Exploring the Keynote Workspace

The Keynote workspace is made up of one main window and a variety of tool windows that you can show or hide ( Figure 1.6 ). Let's look at the pieces one by one.

Figure 1.6. The Keynote workspace has one main document window, and several floating windows. Not shown in this picture are the floating Colors, Media, and Fonts windows.

The Slide Canvas

This is the main Keynote document window; it's where you will edit your slides and place graphics, tables, and charts . You can zoom into (or out of) the action with the Zoom pop-up menu at the lower-left corner of the Slide Canvas window ( Figure 1.7 ).

Figure 1.7. Select the magnification of the slide with the Zoom pop-up menu in the Slide Canvas.

Tip

• You can also zoom in or out on a slide by choosing View > Zoom > Zoom In or View > Zoom > Zoom Out. If you prefer keyboard shortcuts, you can use to zoom in, and to zoom out.

The Slide Navigator

The Slide Navigator is the pane at the left edge of the document window. It actually does triple duty, showing three different aspects of your presentation. In Navigator View , it shows thumbnails of your slides.

You can organize and group slides in this view by dragging slide thumbnails to the right so they are indented in the list, as shown in Figure 1.8 . The parent slide of a group of indented slides has a disclosure triangle; clicking the triangle allows you to hide or show the indented slides. This makes it easier to organize the presentation, especially with longer shows. You can also drag the parent slide to another place in the presentation, and the indented slides move along with it.

Figure 1.8. You can group and organize slides in the Slide Navigator.

Another thing you can do in Navigator View is skip slides; skipped slides won't appear when you give the presentation, and will "collapse" in Navigator View, appearing as a line.

The second function of the Slide Navigator is Outline View ; in this view the content of your slides appears ( Figure 1.9 ). You can create, write, edit, and rearrange your slides and their content in this view. In fact, that's one of the best ways to create a presentation; more on that in Chapter 2.

Figure 1.9. Use the Outline View to get an overview of the content of your presentation.

The Slide Navigator can also show you the master slides associated with the presentation's theme; in this view, the Slide Navigator is split into two panes, with the top pane showing the master slides and the bottom pane your presentation's slides ( Figure 1.10 ). You'll find more information about master slides in Chapter 3.

Figure 1.10. When you view master slides, the Slide Navigator splits into two panes, showing both the master slides and your presentation slides.

The Notes field

The Notes field ( Figure 1.11 ) is where you can enter speaker notes that help you give the presentation; these won't appear on the presentation screen, but they can be viewed on a second display. For example, if you are presenting using a PowerBook and a projector, the notes can appear on the PowerBook's screen while the presentation runs on the projector.

Figure 1.11. You enter your speaker notes in the Notes field.

If you prefer, you can print speaker notes. See Chapter 12 for more information about printing your presentation, including speaker notes.

The Toolbar

Like most programs, Keynote has a toolbar that provides the tools you need to create, edit, and play presentations ( Figure 1.12 ). You can change the buttons in the toolbar to suit the way you work; see "Customizing the Toolbar," later in this chapter.

Figure 1.12. With the Keynote Toolbar you get access to most of the tools that you need to create, edit, and play presentations.

The Inspector

The Inspector window ( Figure 1.13 ) is actually ten windows in one; it has a toolbar that lets you change between its ten panes:

• Document Inspector allows you to change settings that affect the entire presentation; change the slide size ; and set a soundtrack for the presentation.

• Slide Inspector allows you to change the master slide associated with the current slide; apply slide backgrounds; and apply animated transitions between slides.

• Build Inspector controls the animated content on individual slides. For example, you use this Inspector to make graphics or bulleted text appear on your slide, and to animate items on the slide.

• Text Inspector gives you control over the color , alignment, and spacing of slide text, and lets you set bullet types and numbered lists.

• Graphic Inspector allows you to adjust the fill, stroke, shadow, and opacity of graphic elements on a slide or slide master.

• Metrics Inspector allows you to adjust the size, position, and angle of slide elements.

• Table Inspector allows you to adjust table rows, columns , alignment, background, and borders.

• Chart Inspector lets you change chart types and presentation formats.

• Hyperlink Inspector allows you to li

• Hyperlink Inspector allows you to link text or graphics to other slides, Web pages, or other Keynote files.

• QuickTime Inspector gives you control over dynamic media, such as QuickTime and Flash movies, animated GIFs, and music.

Figure 1.13. The Inspector window gives you ten different sets of controls to modify your presentation.

Tips

• You're not limited to just one Inspector window; you can have multiple Inspector windows on the screen by choosing View > New Inspector. If you have the screen real estate, it's a good way to keep all the tools that you want near at hand.

• You'll see how to use each of the above Inspectors as you work through the book.

The Colors window

Like the Inspector window, the Colors window ( Figure 1.14 ) has several modes; it gives you five different ways to choose colors: Color Wheel, Color Sliders, Color Palettes, Image Palettes, and Crayons.

Figure 1.14. Keynote gives you five different ways to choose colors. Here are the Color Wheel and Crayons choices.

The Fonts window

The Fonts window allows you to choose the font family, the typeface, and the size for any selected type ( Figure 1.15 ).

Figure 1.15. The Fonts window can show you a preview of your font selection.

Tip

• Be sure to check out the Extras pop-up menu at the bottom of the Fonts window. It allows you to show a preview area so you can see fonts before you apply them to your own text. It lets you change the way that you display font sizes. It even lets you set some fonts as favorites so that you don't always have to scroll through the dozens of fonts included with Mac OS X. See Chapter 4 for more information about using the Fonts window.

The Media window

The Media window, new in Keynote 2, allows you to easily integrate pictures from your iPhoto library; music and sounds from your iTunes library; and QuickTime movies from your Movies folder ( Figure 1.16 ). See Chapter 6 for more about using the Media window.

Figure 1.16. The Media window makes it easy to add pictures, sounds and music, or movies to your presentation.