Configuring Preferences for Smooth Playback

Factors such as the quality of your graphics card and monitor (or projector) resolution can greatly affect the appearance of your presentation upon playback. Before running your presentation, you may need to tweak a few options to enhance the playback quality of your presentation.

Freeing Up RAM

When giving a presentation, it is a good idea to close any applications that are open, but not needed. This will make the most of your computer's RAM and reduce playback errors.

Tip

A quick way to cycle among open applications is to press Command-Tab. A panel appears on your screen bearing icons of all the open applications on your system.While you continue to press the Command key, each time you press Tab, a new open application is highlighted. While still holding down the Command key, you can press Q to quit an open application that does not have unsaved documents open. If a document does have open documents that need to be saved, switch to that application and manually close and save your documents.

Scaling Slides Up

Oftentimes the resolution of your slideshow will not match that of your playback device, resulting in a black border around the outside of your presentation because there is not enough slide information to fill the screen. There are two methods for solving this problem: You can fit the presentation to the display only during playback, or you can change the monitor resolution.

To fit the presentation to the display only during playback, follow these steps:

1.	Choose Keynote > Preferences.
2.	Click the Slideshow button.
3.	Select the "Scale slides up to fit display" check box. This option does not change the slide size of your Keynote document. It simply scales the slides up during playback to fit the display. This can result in some loss of image quality due to resampling.
4.	Close the Slideshow Preferences window to apply the change. Note If your presentation is larger than the playback screen, Keynote automatically scales your presentation down regardless of the state of the Scale slides check box.

Scaling Slides Up: Another Approach

Slides may play back slowly if you turn on the "Scale slides up to fit display" option. An alternative is to change the display resolution.

1.	Choose Keynote > Preferences.
2.	Deselect the "Scale slides up to fit display" check box.
3.	Click the Open Display Preferences button.
4.	Choose a smaller screen resolution, ideally one that matches the resolution of your Keynote document.
5.	Close the System Preferences window and return to Keynote.
6.	Close the Slideshow Preferences window.

Preventing Transitions from Being Clipped

If your playback display is smaller than a slide, part of the slide may be clipped during transitions. This happens for both the Cube and Flip transitions. This also happens if you select the "Scale slides up to fit display" check box.

1.	Choose Keynote > Preferences.
2.	Click the Slideshow button.
3.	Select the "Reduce Cube transitions to avoid clipping" check box.
4.	Select the "Reduce Flip transitions to avoid clipping" check box.
5.	Close the Slideshow Preferences window to apply the change.

Changing the Mouse Pointer Behavior

Generally, your mouse pointer shouldn't appear onscreen during a presentation, except when you're clicking a hyperlink or controlling a movie. In Keynote 3, you can set preferences so that the pointer appears only on slides that contain hyperlinks or only when the mouse is moved.

1.	Choose Keynote > Preferences.
2.	Click the Slideshow button.
3.	Choose one of the Show pointer options. Show pointer only on slides with hyperlinks or movies: This is a good option if you are using a mouse to advance your slides and you don't want to accidentally activate the cursor. Show pointer when the mouse moves: This option give you maximum control and keeps the mouse cursor visible.
4.	Close the Slideshow Preferences window to apply the change. Tip While presenting a slideshow, you can show or hide the pointer by pressing the C key.

Using Exposé and Dashboard During a Presentation

Mac OS X offers Exposé, which you can use to quickly view all open windows, and Dashboard, which provides widgets that you can customize for specialty tasks and desktop activities. While both are very useful, they can have a negative impact on the playback quality of your presentation, so for best results, you'll want them turned off.

1.	Choose Keynote > Preferences.
2.	Click the Slideshow button.
3.	Make sure that the "Allow Exposé, Dashboard and others to use screen" check box is not selected.
4.	Close the Slideshow Preferences window to apply the change.