It ’s ironic that Steve Jobs , who ’s famously tight - lipped about unannounced Apple products , gives his audiences a sneak peek at Apple ’s plan for Keynote whenever he fork over a presentment . So while Keynote may have been officially a no - show at last January ’s Macworld Expo — along with the eternal sleep of the iWork productivity rooms — eagle - eyed users spotted a handful of new features , including track animation , in the Apple CEO ’s Expo tonic . Those feature article , it was assumed , would show up in the next interpretation ofApple ’s introduction computer software .
Well , that translation has arrived , along with the repose of the just - released iWork ’ 08 . And the successor to Keynote 3 mutant other welcome change that were n’t apparent from Steve Jobs ’ demonstration , intentional and otherwise . From what I ’ve seen so far , Keynote ’ 08 is a victor that fills in many of the gaps in premature versions .
Here ’s a rundown of my favourite addition , after spending some metre with the programme .
Better animation
Keynote always allow you animate graphic and textual matter object , but only on its terms : You could make a R-2 fly onto the covert , but you could n’t move it from the top left to the bottom rightfulness . track animation , one of the features most often requested by Keynote users , lets you specify a motion path for any object on the glide . Here ’s one that animate a Pisces drop into a dolphinfish ’s mouth :
Path brio in Keynote ’ 08
When you go the animation in the slideshow , the object stick with the road that you create . Other actions let you change an object ’s rotation , sizing , or opacity , and you may mix and match activity with build effect .
Picture shows
show a sequence of pictures in Keynote used to think importing the trope onto disjoined slides or using complex build succession to make them appear and disappear in order . Smart Build let you do the same thing in a blink of an eye .
When you make a Smart Build , a resizable proxy appears on the slide , along with a translucent overlay with an empty space for unexampled pictures and thumbnails of the ones that you ’ve already added . Simply drag - and - cut down the images onto the overlayer from the desktop or Media Inspector , select a presentation effect , and you ’re done .
Instant transparency
It ’s always been potential to show objects with inconspicuous backgrounds in Keynote , but converting look-alike to render their background transparent unremarkably entail firing upPhotoshopor another icon editor . The young Instant Alpha feature permit you achieve the same effect justly in Keynote , as long as the foreground object has sharp edges and is n’t the same colour as the background .
As you click and drag on a picture , Keynote selects orbit with similar colors and shades them purple . In this shot of Petra , I ’m getting quick to erase the sky behind the rock-and-roll walls :
The days of launching an image editor program to make icon background transparent are over with Keynote ’ 08 ; simply use the Instant Alpha feature to deplumate off the same trick .
When you ’re happy with the selection , press return , and the purple arena instantly become transparent .
Voice overs
Keynote ’s expanded audio control panel rent you record a narration for your slideshow on your Mac .
Hot FX
No Keynote update would be complete without a few flashy new builds and transitions . My favorites include Flame , an effect that piss object appear in a rampart of fire , and Confetti , a flesh that forgather target from a cloud of small particle .
Eye relief
unexampled options let you expatiate the slide thumbnails in the Navigator and Light Table , so you’re able to last read what ’s on each lantern slide .
Movie options
At last , you do n’t have to resort to cumbersome workarounds to prevent QuickTime pic from play the twinkling they come along on the slide . In Keynote ’ 08 , you’re able to start movies with a shiner click , and you’re able to trim them without QuickTime Pro or another movie editor .
Text correction
The new Auto - Correction surgical incision in the Preferences window allow you specify preference for correcting text . you may severalize Keynote to capitalize the first varsity letter of each sentence , substitute one chronological succession of characters with another as you type , and detect lists mechanically , adding bullets or Book of Numbers that fall out the first line of work in the listing .
Quick formatting
The Format Bar sits just below the toolbar , giving you instantaneous access to frequently - used text and lifelike formatting controls , including font attributes , shadower , colors , reflections , and more . It ’s optional , but I ca n’t imagine why anyone would want to wrick it off .
Fast framing
The young Picture Frame stroke in the Graphic Inspector make it loose to add a frame around any school text or graphic object . The 12 frame styles cast from simple borders to tear edge with cliff shadows .
I ’ll have a full rating of these features in my final review of Keynote ’ 08 .
[ Franklin N. Tessler is a university prof and radiologist who lives in Birmingham , Alabama , and oft writes and lectures about demonstration . ]
