iPad Pro Keynote on the iPad Pro vs Mac

[appleofmyibook]

Thinking of going all in with just using my iPad Pro as my daily device. About 50-60% of what I do is to create presentations and then present them back to people. I’ve used Keynote on the iPad Pro and from what I could see, it does most of what I basically need it to do so far.

I am becoming a lot more advanced with Keynote on the Mac and I’m really quick on it. I just feel like a Mac is so prohibitive in every other way for me now. I prefer the form factor, Pencil usage, LTE, portability and general use of the iPad Pro. It’s completely made me re-think the way I use my computer so I am leaning more towards using it exclusively.

Just wanting to ask if Keynote on the iPad Pro function wise has everything that it does on the Mac? And if anyone else is in a similar position?

 

[mikzn]

Keynote fan here - use it daily - MBP / iPad pro / iPhone to share ideas with clients and create content / presentations etc.

I have Powerpoint 2011 and 2016 - but never use these to create new content - just to check on info sent from others that might use these MS software.

I don't have the pencil - but plan to get one.

I have the 12.9 and wow - "forget printed material like brochures and technical docs PDF's" iPad is the replacement for presenting and co-discussion - the 12.9 is the face of my entire digital library.

Keynote on the Mac is still more powerful for detailed content creation - but not for presentation - the iPad12.9 is totally awesome IMHO - it's like having your entire library "at full page view" available - and you can make changes on the fly and save them to your other devices - right in front of your customer - done!

I visit dealers and present at trade shows and the iPad 12.9 is awesome for discussing products and getting into details!

 

[iPadified]

I prefer making presentations on a 12.9 iPP. It is easier to make animations in my opinion on iPad Keynote than using Mac Keynote. Pencil suport is great for making simple but affective animated drawings and highlights. That is not as intuitive on the Mac. What the iPad version is lacking is the ability to change picture contrast etc within Keynote but that you can do using other apps. There are probably other things lacking on the iPad version but I have not found them.

When is the 15 inch iPad coming?

 

[griefrev]

I used to present using Keynote on my 2nd generation iPad (using the 30 pin connector to VGA and my iPhone as my remote). I wasn't satisfied and eventually went back to my Mac Book Pro. Now, with the new iPad Pro, the presentations are much snappier and using Keynote on my iPhone as the remote is a much better experience. I may make it my go to device for presentations.

 

[appleofmyibook]

Thanks everyone!

I created a presentation from scratch yesterday, actually while I was outside of an Apple store and had an employee come up to me and tell me he couldn’t believe how fast I was going and then called over one of his colleagues. It was nice. As I was doing it, I realised that my fear really is unjustified. I have actually replaced my laptop with the iPad Pro in every other way but enjoyed my workflow on the Mac with Keynote, especially with the Touch Bar (unpopular i know).

I have to say - this iPad Pro is probably my favourite tech product of all time. Since purchasing it on day 1, I have been enamoured by it daily and I just love the way I work on it.

 

[neutrino23]

If Keynote on the iPP works for you then go for it.

I do a lot of Keynotes. I mostly create them on the MacBook Pro because I need a lot of technical information that I'm gathering or cleaning up with other apps including DeltaGraph Pro, Graphic Converter and AppleScript.

Mostly I've found Keynote on the iPad to be excellent. Seems like there were a few small things I could do on the MacBook Pro that I couldn't on the iPad. Something to do with document creation. Playback is fine.

One thing I've seen that I don't understand well is that sometimes I add an image or video to a Keynote on macOS and I get a message that the content won't/can't play on the iPad. These things can be converted. It is just annoying that the iPad isn't more versatile. I think Apple is trying to force us into using fewer, more standard formats rather than being all inclusive. I even get these messages on macOS when opening very old Keynotes.

Another thing I'm behind the times on is font selection. Used to be that the iPad restricted which fonts you could use, though I've heard that has gotten better. I just have too many irons in the fire to investigate that.

 

[appleofmyibook]

Yeah, I’m not at the stage that I am using any kind of graphics so the iPad Pro is awesome.

I just wish Numbers and Excel were better on the iPad. Luckily I don’t use it much anymore but I couldn’t stand the fact that I had to touch the cells twice to be able to type etc.

 

[Ledgem]

A lot of the functionality seems to be there. I'll use Keynote on the iPad primarily for presenting (sometimes presenting off of my iPhone and using the iPad as a controller, or vice versa... but it's nice to be able to write on slides with the Pencil on iPad, although I usually pre-create pointer animations and such so there's no need for that), and occasionally for touching up or making last-minute changes to slides. But to make one from scratch, nope. I utilize animations heavily and it'd be a pain to do that on an iPad. That, and a lot of what I present these days are figures and graphs that I haven't made. Cutting them out of research articles is a breeze on the Mac, but it'd be a slower process on iPad.

