Any Keynote Professionals using Yosemite?

[kryptticAZ]

I have a number of presentations in Keynote 5.3 (iWork 09) format. I've already tried the new version of Keynote and it is inferior and incompatible with my files.

Have any of you installed Yosemite and tried the older version of Keynote on it? I'm particularly interested to hear from power users that utilize multimedia, custom builds, transitions, etc.

I'm ready to make the jump to Yosemite, but not if all my presentations are going to be compromised.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[DoctorFedora]

I've been basically fine with Keynote on Yosemite thus far, for what it's worth.

 

[kryptticAZ]

I've been basically fine with Keynote on Yosemite thus far, for what it's worth.

Are you using the older Keynote (5.3)?

 

[drew627]

Yeah, the old version still works on Yosemite. My friend's been using it since DP 7 and he's had no problems.

 

[evangw]

Is this still the case with the GM? Like the OP I have a bunch of critical presentations that no longer work in Keynote 6. I'm hoping to hold out until Keynote 7 brings back some of the features 6 removed like vector graphics support... possibly in vain hope.

 

[kryptticAZ]

Is this still the case with the GM? Like the OP I have a bunch of critical presentations that no longer work in Keynote 6. I'm hoping to hold out until Keynote 7 brings back some of the features 6 removed like vector graphics support... possibly in vain hope.

I'm about to jump in too. If my presentations don't work, I'm in really bad shape...

 

[T-Will]

Can you export your presentations in a different format like Powerpoint in case there is a problem with the latest Keynote? Then at least you'd have access to view them.

 

[evangw]

Can you export your presentations in a different format like Powerpoint in case there is a problem with the latest Keynote? Then at least you'd have access to view them.

This doesn't really fix the problem. Old keynote presentations can be opened in new Keynote, the problem is that as soon as you open (not even save -- since Keynote removed the save) it destroys the old copy of your file which can then no longer be opened in Keynote 5.x.

Keynote 6.0 (I haven't tried the newer versions) removed the ability to have full-resolution vector graphics in, so now I can no longer e.g. keep graphs organized in keynote and pull them out for posters (or whatever) later on.

Similarly exporting to PowerPoint doesn't work right, as I use a fair number of very quick animations (~0.1 second dissolves), and PowerPoint doesn't support animations < 0.5 s (and PPT animations look -terrible-). I could change these to just "appear" in powerpoint, but quick dissolve looks much better than appear. Similarly, PowerPoint also does a lousy job handling vector graphics.

I know I'll have to change at some point and accept the future -- or switch to LaTex or something else -- but now is not the time. However I'd be happy to update to Yosemite but for this one feature. If anyone can confirm/deny that 5.3 works on Yosemite, that'd be great.

 

[kryptticAZ]

OK, I made the plunge to Yosemite. My Keynote presentations seem to be working fine. I have a lot of animations, multimedia, etc. and nothing seems to be broken. To reiterate, I am using the older version of Keynote from iWork '09.

However, I encourage everyone else to test out their stuff and post back here with their findings.

 

[evangw]

I also updated one of my computers to Yosemite to check. Keynote 5.3 continues to work fine, and actually I copied the presentation and tried it in Keynote 6.5 and everything works fine there too. Apparently Keynote now handles vector images without forced rasterization.

A few things worked slightly differently, but all in all my presentations were fine. I might start moving to the new Keynote from now on.

Keynote also no longer auto-destroies presentations made in 5.x when simply opening in 6.5 too and it gives you warnings about what it changed to make your 5.x presentation compatible with 6.x (e.g. AVIs no longer seem to be supported, but it auto-converts to H.264).

Krypttic, I suggest giving 6.5 a try (new to 10.10), it might fix the issues that made 6.0 unusable for you as well.


All around I'm very pleased with 10.10. It's the best OS upgrade for me since 10.6 was. My old (2009) iMac also seems to run more smoothly than 10.9 ever did... so back on par with 10.8. I did not do a clean system upgrade.

 

[kryptticAZ]

I also updated one of my computers to Yosemite to check. Keynote 5.3 continues to work fine, and actually I copied the presentation and tried it in Keynote 6.5 and everything works fine there too. Apparently Keynote now handles vector images without forced rasterization.

A few things worked slightly differently, but all in all my presentations were fine. I might start moving to the new Keynote from now on.

Keynote also no longer auto-destroies presentations made in 5.x when simply opening in 6.5 too and it gives you warnings about what it changed to make your 5.x presentation compatible with 6.x (e.g. AVIs no longer seem to be supported, but it auto-converts to H.264).

Krypttic, I suggest giving 6.5 a try (new to 10.10), it might fix the issues that made 6.0 unusable for you as well.


All around I'm very pleased with 10.10. It's the best OS upgrade for me since 10.6 was. My old (2009) iMac also seems to run more smoothly than 10.9 ever did... so back on par with 10.8. I did not do a clean system upgrade.

Do you have any issues with the older version and newer version of Keynote living on the same computer? When I tried this previously, every presentation tried to open in the new version, no matter what I changed "open with" to in the Get Info window. And this, of course, ruined the format of my old presentations so they wouldn't even open in 5.3 anymore.

Is the floating toolbar still absent on 6.5? Does the new version handle animations like these: http://www.ipresentee.com/keynote-animations/ and these: http://graphicnode.com/products/for-iwork/keynote-quartet/animations-samples/ without putting a big white box around them?

