Wow! iWork second only in sales to Office! Who woulda thunk! But pardon me if don't get excited (and other Keynote tales and stories)

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Wow! iWork second only in sales to Office! Who woulda thunk! But pardon me if don't get excited (and other Keynote tales and stories)

Date Created: 26 Jan, 2006, 10:07 AM

Am I, an iWork user and promoter, supposed to be excited with the news that Apple's mini-office suite (please, don't call it an Office-killer) is now the Number 2 best selling office suite? Ousting a product from Corel from that lofty position, one not available on the Mac ?

Please...!

Office has more than 95% of the market. The difference in sales volume between iWork and Corel is a per cent, and probably about the same as the statistical error for this kind of sampling.

So excuse me if I don't get excited.

One of the chaps involved in surveying the sales comparisons, Chris Swenson, was quoted at Extremetech.com as saying:

""The rumor was that iWork was a dog in the marketplace, but it turns out that wasn't the case and that it is outselling Corel in the retail channel, which a lot of people would not have predicted in a million years...That's not to say that Corel isn't second to Microsoft if you consider all channels, but clearly Apple is having success with its targeted distribution strategy."

What is interesting is that some have interpreted this as a slap in the face to those who say iWork has been a disappointment for Apple, not helped by the failure to include spreadsheet app or database in iWork 06.

So, as interesting a finding as this may be to some, and it was certainly widely reported on Apple-monitoring websites, it sounds more like an old comedy routine I listened to as a kid, from a vinyl record called "You don't have to be Jewish!":

"Stop da Presses! Stop da Presses! Hold daback page!"

In other words, for some people it's a Big Deal, but in the scheme of things, does it really matter?

Let me tell you a real-world, not marketing, example that would make me prick up my ears:

I'm invited to present to a conference or a corporation (pick a topic, any topic). The organiser asks, "Would you like to present using any AV equipment?"

And when I say, "yes", he or she says, "Great, our AV specialist has both an H-P laptop with Powerpoint, and a Powerbook with Keynote and Powerpoint; just tell him what you'll be using that day, unless you want to bring your own PC with you."

Now that to me, if repeated often enough, would be a truly meaningful statistical event.

(As an aside, I have never met a female AV specialist in these circumstances.)

There are variations on a theme here too:

Variation 1. Presentation co-ordinator: "We fired our AV guy last week so we're short-staffed. I hope your presentation is formatted for a Mac because we need no tech support for them."

Variation 2: "Oh, you want to bring own Powerbook. Great, last time someone did they used this program called Keynote and it was really so much better than Powerpoint. No one fell asleep, even though it was after lunch." (Well, we can dream can't we?)

Back to the story: For myself, including a spreadsheet and database in iWork 06 would be unnecessary, but not necessarily unwelcomed inclusions for the sake of taking it up to Microsoft and saying "Hah! we can do it better than you can with your cash cow!"

So, the lack of iWork expansion this year is no bother for me. And since Steve Jobs started showing the new Keynote 3 features last year, and so we knew it was coming (with Pages 2 coming along for the ride), I was more than satisfied to see iWork updated, even though there was no upgrade price for loyal users.

Here in Australia, iWork 06's educational price is $79. You can use the demo disc that comes with iLife 06, or one you can obtain from a local Apple merchant to play with the apps for 30 days. Each time you start up one of the apps causing you to click the tryout button where you're reminded how long much of your trial period remains.

That hasn't run out yet for anyone, since only two weeks have passed since iWork's release.

Apple has wisely facilitated an online purchase of the demo, so that credit card holders can enter their details online, and, much like shareware, convert their trial into the real MacWork and remove the trial dialogue box before iWork ceases to operate, like some scene out of LOST, with its doomsday countdown.

By the way, installing iWork 06 leaves your original iWork folder where you left it (presumably in the Applications folder), and my strong advice when you're trialling 06 with your 05-produced files, is to duplicate them, and use those to play with the updated apps. Apple has been wise enough to not cripple the demo allowing full use until the time runs out or you purchase online or from a store, and enter the serial number. If you've purchased third party templates, check to see if they need to be moved from the original iWork folder.

It also takes extra time to open the KN2 files, as Keynote 3 is converting them to KN3 properties, meaning you can't go back to KN2.

UPDATE - January 27: Not quite! In Keynote's Save As... dialogue box there is an option to save your Keynote file as iWork 05 formatted.

Also, as if to mark the app's version progress, some of your favourite transitions have been quite prominently superceded, so you may need to go into Keynote 3's Preferences and choose to include "obsolete" animations.

I'm not sure I understand either the philosophy of using this terminology nor of bothering to call attention to them this way. Was it a way to differentiate Keynote yet again from Powerpoint?

Apple Developer 1 to Developer 2: "Hey, we're going to keep it simple. Just a handful of special effects and animations we know will each have a wow factor. We don't want end users going Powerpoint-crazy and including every single effect possible like those early days of Desktop Publishing. But if they want to - and who knows why they would 'cos Edward Tufte will come down from the mountain to smite them - the choice is their's.

