Importing from Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is the most widely used word processor on the Mac, and indeed in the world. Naturally, at some point you're going to want to use information that you already have in Word in your Keynote presentations. While there are a number of ways you can use Word documents in Keynote, I'm going to focus on using tables and the WordArt feature.

Of course, if all you want to do is move text from Word into Keynote, you can simply copy the text in Word, and paste it into Keynote. The text will appear in a new free text box on the Slide Canvas in the same size font as it was in Word, which you will most likely have to resize in Keynote ( Figure 11.7 ).

Figure 11.7. This text, pasted from Microsoft Word, appeared in a free text box using 12-point Times, far too small for a slide. I changed the font to a larger size and changed the font face.

Using Word tables

If you want to import data from tables that you have in Word documents, you can do so. The obvious reason to do this is so that you don't have to waste time retyping information from Word into Keynote. Another reason is to use some of the table capabilities in Word that Keynote lacks. For example, you can do arithmetical calculations in Word tables. You can move the contents of the table, calculations and all, into a Keynote table.

To import Word tables

1.	In the Word document, select the contents of a table that you want to move to Keynote ( Figure 11.8 ). Figure 11.8. Begin importing the contents of a Word table by selecting the content that you want to bring into Keynote.
2.	Choose Edit > Copy, or press .
3.	Switch to Keynote.
4.	Display the slide where you want the copied content.
5.	Click the Table button on Keynote's toolbar. The default table appears, with three rows and three columns .
6.	Using the commands in the Format > Table menu, adjust the number of rows and columns in the Keynote table to match the number of rows and columns in the Word table.
7.	Select all the cells in the table.
8.	Choose Edit > Paste, or press . The contents of the Word table are pasted into the cells in the Keynote table ( Figure 11.9 ). Figure 11.9. After you paste the Word table data into a Keynote table, the text appears too small to be readable by an audience.

Tips

• If the Keynote table has fewer rows and columns than the Word table, any excess data from Word will be discarded when you paste into Keynote.

• You can also drag and drop the contents from the Word table into the Keynote table.

• Unfortunately, when you transfer table data, any formatting you had in Word will be lost. You will need to restyle the text in Keynote ( Figure 11.10 ).

  Figure 11.10. After restyling, the copied table text is appropriate for use on a slide.

  

  
  

Using WordArt in Keynote

WordArt is a feature in Word that allows you to take text and turn it into an image that is formatted in graphically interesting ways ( Figure 11.11 ). You can use WordArt images as headlines for slides, or as additional graphic touches anywhere on the Slide Canvas.

Figure 11.11. WordArt can transform text into graphically interesting images.

WordArt comes in many styles, but only some of them will work well in Keynote. In general, the WordArt styles that work better are the simpler ones that have few, if any, 3-D effects. Some styles will paste into Keynote slightly misdrawn, or with a colored background that renders it useless ( Figure 11.12 ). The best way to find out what styles will and won't work well is just to try them.

Figure 11.12. Some styles of WordArt work fine in Keynote, but other styles do not. These four styles all look fine in Word (left), but the second and fourth examples are misdrawn when they get to Keynote (right).

Tip

• There's a workaround for the WordArt styles that don't copy and paste well. In Word, create the WordArt image, then scale it to the approximate size you'll want it to be in Keynote. Next, Control-click (right click if you have a mouse with multiple buttons ) on the WordArt image and choose Save as Picture from the resulting shortcut menu. You'll get a Save dialog box. From the Format pop-up menu in the dialog, choose PNG (Portable Network Graphic), then click Save. Drag the resulting PNG file from the Finder into your Keynote slide. You won't be able to scale the image up very much in Keynote without it looking pixilated, but otherwise , it looks pretty good.

To create and import WordArt

1.	Create a blank Word document.
2.	Choose Insert > Picture > WordArt. The WordArt Gallery dialog appears ( Figure 11.13 ). Figure 11.13. Begin creating WordArt by choosing a style from the WordArt Gallery.
3.	Click one of the styles to select it, then click OK. The Edit WordArt Text dialog appears ( Figure 11.14 ). Figure 11.14. Enter the text for the WordArt in the Edit WordArt Text dialog.
4.	In the Edit WordArt Text dialog, enter your text and, optionally , change the font, font size, and style the text as bold or italic.
5.	Click OK. The WordArt image appears in your Word document. The image is already selected.
6.	Choose Edit > Copy, or press .
7.	Switch to Keynote.
8.	In the Slide Navigator, select the destination slide.
9.	Choose Edit > Paste, or press . The WordArt image appears on your Keynote slide.
10.	The WordArt image will probably appear too small and will need to be resized to fit properly on the slide ( Figure 11.15 ). Figure 11.15. After resizing, the WordArt adds a nice flair to your slide.

Tip

• WordArt images can be manipulated in many, but not all, of the ways that you would other images in Keynote. You can scale, flip, rotate, add shadows, and adjust the opacity of WordArt in Keynote, but you can't change the color fill. You can change the stroke color and style, but all that will be affected will be a box around the image, not the edges of the letters in the image, which makes this fairly useless. For more information on the types of adjustments you can make to graphics, see Chapter 5.