iMac, laptop and slide presentations (Powerpoint)

[chiefsub68]

I'm nearly at that exciting point where I can buy a new Mac to replace my mid 2009 model.

I'm going to go for an iMac but I'm dithering over a Mac laptop ... and I can't afford both.

The main use of the laptop would be for slide presentations (Keynote > Powerpoint).

Does anyone know if it is possible to export a Keynote presentation as a Powerpoint file from an iMac, then run it on a Chromebook, or would it just be better using Google Slides for the entire process?

TIA

Will

 

[Airstrip1Guy]

You can export keynote to ppt but in my experience it is buggy and unreliable. The alternative is to export to pdf which is reliable but you lose all your transitions.

I’ve never used google slides (keynote all the way for me) so can’t comment on your alternative workflow.

guy

 

[theluggage]

Does anyone know if it is possible to export a Keynote presentation as a Powerpoint file from an iMac, then run it on a Chromebook,

I'm sure that would work up to a point, but such exports/translations are rarely glitch-free, so it's only a sensible approach if you have a load of existing Keynote presentations that you want to show without Keynote. Otherwise, create your presentations in the format you're going to present them in!

If you really like Keynote then maybe consider getting an iPad plus VGA and HDMI dongles to present on.

or would it just be better using Google Slides for the entire process?

If you're happy with Google Slides then, yes. In some cases it can avoid doing the laptop shuffle (featuring the try-pressing-F7 rap and the dongle dance dub) between presentations if everybody just shares their Google slides - plus it gets rid of the 'can you send a copy of your slides to my mailbox which rejects messages over 4MB' coda.

Of course, Google will own your soul unto the seventh generation (but they'll have to fight Microsoft and Facebook to claim it).

The converted-to-Powerpoint-version on a memory stick & bring enough various-to-VGA dongles for everybody "plan b" is still mandatory though...

 

[chiefsub68]

You can export keynote to ppt but in my experience it is buggy and unreliable. The alternative is to export to pdf which is reliable but you lose all your transitions.

I’ve never used google slides (keynote all the way for me) so can’t comment on your alternative workflow.

guy

Thanks Airstrip -- noted. Wish I could afford both! It's a shame that Google has cornered the market in cheap laptops. An inexpensive laptop that just dealt with iCloud would be amazing.
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I'm sure that would work up to a point, but such exports/translations are rarely glitch-free, so it's only a sensible approach if you have a load of existing Keynote presentations that you want to show without Keynote. Otherwise, create your presentations in the format you're going to present them in!

If you really like Keynote then maybe consider getting an iPad plus VGA and HDMI dongles to present on.



If you're happy with Google Slides then, yes. In some cases it can avoid doing the laptop shuffle (featuring the try-pressing-F7 rap and the dongle dance dub) between presentations if everybody just shares their Google slides - plus it gets rid of the 'can you send a copy of your slides to my mailbox which rejects messages over 4MB' coda.

Of course, Google will own your soul unto the seventh generation (but they'll have to fight Microsoft and Facebook to claim it).

The converted-to-Powerpoint-version on a memory stick & bring enough various-to-VGA dongles for everybody "plan b" is still mandatory though...

Thanks, Luggage. I'm favouring the iMac/Chromebook route now. I don't have a library of presentations so I'll be starting nearly from scratch.

 

[theluggage]

It's a shame that Google has cornered the market in cheap laptops. An inexpensive laptop that just dealt with iCloud would be amazing.

I think Apple's answer to that would be "get an iPad". Now, I don't personally regard iPad as a viable laptop replacement just yet - my two objections would be lack of 'proper' filesystem access (...but if you're committed to iCloud maybe that doesn't matter) and the uselessness of a touch interface for text editing/wordprocessing (even with a keyboard) - although I'm awaiting iPadOS with interest as Apple seem to be moving it in that direction.

The appeal of Chromebooks however, is that while you can use iCloud-on-the-web to share and collaborate with others, everybody and their dog - whether they're using a Mac, PC, iOS or Android - already has a Google account and access to the Google Apps, so its a lot more 'frictionless'.

 

[ignatius345]

I'm nearly at that exciting point where I can buy a new Mac to replace my mid 2009 model.

I'm going to go for an iMac but I'm dithering over a Mac laptop ... and I can't afford both.

The main use of the laptop would be for slide presentations (Keynote > Powerpoint).

Does anyone know if it is possible to export a Keynote presentation as a Powerpoint file from an iMac, then run it on a Chromebook, or would it just be better using Google Slides for the entire process?

TIA

Will

I've done Keynote to PPT conversion quite extensively for a job where I would build Keynote decks and occasionally have to convert them for viewing on PCs (where PowerPoint is the only real option). Exporting to PPT from Keynote, in my experience, will get you something like 80-90% where you want to be, but be prepared to do some cleanup in PowerPoint after.

Another, much easier, option is to export your Keynote as a PDF and then embed each page of the PDF onto a PPT slide. You can even do this with each stage of Keynote builds, so as to let you "build in" bullet points, etc.

I never found a great way to import PDFs to PPT, though, so I had to do a weird round-trip workflow where I'd 1) export a PDF out of Keynote, 2) open that PDF in this utility which I would use to 3) create another Keynote which was entirely composed of embedded PDF pages. Once you have that it's a simple matter to 4) export that PDF-based Keynote right to PPT. As a finishing step, apply the slide transition "fade" to every slide in PowerPoint with a quick transition time of like .25 second or so. As absurd as whole process is, it takes maybe 5 minutes.

The finished result presents very cleanly. But, of course, any edits have to be done in Keynote and re-exported.