| A good way to save yourself lots of time in creating your theme is to plan ahead. If you jump into theme building without a plan, it might take a lot longer than you anticipate. There are several questions you should ask yourself before you begin building a new theme. Among them: -
What kind of background do you want (dark, light, gradient, photographic)? -
What kind of "dressing" do you want for your slides? Do you want boxes and shapes behind the titles, special logos or images added to the slides, or just backgrounds and text? -
What color scheme will you use? You'll need to decide on the colors for all of the elements in your theme. -
What type of graphics do you want to use (vector-based PDF images, bitmapped photos, or a combination of both)? -
What fonts do you want to use for the text in your theme? -
What size will your theme be? Most themes come in two sizes, 800x600 pixels and 1024x768 pixels. Don't worry if you think you might choose the wrong size —Keynote 2 can resize your presentations after they have been created.  Tips -
Using fonts that are provided with Mac OS X or Keynote 2 will ensure that your theme will look the way that you intend on any Mac you use to play your presentation. -
If you plan to distribute your theme and you wish to include a special font with it, make sure you get permission from the font creator to distribute it, or include a URL with your theme so others can find the font easily.
| Many of the themes that Apple includes with Keynote have two different backgrounds, one dark and one light. Usually the Title and Photo Cutout slides are darker or have a special texture or background to them. The inner, or bulleted slides, have a lighter or even solid white background. Don't feel pressured into conforming to Apple's standard theme design, but take some lessons from it. You can experiment with different styles and techniques as you build your themes, but don't forget what Keynote was built for—giving presentations. You can create a beautiful masterpiece of design and art, but if the message gets cluttered up in a mess of colors and fluff, no one will take the time to read the content on your slides. One good way to get inspiration for theme creation is to purchase a design magazine from your local bookseller. Look at the different printed pieces and get a sense of color and shape. Borrow ideas from printed pieces and see if they fit into your theme, but try not to lose sight of the final goal—presenting your message in a clear, clean, and concise manner. |
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