I do give credit to Apple for making Keynote so full-featured on iOS, though.

 

[appleofmyibook]

A lot of the functionality seems to be there. I'll use Keynote on the iPad primarily for presenting (sometimes presenting off of my iPhone and using the iPad as a controller, or vice versa... but it's nice to be able to write on slides with the Pencil on iPad, although I usually pre-create pointer animations and such so there's no need for that), and occasionally for touching up or making last-minute changes to slides. But to make one from scratch, nope. I utilize animations heavily and it'd be a pain to do that on an iPad. That, and a lot of what I present these days are figures and graphs that I haven't made. Cutting them out of research articles is a breeze on the Mac, but it'd be a slower process on iPad.

I do give credit to Apple for making Keynote so full-featured on iOS, though.

I kind of felt the same about starting things from scratch but you should give it a try. I REALLY have to give props to Apple for their ability to make it so intuitive. If you think you can do something on there, you generally can.

The one thing I hate is with the table formats. I hate the fact that I can’t change the colour on either a Mac or iPad Pro. The inbuilt colour schemes are really ugly.

 

[paulmeyers42]

Do you usually use it in keyboard mode or tablet mode? I find myself preferring tablet mode (or angled mode with the Smart Cover) because my arms get tired in keyboard mode.

 

[appleofmyibook]

I am 100% the same. I prop it up on an angle with something around 2 inches underneath it. I really wish the smart keyboard had that kind of mode.

 

[ahostmadsen]

I have to say Apple did a great job at achieving feature parity. For me, the clincher is that you can now insert equations in LaTeX on both Mac and iPad — in PowerPoint, you can do on neither (MS only has Latex on Windows).

I don’t think I would want to make a presentation from scratch on iPad, but definitely I can edit and add slides on iPad. Usually, I will always make last minute edits to presentations. So, now I don’t need to bring a laptop when I travel.

 

[paulmeyers42]

I am 100% the same. I prop it up on an angle with something around 2 inches underneath it. I really wish the smart keyboard had that kind of mode.

Yeah, I am disappointed that the new Smart Keyboard really only supports keyboard mode. I guess it’s understand that it makes it a more stable keyboard, but used the angled mode pretty frequently in the past. Now I find myself using it flat, which doesn’t have great ergonomics, or laying it on a book or something.

 

[appleofmyibook]

I really don’t like this Smart Keyboard. I still love the typing experience, which thankfully hasn’t changed but they were really lazy with the design this time.. i used to be able to fold it back and watch a movie in my lap but the distraction of the keys being pressed accidentally now means I just take it off altogether.

 

[iPadified]

Regarding production on iPad. The majority of us has decades of Mac PC experience so making things on iPad is uncomfortable. My kids only uses iPads and my daughter commened yesterday that ”my tutor is unmodern - he has a computer and not an iPad”.

Try using iPad only for a decade and you will find the Mac/Pc difficult to use afterwards. As long as the features exist in an iPad version, what is best is usually what you are accustomed to. As most of us has longer Mac than iPad experience, it is only natural that we prefer the Mac version.

 

[Ledgem]

Regarding production on iPad. The majority of us has decades of Mac PC experience so making things on iPad is uncomfortable. My kids only uses iPads and my daughter commened yesterday that ”my tutor is unmodern - he has a computer and not an iPad”.

Try using iPad only for a decade and you will find the Mac/Pc difficult to use afterwards. As long as the features exist in an iPad version, what is best is usually what you are accustomed to. As most of us has longer Mac than iPad experience, it is only natural that we prefer the Mac version.

Maybe, but maybe not. There is no question that a physical keyboard is faster to type on than a digital keyboard; there is no question that a mouse/trackpad is more precise than a finger. There's no question that a digital pop-up keyboard and using your finger reduce the visible area on the screen, whereas physical peripherals don't. There's no question that a larger screen makes for an easier, less cluttered work space (and double the fun by adding another display or two!), neither of which can be done on an iPad... unless the iPad becomes the second screen, in which case you're still using your computer as the base device.

I'm not going to try to say that iPads and devices like them won't become standard, or even that they could never surpass a standard computer. I think a lot of things will need to be reimagined, or perhaps new technologies (like augmented reality) will need to be developed and implemented into them, to fully dethrone the standard computer. But maybe it'll take a generation that favors devices like iPads over standard computers to be the ones to really see the full potential of iPads, and push them to the next level.

