Laying Out Master Slides

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Once you've gotten your objects into Keynote, it's time to start laying out your master slides. You'll be laying out graphics (including background images) and text boxes on the master slides in your presentation file.

There are basically three kinds of master slides in Keynote: Non-bulleted, Bulleted, and Photo Cutout . While the Non-bulleted and Bulleted slides are very similar, you can save yourself a lot of bullet formatting if you think of them as different types. See Chapters 3 and 13 for the details on how to lay out your master slides.

Non-bulleted master slides

The first type of master slide is a Non-bulleted slide. These are all the slides that have body text boxes set to only display text by default, not bulleted text. An example of this is the Title & Subtitle master slide ( Figure 14.10 ). Once you have created one slide of this type it is easy to copy and paste your slide elements to the others, or to copy and paste whole master slides and just make a few adjustments, then rename them. Here are some layout tips:

  • Don't be afraid to move the text boxes around. Just because Apple put them in a certain place doesn't mean they need to stay there on your slides.

  • While the built-in drawing tools aren't very advanced, Keynote does include some basic shapes. Use them when you can, and your theme's file size will be smaller, because the built-in shapes don't require much space. Besides, it's easier to do as much as you can in Keynote, rather than fiddling with other programs.

  • If two master slides you are creating have a similar layout, click on the original slide, then choose Edit > Duplicate and change the copy. Doing this can save you some time over creating the second master slide from scratch.

Figure 14.10. Here's a typical Non-bulleted layout. Notice the body text is centered and does not contain bulleted lines.


Bulleted master slides

Bulleted master slides are similar to non-bulleted slides, except that the body text boxes on them are set up to display bullets automatically. Here are tips for working with bulleted master slides:

  • Don't be afraid to create bulleted slide layouts that aren't exactly like your non-bulleted slides; the contrast can be attractive. Add extra objects behind the bullet boxes to dress up the slide, such as the rounded rectangle in Figure 14.11 .

    Figure 14.11. Placing images behind a bullet list, like the rounded rectangle here, can add a little more life to a bulleted slide. Make sure you don't use colors that make the bulleted list hard to read.


  • Duplicate bulleted slides to save layout time.

  • Use custom bullets to spice up your theme ( Figure 14.12 ). See the "Creating Custom Bullets" section earlier in this chapter.

    Figure 14.12. Using custom bullets is a good way to add value to your theme if you plan to distribute it.


Inserting custom bullets

Once you have imported all your images and constructed your slides, you may want to insert some custom bullets into your bulleted lists.

To insert a custom bullet

1.
Switch to the Text Inspector.

2.
On the master slide, select the bulleted text box containing your bulleted list.

3.
In the Bullets & Numbering tab of the Text Inspector, choose Custom Image from the pop-up menu.

Keynote displays an Open dialog.

4.
Find and select the file with the custom bullet, and click Open.

The bullets change to the custom bullet image you selected and your custom bullet is added to the Image Bullets list in the Inspector ( Figure 14.13 ).

Figure 14.13. Once you've added a custom bullet, it's available in the Image Bullet list for use on other slides.


5.
Make any sizing and spacing adjustments you want to the bullets in the Spacing section of the Text Inspector's Text tab.

Tips

  • The Align field in the Bullets & Numbering tab of the Text Inspector allows you to shift the bullet above or below the baseline of the bulleted text.

  • The Size field in the Bullets & Numbering tab of the Text Inspector will only allow you to scale a bullet image up to a maximum of 500%.

  • Once you've used a custom bullet, it appears in the Image Bullets list in the Text Inspector, so you don't have to choose it again using the Custom Image function (Figure 14.5). Simply select Image Bullet from the pop-up and select your custom bullet from the list.


Multiple Bullet Styles in a List

You can assign different custom bullets and even different fonts and font sizes to each subline of your bullet box by using this process on each bullet instead of the whole bullet box. Just select each bullet line and follow the process described on the preceding page ( Figure 14.14 ).

Figure 14.14. You can set different bullets and font styles for each bullet line by clicking on the line and making your changes in the Text Inspector.



Photo cutouts

The third type of master slide is a photo cutout. This slide consists of an image with a transparent hole cut in it placed above the background of the slide. The user then places an image on top of the cutout layer, and sends it to the back. The image ends up behind the photo cutout, but in front of the background, completing the framed effect of the cutout.

Because of the nature of Apple's photo cutout master slides, you cannot simply change the size of the cutout in Keynote. You can, however, use a program such as Adobe Photoshop to create your own photo cutout backgrounds, then bring them into Keynote. Here are some tips if you choose to use Photoshop to create your photo cutouts. You can adapt these ideas to your preferred photo editor:

  • Photo cutouts created in Photoshop must have fully transparent areas and have no background layer ( Figure 14.15 ).

    Figure 14.15. The checkerboard pattern in the center of this photo cutout represents the transparent area that your photos will show through when you place them behind it.


  • Use the selection tools to select and permanently delete portions of your layers so they are fully transparent. Or, you can use the Save Selection and Layer Mask functions to mask sections of your layers without permanently deleting anything.

  • Take a screen shot of your actual slides in Keynote and bring them into Photoshop to create cutouts. You may need to turn off the Photoshop Color Management settings (choose Photoshop > Color Settings) to make sure you don't get any color shifting ( Figure 14.16 ).

