Keynote Review

We continue our tour through Apple's iWork suite on the iPad with Keynote, Apple's own presentation software that goes head-to-head with Microsoft's PowerPoint. Being a mobile version using a touch interface, everything from the Mac version should not be expected, but this is one heck of an app that should fulfill any presentation needs you have while on the go.

There are many Macoholics out there who swear by Keynote; the visual finesse given to the software is full of little Apple touches that make it more inviting than the more cold and business-minded PowerPoint. Keynote features excellent transitions, animations, and easy usability that make it a clear winner for those who are more artistically minded. Keynote for iPad delivers in the same way (including 12 templates designed by Apple), and in many respects, could be considered even better thanks to the new touch navigation that really puts the creation process at your fingertips.

Opening up the app, you'll realize right away that Keynote is locked to a horizontal position. This may not be ideal for everyone, but it's a necessary evil; this kind of app simply wouldn't look right if vertical. The problem is that in doing so it negates the simultaneous use of Apple's keyboard dock. A wireless keyboard, however, would work perfectly. The virtual keyboard will probably suffice for most presentations, though, considering they are generally not that text-heavy.

That drawback aside, the interface is beautiful and immediately familiar. Your slide list is presented in a thin column on the left, with the individual slides to be edited taking up the lion's share of the screen. That left-hand column offers more functionality than just scrolling to view more slides. From here, you can add new slides, drag slides around to reorder (a great addition), add slide transitions, and more.

Editing slides is similarly a breeze. There's a graphical menu along the top of the app which provides you with access to pictures, tables, charts, and shapes; tools such as spell check and edge guides; and the means to instigate slide transitions. You can also play your presentation back at any time to see how it's coming together.

Once in the slide itself, another option appears up top that allows you to alter your text properties, arrange your various text boxes or graphics, and so forth. Text and images are easily moved about the screen, and you can make them larger, smaller, or rotate them via simple pinches and corner drags. Add borders, crop an image, or introduce effects and animations with ease. It's all incredibly seamless, so much so that you could figure out most features after playing around with it for a half-hour, no experience required.

You can import Keynote or PowerPoint files that you've loaded from your computer onto the iPad, but you cannot export to PowerPoint--only Keynote or PDF. This is an odd decision that affects all of the iWork apps, made more perplexing because you can export to Microsoft file formats on the Mac versions. You can send them to yourself via e-mail to change the format on a computer, if you desire, but this makes the process cumbersome. You can also unload them to iWork.com for sharing purposes.

Speaking of sharing, this is one of the one of the few apps designed to work well with video out to a projector or TV screen.

Is Keynote for iPad as robust as its computer equivalent? Not quite. However, for mobile presentation software, it has no rival. We imagine it will fulfill most any need you have in this regard, and its our clear favorite of all of the iWork suite. For a mere $9.99, it will be an excellent purchase for anyone who regularly creates presentations.