Developer 2 to Developer 1: "Yeah, we'll tell them: 'Here's a pressie... you can have the old, oh-so-last-year's transitions. Enjoy!'"

So perhaps the idea of offering fewer choices remains an Apple paradigm, in order to keep Keynote simple in its execution, yet cinema-like in its properties with respect to the audience's viewing enjoyment and learning.

Now, a few other observations.

I'm sure the builds and transitions seem slower. I haven't formally timed them and compared like to like with iWork 06. Or perhaps it's a temporal illusion now that Keynote includes a new feature which seems to cause a visuallu-cued delay, called "Ready to Advance Indicator", available in the Preferences->Presenter Display.

I'm familiar with this kind of effect from my Virtual Reality software over on the Windows side of the world. This software includes 30 to 70 second loops of various virtual environments and actions within them. Once the loop starts, the viewer remains in the scene until its logical conclusion (e.g., in the fear of flying environment, the take-off has finished, and we are now in the cruise). All this time, a tiny red dot, perhaps four pixels, appears in the monitor's top right hand corner, invisible to the client, but one which I can see change to green when the loop is complete, and we can move to the next environment.

While it remains red, nothing I do via keyboad or mouse will change what the subject sees. Think of it as a normal spinning beach ball you would usually prefer to avoid.

In the fear of flying module, the choice is to continue flying smoothly, enter turbulence (yeah, I have a cruel streak!) or come back in for a landing. I choose via the keyboard what happens next, and then the cycle of red/green dots starts over for the next loop.

In Keynote 3, the same kind of visual feedback operates when the presentation is being made in dual-screen mode. The audience sees the slide and its builds, while the presenter on his or her Mac sees the same slide, its notes and a new feature "Comments" (which looks like a sticky note). But the presenter, in a continuation of a popular feature introduced in Keynote 2, also see the next slide which features the next build. Not it seems the entire content of the next slide.

So when the next slide has been loaded and is ready to be transited to, the red bar at the top of the presenter's screen changes to green.

I don't know about you, but my preferred way to present, by using narrated slide shows with very large text and sharp photos (Never clip art, and never complete sentences unless it's a direct quote), takes me away from standing behind a lecturn which is where most people stand and prop their laptops or that supplied by the convention.

And I don't want to stand behind a lecturn which features a huge logo of the hotel - it's another version of visual clutter I can do without. And more so for the audience.

I have a sincere problem with lecturns, and this new Presenter display feature with the red and green "cue" symbols acknowledges the problem by allowing me to move away yet see the readiness of Keynote to move to the next build. Looking for a tiny dot, as for my VR would be useless as a solution. The very large and easily seen top bar helps the problem go away.

The problem is that only some presentations are suited to be given behind a lecturn.

For some in positions of alleged and afforded authority, it helps to add gravitas and is befitting their station.

So here's US Vice-President Dick Cheney with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld from an official White House website picture. Do note the Presidential seal on the lecturn and how it immediately adds to the official nature of the speech being given (a swearing in ceremony). That he's not really the President standing behind the President's lecturn is probably quite metaphorical. Although I suppose if the Pres. was on holidays, out of the country or whatever, does the V-P become Acting President, as it works here in Australia for Prime-Minister and State Premiers (=Governors)?

And here are a few rather unflattering views of the US President at a variety of Presidential lecturns. This one here in the Oval Office is one he'd rather forget in his choice of judicial replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor. (Click to slightly enlarge).

And this one, well... a picture tells a thousand words.

The moral here is that standing behind a lecturn even if you're the Pres. can mean you can add gravitas, or you could appear to be obfuscating.

Here is the current White House master of obfuscation behind his lecturn.

So, here's my advice I try to follow whenever I can:

• Wherever possible, get out from behind the lecturn unless you're giving a prepared speech, and not a slide show presentation. That is, if all eyes are intended to be upon you, with no distractions, and you want your audience to hang on your every word - yep, a lecturn is a good thing. Especially if it has a fixed microphone.

• If you are doing a presentation using stories, pictures, graphs, movies and sounds, don't hide behind the lecturn with your laptop adding yet another fence between you and your audience. Get out in front, near the screen and become an implicit part of the show. Get yourself miked up if you have to.

Get out of the way when necessary, and step in front of the screen to take back command.

• Use a remote device to keep away from the Powerbook or iBook (I use my cellphone and Salling Clicker so that is one less chupchik to remember to pack) and use it to control the slides. I'm not sure if I can as yet make it do a B keystroke but it's one of the most useful keys to know about it Keynote.

It takes the screen to black and stops it in its tracks, halting music and movies. Good for when you want to leave your prepared presentation and ad lib, or respond to a penetrating yet important question, and you don't want the Sears catalogue or portrait of the Queen behind you (should they be part of your slideshow). Hit it again, or any key, and your Keynote resumes from where you left it.

