Pros and Cons of Apple’s Keynote Presentation Design Software

At SlideRabbit, we offer slide design in several presentation platforms, including PowerPoint, Google Slides and Keynote.

Keynote is a presentation design software for the Mac platform. Developed by Apple as part of the iWork productivity suite, Keynote is compatible with all Macs as well as iPad, iPhone and iPod. Like any presentation software, Apple’s Keynote presentation design software has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

Pros

Keynote is wonderful for those used to working with Macs and other Apple products. It has a user friendly interface and includes the majority of functionality that PowerPoint includes, though it is often named differently.

Keynote can be easily transferred between devices through iCloud. This feature makes it easy to present on the go on an iPad or iPhone.

Like PowerPoint, Keynote offers many options when it comes to customizing your presentation. It contains different default themes, animations, and design tools. In the past, animations in Keynote were higher quality than in PowerPoint, though PPT has made a dash to catch up in recent updates.

Another advantage to Keynote is the export feature. Keynote files can easily be exported to PowerPoint or even QuickTIme. They also easily integrate with other iWork softwares.

Cons

While it is easy to use, it also has its disadvantages. If you’re trying to learn the program on your own, it can be a bit tricky; help files for Keynote are not as comprehensive as those from Microsoft. Since it is less ubiquitous, Google results aren’t much additional help.

Perhaps the most major drawback is that you can only access Keynote on a Mac. To access the information in a Keynote from a PC, first save the file as a .pptx or .pdf.

Keynote is an excellent tool from the iWork suite. It has an intuitive interface and all the necessary tools for slick slides. Unfortunately, with its limitation to the Mac world, we doubt Keynote will topple PowerPoint as the go-to presentation software. Especially now that we have other contenders!

Need your Keynote kicked up a notch? Drop us a line.