see the themes in action right here. Go ahead. I'll still be here when you get back.
The question is whether or not moving backgrounds enhance a presentation. They certainly add a certain "wow" effect, and it would come to me as no surprise if a future version of Keynote had a couple of built-in themes that featured moving backgrounds. However, fluid backgrounds will probably provide more distractions than enhancements to your slides.
Back in this post, I recommended using backgrounds that are simple and don't distract from your content. Animations will attract the eyes of your audience and draw their attention away from the content you want them to focus on. Perhaps there are occasions where an animates slide background will create the greatest effect – all "rules" are made to be broken after all. In general though, my recommendation would be to stick with simple, static backgrounds that get out of the way and allow content to be king.
Disclosure: I own a lot of Jumsoft themes.