| Keynote 4: Leapfrogging Powerpoint 12 with creativity-eliciting features, or more me-too effects? | | Date Created: 03 Jan, 2007, 09:50 PM |
 Four years ago less one week, Steve Jobs strode the stage at Macworld in San Francisco and threw down the gauntlet to Microsoft.
The five year agreement between Apple and Microsoft, announced at Macworld in Boston in 1997, had ended, and it was time for Apple to assert itself as a company with innovation in its corporate DNA.
It had already buried OS 9 as the default startup system, and in 2003, it taunted Microsoft with a new browser, Safari, based on Open Source architecture, which pre-dated Firefox. Both Safari and Firefox continue to eat into Internet Explorer's dominance. It further taunted Microsoft by releasing a competitor to Powerpoint called Keynote. Jobs had been using it for a number of years, and it was now mature enough to release as a stand alone application, especially now that the agreement with Microsoft had expired.
Keynote instantly appealed to those who appreciated ease of use and aesthetics. Each year Apple updated it, so that we are now at version 3. There was a time in 2004-5 when keen Keynote users thought Apple had abandoned it, with a long period of only bug fixes.
Keen viewers also learnt of Apple's intention to update Keynote via special media events, showing Apple products such as new iPods or iTunes' updates, where Steve Jobs would demonstrate the next iteration of Keynote in action.
Indeed, if you think about it, as much as Apple has maintained a well-earnt reputation for playing its cards close to its chest when updating or introducing new products, in Keynote it seems to be the only product where Jobs has no qualms about showing new apps. before their official release.
At last year's WWDC, Jobs himself said it was uncharacteristic for Apple to show new products before they were officially released when he discussed iTV. |
For a few years now, I have been blogging Keynote being previewed and there is now a keen-eyed community who look at Jobs' keynotes not just for announcements of new products, but for sneak previews of the next version of Keynote.
Next week at Macworld, there is very little doubt Keynote 4 will be released as part of an updated iWork 07. What is less known, apart from Pages also being updated, is whether iWork will become a true productivity suite, inclusive of database and spreadsheet applications.
The new Office 12 for Vista has been released, with Powerpoint playing catchup with mindless 3D effects, but some important feaures which gives the user superior yet complex ability to manipulate slide events.
Now, judging from already seen effects and transitions, we know some of the new features in Keynote 4.
No doubt there will be new templates of a high quality, to compete with the growing number of templates available from third party creators. There will be new slide transitions, and character movements. New, but not spectacular additions.
But what do experienced Keynote users want? We know one new effect will be present. That's the ability to move objects around a slide, rather than just bring it on or move it off a slide.
Tracing a pathway on a slide will be a very important addition, ramping up the professional look and feel of Keynote. How it's implemented is another story. Will it be easy to program or difficult? How will timings be achieved, so that one can control the pace of movement as well as direction? Will multiple objects be moveable simultaneously?
Let's cover things not yet seen but hoped for, as discussed for some time now by expert users of Keynote in various forums devoted to Keynote.
1. Accurate timing. There are times when I bring on objects such as pictures or words, and want to time the playing of a sound or music piece. It's doable now, but pretty much hit'n'miss. I'd prefer an iMovie or Garageband means of adjusting each slide's acitivites so that I can more precisely pair up activities on each slide.
2. Music that plays througout the entire slide show, or at least across several slides. To the same extent, I want a way to control the volume and fade-in/fade-out properties of sound files. After all, photos now have fairly sophisticated manipulation within Keynote, allowing one to do much editing without reference to another program like iPhoto or GraphicConverter.
3. Built-in graphics allowing me to draw lines and shapes, in addition to the ones already present. I don't want to have to open up another app. like say Omnigraffle or Adobe Illustrator to draw curves and then import them. Let me do it directly in Keynote. And let me mask using various shapes rather than have to laboriously use the Bezier curve device.
At the same time, I want to be able to better control images I import. Note the book at the top left of the blog. This is Daniel Pink's new book, A Whole New Mind. Notice how I've used Photoshop to skew or distort the book so that rather than a rectangular image, it presents as a rhomboid, inviting your eyes to move from the book cover, positioned left, to the words on the right which I bring in one at a time as I discuss Pink's essential ideas.
4. Quicktime controls. Like my desire for better sound control, let me have good control over movies. Let me say skip certain intro parts of a movie so that it starts when I want it to. Don't make me copy the file into Quicktime Pro then edit it there, and import it into Keynote. But do let me fade out a movie file using some of the transitions available to me in iMovie. And I suppose it's too much to ask for the ability to play copyright materials from professional DVDs or iTunes Movie downloads I purchased... yes, so back to underground activities (sigh).
5. Importing Quicktime VR files. And then let me manipulate them. 'Nuff said.
6. I want a Master file of Keynote slides much as exists for pictures in iPhoto in its libraries or filmrolls. More and more I am finding I am doing similar but not the same presentations for different but overlapping audiences, so I am using the same slides in different presentations. The entire stack will be different, but there will be plenty of repeat slides as well as new or novel ones.
This would be a Master list of slides, with their transitions intact, which I can also access with a hotkey during a presentation - hidden from the audience of course in presentation mode - so that I can bring it on screen at whim. This will give me extra flexibility and break out of the linear slavery so tiring in Powerpoint.
Better still, let me tag it Spotlight-style so I can search and locate the appropriate slide quickly and surreptitiously. There is a hint of this in Keynote 3's ability to layout a "light table" effect in individual Keynote files, but I want something to store and tag all my slides, such that I can preview them too, since I place a high emphasis on slide creation and delivery.
7. Podcasting abilities. Already available to me with Profcast, I am wondering if that standalone app. can be improved upon with some built-in features in Keynote. Exporting directly to iPod format is a given. I'm guessing the author of Profcast, so far a unique product neatly filling an important niche, is watching very closely for Keynote 4, and working through a list of strategic moves if Keynote 4's podcast tools fall short. |
Now of course at this time, Keynote 4 is locked down and being boxed somewhere along with other iWork apps.
But I don't think the list is above exhaustive and now's as good a time as any to develop a wish list. Improvements have been discussed in various lists and forums for years now amongst very experienced Keynote users whose daily experiences with Keynote could better inform the developers of uses they've perhaps not yet considered.
In other words, I'd like to see a better dialogue occur between Apple and its endusers, not to increase the plague of featuritis which dominates Microsoft's products in an outdated and outmoded "all things to all people" philosophy, but to unleash the creativite potential of all endusers - that's my preferred philosophy because I've seen it in action. First with myself, and then with others I've taught to whom I've offered workshops on presentation skills.
Finally, let's hope Steve lays off the lame 3D effects he showed in thankfully-quick passing last year. Even he seemed embarassed to show them, because it's just not his style. There's enough evidence out there that, except in very few cases, 3D illustrations distort rather than clarify data, adding to the chartjunk that has superficial appeal but in fact is useless and obfuscating.
I'm hoping that the additions to Keynote keep the app. as one that primarily elicits creativity in its users, by keeping it simple yet powerful, unleashing new creative abilities.
We'll know in a week. Any thoughts as to what you'd like to see in Keynote 4? And to get the conversation moving along, please add your remarks to the DIGG file I have opened. |
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