Failing your being able to reach the B key or trigger it remotely, you can always make your next slide black if you know you want to make your point verbally without visual clutter. Oh, and if you hit the W key, the screen goes white, a better move if you've been using white backgrounds perhaps or for white projection screens.

To that end, if you're going to mainly use large images and single text words, place each of them on a separate slide, and not get too carried away with single slides with multiple builds. While the latter can pack a wow-factor punch, there is one draw back.

If you want to repeat a part of the slide or simply go back to a section upon audience request, hitting the "home" key (return to previous slide) takes you back to that slide's first build.

Meaning you may have to step through umpteen builds before you get to your single picture, graph, or word. It looks bad. Better to have more slides than builds if you can help it, and it also makes for more effective handouts and pdfs which can't capture your builds.

UPDATE - January 27: Actually Keynote 3 now has new export options which allow you to include all builds on your slides for your pdf-based handouts. Very neat.
Notice the screenshot (above) which displays the options for pdf.

Another thing that looks bad: awful Powerpoints where the speaker leaps out of presentation mode to track back to a previous slide (whereas in Keynote we can use a Command Key sequence if we know the number of the slide) and you see the guts of Powerpoint with all the previous slides, and those yet to come. Whatever sense of presence or immersion that was building is lost to my senses, and it becomes just another stack of ho-hum slides.

I try to avoid that wherever possible, and Keynote 3's use of Exposé to "remove" the presentation and leave the viewable desktop clear (or with whatever little goodie you've stashed behind there before you start to spring upon your unsuspecting audience) is a great addition.

As is the use of hyperlinks within a slide which you can make invisible (but its icon can be seen in Presenter mode, and you can remind yourself with a Comments sticky). This little device can take you out of Keynote, and onto the Web, or anywhere else on your Mac as long as you can derive a URL for it. Clever stuff, first shown in Keynote 2, but improved in Keynote 3.

I've used that feature to create "Hot spots" on slides so that if I know my audience well, I can use an old magician's trick and leap to whatever suggestion they may bring and leave them with the belief I'm a little clairvoyant. Again, using comments you can embed these links which can take you to a designated slide in your show, or to preferred website.

The idea is this: You have a slide with a number of features, say a picture of an aircraft. Perhaps I am discussing its safety features. It could be to a lay audience or a professional one. Rather than taking them around the aircraft parts (e.g. wings, rudder, engines, etc.) I can ask the audience: "Where would you like to start?"

Note the picture above, of an Airbus A380 under construction in France, the first on order for Singapore Ailrines. If you click on it, it will enlarge in a new frame, and you can see four red squares. Inside each red square is the hyperlink arrow icon telling you a hotspot exists at that area on the photo.

If a concensus forms, I just have to click on that area using the mouse (quite invisible to the audience if I'm at the Powerbook or use the Salling Clicker mouse option), and the hyperlink will take me to the Keynote slide featuring that part in greater detail.

Somewhere on that specific slide is another hyperlink taking me back to the original picture of the plane, ready to do it again with another part. These specific slides of course are placed after the final slide so we don't have to go through them again as we progress through the stack. But you are then reliant on the hyperlink feature. (Let me add that Powepoint with its macro features has had something similar for quite some time.)

And be warned. My trials of Keynote 3 suggest hyperlinks still do not work in Presenter mode, only in mirrored mode, which kind of defeats the purpose. Perhaps in Keynote 4...

One more keyboard tip: Go into View->Rehearse Slide Show, a new KN3 feature, to allow you to practise as if you had an external monitor or data projector, and see what happens when you hit the H key. This is the Hide key which will remove Keynote from the second monitor, much in the way Expose works. The Keynote icon in the Dock now gets a green arrow icon attached to it, and you can use and display your Mac to show Safari, or Preview or whatever - the default app shown is the last one used. Hit the Keynote dock icon, or H again, and the show is on the road once more.

So to wrap it all up:

Yay that for some people iWork is not the disappointment in sales in seemed to be. Despite Office having 95% of the market, and no doubt even higher when in comes to presentations (the same survey showed iWork market share for Macs only was under 20%), this is good news for Keynote users.

Why?

Because more than 95% of presenters are still using Powerpoint! And you can take a wild guess how many are using it badly. (Good news if you present, bad news if you attend conferences or presentations).

I don't care about iWork's market share.

I know it has enough of a following that there exists now a cottage industry which supplies templates and special effects of an outstanding quality;
there is an active official discussion group on Apple's discussion boards, and one hosted over on Yahoo;
Apple appears to be embracing Keynote with all the goodies found in its other native apps like iLife,

and above all,

Steve Jobs still appears to be using it (although I think he will pare back his use of 3-D charts. He'll leave that to Bill Gates I think and the next version of Powerpoint 12 and Vista - and that's one person who would do well to speak behind a lecturn so as not to appear as Homer Simpson's boss Mr. Burns when he presents).