 

[iPadified]

Maybe, but maybe not. There is no question that a physical keyboard is faster to type on than a digital keyboard; there is no question that a mouse/trackpad is more precise than a finger. There's no question that a digital pop-up keyboard and using your finger reduce the visible area on the screen, whereas physical peripherals don't. There's no question that a larger screen makes for an easier, less cluttered work space (and double the fun by adding another display or two!), neither of which can be done on an iPad... unless the iPad becomes the second screen, in which case you're still using your computer as the base device.

I'm not going to try to say that iPads and devices like them won't become standard, or even that they could never surpass a standard computer. I think a lot of things will need to be reimagined, or perhaps new technologies (like augmented reality) will need to be developed and implemented into them, to fully dethrone the standard computer. But maybe it'll take a generation that favors devices like iPads over standard computers to be the ones to really see the full potential of iPads, and push them to the next level.

My point is that it is nearly impossible to make a controlled experiment to measure productivity as the test subject have very long experience with one of the platforms (usually Mac/PC, physical keyboards, mouse/trackpads) which introduces a great bias.

An iPad can easily be scaled to iMac format for desk use only and I would not be surprised if the first "Mac" with an Arm processor would be an iMac for creative workflows (well, minus writing actual books). There are many work flows where speed of writing is not critical (like producing keynote presentations). A cursor is good to have sometimes and a better "two finger" implementation existing today would be sufficient for many situation. The pencil works but it simply takes too long time to pick it up compared to a "two finger" cursor solution on the iPad. However for freeform workflow (drawing), the pencil is likely better than the cursor proxy while Keynote design is likely tied regarding efficacy between a cursor and pencil and often even a finger.

I am more concerned about ergonomics than actual limitation of iPad user interface.

 

[appleofmyibook]

Maybe, but maybe not. There is no question that a physical keyboard is faster to type on than a digital keyboard; there is no question that a mouse/trackpad is more precise than a finger. There's no question that a digital pop-up keyboard and using your finger reduce the visible area on the screen, whereas physical peripherals don't. There's no question that a larger screen makes for an easier, less cluttered work space (and double the fun by adding another display or two!), neither of which can be done on an iPad... unless the iPad becomes the second screen, in which case you're still using your computer as the base device.

I'm not going to try to say that iPads and devices like them won't become standard, or even that they could never surpass a standard computer. I think a lot of things will need to be reimagined, or perhaps new technologies (like augmented reality) will need to be developed and implemented into them, to fully dethrone the standard computer. But maybe it'll take a generation that favors devices like iPads over standard computers to be the ones to really see the full potential of iPads, and push them to the next level.

Everything you’ve raised is exactly why iPads don’t run MacOS. They are optimized for finger usage and smaller screens. You don’t type as much in Keynote as you think I’ve also learned. Apple has done an incredible job with Keynote optimization.

This is what makes me hate Surface devices and Windows touch screens with a passion. I know the option is there for you to use a trackpad, but if you give people the option to touch their screen, you owe it to them to do it properly. I have a Surface Pro and while it’s gotten a lot better, in my opinion, it fails miserably as a tablet and is uncomfortable as a laptop.

 

[RevTEG]

Yeah, I am disappointed that the new Smart Keyboard really only supports keyboard mode. I guess it’s understand that it makes it a more stable keyboard, but used the angled mode pretty frequently in the past. Now I find myself using it flat, which doesn’t have great ergonomics, or laying it on a book or something.

There’s a ton of cheap folio knockoffs on Amazon I’d you don’t want to buy the Apple on. As you know the new iPads are. Rey easy to remove from the keyboard and put in the regular folio. That way you can easily go from keyboard mode to a folio that allows you to fold it back for movie mode. Best of both worlds. I own Apples original Smart Keyboard and the new folio keyboard and much prefer the new one over the old. The keys even type better on the new one IMHO.

 

[appleofmyibook]

There’s a ton of cheap folio knockoffs on Amazon I’d you don’t want to buy the Apple on. As you know the new iPads are. Rey easy to remove from the keyboard and put in the regular folio. That way you can easily go from keyboard mode to a folio that allows you to fold it back for movie mode. Best of both worlds. I own Apples original Smart Keyboard and the new folio keyboard and much prefer the new one over the old. The keys even type better on the new one IMHO.

For me, it's about the smart connector. Bluetooth just isn't the same unless it's optimised the same way that the Pencil is. I remember buying a non-Apple keyboard and the experience over Bluetooth was clunky and unreliable. That smart folio to me is one of the most overpriced Apple products ever but surprisingly my favourite and most accurate typing experience.

 

[paulmeyers42]

Yeah, I really like the smart folio keyboard as well, except that it can’t dual purpose as the Smart Cover like the old one. It’s much faster to connect and more reliable than a Bluetooth keyboard. I don’t want to carry around two covers. I usually just detach it when I want to use it as more of a tablet and lay it flat, but the ergonomics aren’t super great.