I'm also concerned about reports that the new version changes the size of image files when you resize them--meaning you can't copy them between presentations or resize later without losing quality.

 

[evangw]

Do you have any issues with the older version and newer version of Keynote living on the same computer? When I tried this previously, every presentation tried to open in the new version, no matter what I changed "open with" to in the Get Info window. And this, of course, ruined the format of my old presentations so they wouldn't even open in 5.3 anymore.

Is the floating toolbar still absent on 6.5? Does the new version handle animations like these: http://www.ipresentee.com/keynote-animations/ and these: http://graphicnode.com/products/for-iwork/keynote-quartet/animations-samples/ without putting a big white box around them?

I'm also concerned about reports that the new version changes the size of image files when you resize them--meaning you can't copy them between presentations or resize later without losing quality.

1) Opening with 5.3: Yes this is still "broken" in Yosemite and 6.5, even if you Get Info and Change All. The only way to fix this (that I have found) is to actually block Keynote 6.5 completely -- if you sudo chmod 000 [path to keynote.app] in terminal, then presentations will return to opening in 5.3. Unfortunately there's no better way to do this -- that I have found. Zipping or deleting Keynote 6.5 takes much longer than simply chmodding it back to 755 when you want to use it again.

2) Floating toolbar is still absent. I find the sidebar OK now and it's basically the same -- I don't remember if it's changed or if I just hate it less than when I tried 6.0.

3) I tried the stapler/paper animation (.MOV) and it worked fine. It converted it to some other format when I dragged and dropped it in, but plays normally and there's no "white box" around it.

The last point about resizing images and losing quality was why 6.0 was impossible for me and why I stayed on 5.3. This quality destruction is no longer the case, at least if the original input was a vector graphic image. I frequently kept large vector graphics with basically illegible text in presentations, but these could be "blown up" if someone wanted to see a very specific sample name. This now works fine for me. I did not check with raster graphics, although I do notice that Keynote does funky things with my vector graphics too-- they will be blurry as I size them up, but then will "sharpen" after a moment. In 5.3 they would be sharp without any delay. In any case it does sharpen fine even when I blow it up to outrageous proportions, so the original vector information is still definitely retained.

Anyway, it may be worth a shot to try it again since at some point I'm sure Keynote 5.3 will be killed off in some system update and you'll have to upgrade anyway -- or keep a computer limping along on system 10.10.4 (or whatever) for the rest of your career.


I sudo chmod'ed Keynote 6.5 back into oblivion but porting all my presentations is now at least on the "to do" list rather than the "to avoid at all costs" list.

 

[evangw]

Sorry, I take it back -- it handles vector graphics MUCH better than 6.0, but actually it still damages them.

For example, in Keynote 5.3, you can copy an image from Illustrator into Keynote, and then later you can copy the image back out of Keynote into Illustrator, and it will remain with all of its objects editable and it will work just fine. Thus you can use Keynote to store original vector graphics and organize them nicely.

Unfortunately, Keynote 6.5 lets you copy vector graphics in and resize them and they work just fine in Keynote, BUT if you try to copy it back into Illustrator, it destroys all the text and turns it into garbage *(#@!3.1241/2r1r1038r5 like that.

This is better than Keynote 6.0, which would take vector graphics and immediately rasterize them, thus rendering them pointless even for Keynote, so at least they're halfway to re-implementing a feature that worked perfectly in earlier versions of Keynote, and which even PowerPoint supports. Maybe ACDSee will release a mac version of Canvas again some day before the heat death of the universe and I can move back to an alternative graphics program...

 

[Paul Brians]

Solution to updating old Keynote files

Here's the solution offered by a member of TidBits-Talk. It worked for me:

I discovered that after installing Yosemite, my old Keynote 4.0.4 files were not operating properly, and that when I tried them on a friend's computer who had upgraded to Keynote 6.5, the new version could not even open the old files.

After going through three levels of Apple support, I confirmed that only solution is to use the old program to export the old files as .ppt documents, then reimport them into Keynote 6.5.

That's not the only solution or the best one. Did you never have Keynote 5 (aka Keynote '09)? I'm not sure why Apple support wouldn't mention it. If you open then Save a Keynote 4 (aka Keynote '08) presentation in Keynote 5, you'll get a dialog that says "The document was created using a previous version of Keynote. To maintain the ability to open the document with earlier versions, click Save As and choose an application version." In this case you would not use the Save As button so the saved file will be converted to a format compatible with Keynote 5 and newer (i.e. Keynote 6). Saving updates the file you opened, it doesn't create a new one, so if you want to keep a copy in the original Keynote 4 format, make one before opening and saving in Keynote 5.

Keynote 5 ('09) still works on OS X Yosemite and you can have both it and the current version of Keynote on the same machine. In fact, if you double-click a Keynote file Keynote 6 can't open, it will say so and ask if you want to open the file in "Keynote '09" to save it. If you never bought Keynote 5 through the Mac App Store, you can't get it from there now. However, you can still buy boxed copies of iWork '09, which includes Keynote 5, online http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014X2UAK. You can also find online a free 30-day trial for iWork '09. If you just want to methodically convert all your Keynote 4 files to the newer format then switch to the current Keynote 6, the trial should be sufficient. Apple no longer hosts the downloadable trial, since it's no longer a current product, so you have to feel comfortable downloading from the site you find. Here's one example: http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Business/Apple-iWork-06.shtml#download