    Figure 14.16. Turning off Photoshop's Color Management settings can keep colors from shifting if you are using screen shots of your slides to build photo cutouts.


  • Always save a copy of your original layered Photoshop file in case you need to edit it.

  • Use the Layer > Merge Visible command to merge all your Photoshop layers into one, while maintaining the transparency.

Once you have created your photo cutout, you need to decide what format to save it in. Here are a few pointers on file types:

  • PNG format files hold transparency really well and compress the image down to a good size for Keynote files. You can use Macromedia Fireworks to create PNG files for your themes ( Figure 14.17 ).

    Figure 14.17. Saving this photo cutout as a PNG file kept the shadow semi-transparent so that it still looks like a shadow when the photo is placed behind it. You can see the shadow at the top and left edges of the cutout.


  • PDF files work well for images with hard-edged photo cutouts because Photoshop's PDF format lets you use JPEG compression to shrink the image's file size.

  • Photoshop PDFs do not work well for images with semi-transparency inside your photo cutout (like a soft shadow). Upon saving and importing into Key note, the semi-transparent areas have a white tint and do not work properly ( Figure 14.18 ). Saving a Photoshop file as a PDF gives you a working PDF file, but it is not the same as a vector PDF file. Photoshop PDF files are bitmapped in nature and will usually not scale up very well.

    Figure 14.18. A photo cutout saved as a PDF adds a white edge to the shadow, messing up the effect.


  • TIFF files can hold transparency properly, but Keynote only supports compressed TIFFs using the LZW scheme, so they aren't as small as other file types. Generally PNG files turn out smaller than TIFF images.

  • PSD (Photoshop) files hold transparency properly, but don't compress as well as other formats. If you aren't planning to distribute your themes, you can actually use your original, fully layered PSD files as your final photo cutout—it will just cause your theme to be larger than normal.

  • It's not a good idea to use JPEG or GIF for photo cutouts. The JPEG specification does not support transparency, so it can't be used as a photo cutout. GIF images only support 256 colors and do not have translucent capabilities, so you are really limited if you decide to use GIF.

As you can see, there are many ways to create photo cutouts. With a little patience and imagination , you can create some stunning photo cutouts to go along with your custom themes ( Figure 14.19 ).

Figure 14.19. You can be pretty creative with photo cutouts once you understand how they work.


Creating Vector-Based Cutouts

You can create vector PDF photo cutouts in any drawing program that supports "punch" or "mask" functions. Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand work well for this type of cutout. Here are a few tips when making vector photo cutouts in Illustrator or FreeHand:

  • Make sure you change your measurement units into pixels.

  • Make your document the same size as your theme (800x600 or 1024x768 pixels).

  • Use the Punch or Mask feature in your program to punch holes in another object. This works well if you create an image the size of the entire slide and use a different-shaped object to punch a hole in it.

  • Any punched holes or blank areas of the document become transparent areas when exported as a PDF. Review your design by moving a large colored object to the back layer of your document to see where the object is visible. This way you won't end up with holes where you don't want them.


Placing photo cutouts

Now that you've created your photo cutouts, you need to place them on your master slides. You can't choose a photo cutout in Keynote as a normal background using the Slide Inspector; instead you place the cutout on the actual master slide and send it to the background.

To place a photo cutout

1.
In the Slide Navigator, select the master slide to which you want to add a photo cutout.

If you are using an existing theme as a starting point, make sure you clear off any old cutout by clicking on the slide background and choosing Arrange > Unlock ( Figure 14.20 ). You must then press Delete to remove the old cutout.

Figure 14.20. You must first unlock a photo cutout before you can delete it from a master slide.


2.
Drag the new photo cutout file from the Finder onto your slide.

or

Choose Insert > Choose, then select your photo cutout from the Open dialog.

Keynote places your photo cutout image over the slide, covering the contents of the slide ( Figure 14.21 ).

Figure 14.21. After you add the photo cutout, you may have to adjust the position of the master slide's text boxes. The text box on this slide was moved from the middle of the slide to below the antique television.


3.
Move your photo cutout so that it fits exactly over the entire slide.

Enter zeros in the Position fields on the Metrics Inspector if you can't get the photo cutout to line up perfectly ( Figure 14.22 ).

Figure 14.22. Use the numeric settings in the Metrics Inspector to make sure your photo cutout is placed correctly over the entire slide.


4.
Choose Arrange > Send to Back and then Arrange > Lock to move your photo cutout to the back of the slide and lock it down.

5.
If it isn't already on, turn on the "Allow objects on slide to layer with master" check box in the Appearance tab of the Master Slide Inspector so the photo cutout works properly ( Figure 14.23 ).

Figure 14.23. Turn on the "Allow objects on slide to layer with master" setting to ensure your photo cutouts work properly.


Tip

  • Once you lock down your photo cutout, you may need to move the text boxes on the master slide to work better with your new cutout. Look at the position of the text boxes in Figure 14.21 for an example.


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Keynote 2 for Mac OS X. Visual QuickStart Guide
Keynote 2 for Mac OS X. Visual QuickStart Guide
ISBN: 321197755
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 179

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