# Keynote on a PC?



## ruinexplorer (Jul 17, 2012)

I was wondering if anyone has found a reliable way to play a Keynote presentation on a Windows machine? What I am looking for is if someone hands me a thumb drive with the file and there is no Mac available to export the file as a .ppt or anything else? The Mac forums seem to have explored this a few years back, but since there wasn't a good answer, there don't seem to be updates.

In the PC world, they provide a viewer for those who don't have PowerPoint.


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## Footer (Jul 17, 2012)

Laugh at the person and walk away. 

Build a hackintosh. 

Hope and pray that they all adopt ODP. 

I'm all for the walk away laughing. Our rule around our place is that client always supplies the PC the presentation is to be ran on. We always have our own, but we are at least covered. 

There is no way to do it without a mac.


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## FMEng (Jul 18, 2012)

I would just smile and remind them that OSX is still only 6% of the market, while Windows (XP, Vista, 7) is 85%. If they want a Mac, they should provide it.


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## cpf (Jul 18, 2012)

You might be able to rig something up with the Keynote iPad app, but only with an iDevice and compatable display adapter.


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## ruinexplorer (Jul 18, 2012)

Half of the time, even if they provide the Mac, they don't have an adapter for it (not going into my normal rant about Apple and their need to do everything different). Unfortunately, you can't always just smile at them as if they are in the shallow end of the gene pool. My hope was that there was maybe some sort of player where I wouldn't have to destroy one of my own machines or provide the latest and greatest Mac and OS and appropriate adapter. Most of the time, I do get to let the Mac user know ahead of time what to provide, but there are other times where I am sent scrambling. So, I'm just adding to my arsenal.

Maybe some wiz kid will put out a plug-in for PowerPoint.


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## Footer (Jul 18, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> Maybe some wiz kid will put out a plug-in for PowerPoint.



Would not surprise me if the formatting of the file is locked/licensed.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## techieman33 (Jul 18, 2012)

After a little time with google I found a possible option. Zamzar - convert document, eBook, image, audio and video - free online file conversion Shows they can do the conversion online, you upload the file then it gets emailed back to you. The downside is if you use the free version it says it could take up to an hour before you get the converted file back. There is a tiered pay version that moves you up higher into the queue and lets you convert larger files and a lot of other things as well. It's not a perfect solution, but at least it gives you a chance if you don't have any other option.


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## ruinexplorer (Jul 18, 2012)

Cool find. I think I'll see if I can find a file to send them and see how it works out.


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## cpf (Jul 18, 2012)

No matter what, the file you get back will have crippled formatting. Macs have a different set of fonts than windows, and PowerPoint itself does not support a lot of the animations and transitions that Keynote does. It'll teach the presenter to bring their Mac the next time, for sure!


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## museav (Jul 18, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> What I am looking for is if someone hands me a thumb drive with the file and there is no Mac available to export the file as a .ppt or anything else?


Do you have a document camera? If so, throw the thumb drive on it, put the camera up on the screen and tell them you are displaying their presentation in the only way possible with what they provided.

Seriously, I'm far from being a professional presenter but after the problems I've encountered related to fonts, transitions, etc. between different versions of PowerPoint and/or different Microsoft OS's even I have learned to always bring my own computer/laptop/tablet and always preview the presentation on that device well before presenting it. I see this too easily becoming a no win situation where if you can't display their file it's your fault but if you try to and it doesn't look as they expected it to then that will also be your fault. To quote Joshua, "The only winning move is not to play. "


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## Van (Jul 18, 2012)

I have NEVER had a succesfull/happy experience with Keynote. It looks pretty but It does NOT translate or play well with others < Just like any mac software/hardware> I had to do an export a while back and for the life of me I cannot remember what the process was but after waiting a stupid long time to get it to open in Open office < I think> it didn't look the same the graphics were much grainier and all the timings were off the client hated it. I finally said, " You want in run on Keynote? Go get the adapter." Thene there was something wrong with her port and couldn't get it to work anyway. I wound up rebuilding the entire show in PP, in 45 minutes before the show. 

Did I mention I hate Keynote ?


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## cpf (Jul 18, 2012)

Van said:


> I have NEVER had a succesfull/happy experience with Keynote. It looks pretty but It does NOT translate or play well with others < Just like any mac software/hardware> I had to do an export a while back and for the life of me I cannot remember what the process was but after waiting a stupid long time to get it to open in Open office < I think> it didn't look the same the graphics were much grainier and all the timings were off the client hated it. I finally said, " You want in run on Keynote? Go get the adapter." Thene there was something wrong with her port and couldn't get it to work anyway. I wound up rebuilding the entire show in PP, in 45 minutes before the show.
> 
> Did I mention I hate Keynote ?



OpenOffice. There's your real problem. I've had all sorts of wacky bugs with that "suite" - best to stick to the real thing/s.


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## cpf (Jul 18, 2012)

Tapatalk sucks


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## Grog12 (Jul 18, 2012)

We actually use Keynote for a lot of our shows and anytime we're in an outside venue we bring our own computer for this very reason.


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## zmb (Jul 18, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> Half of the time, even if they provide the Mac, they don't have an adapter for it (not going into my normal rant about Apple and their need to do everything different).



Perhaps clarifiy that if you are need a connection to a projector, a VGA, DVI, or other connection is what is provided and the presenter is responsible for any needed adapters.

The Mini Displayport is developed by Apple and freely licensed. I've seen Dell laptops that have it and Lenovo has it in their lineup too.


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## ruinexplorer (Jul 18, 2012)

I wish this were so simple. There's an entire magazine for people who do presentations, I just wish presenters would read it. Problem is, most people doing a presentation are not regular presenters. They fly across the country because their boss told them to, and they might bring their own computer, but often don't even own an adapter. Also, I have worked with many presenters who have someone else build their presentation because they don't even know how. Or they provide a computer which their IT department put "security" features on it, which makes it virtually useless for a presentation machine, so you have to use the one that you brought along. 

There's just no simple solution to doing presentations because it isn't the regular thing for most presenters. Have I ever said that large corporations should have a quality presentation AV person as part of their staff? That way the presenters go off to their meetings prepared.


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## Van (Jul 18, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> ... Have I ever said that large corporations should have a quality presentation AV person as part of their staff? That way the presenters go off to their meetings prepared.



Sounds like YOU need to do some work with Nike.


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## Footer (Jul 18, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> Have I ever said that large corporations should have a quality presentation AV person as part of their staff? That way the presenters go off to their meetings prepared.



We have one AV contractor that we work with occasionally that does some work for some local offices. Gov. Cuomo uses a guy out of Rochester that all they do is run the content and the telepromter. Works every time... and they always have a backup. They bring in a separate contractor for the projector even... literally all this guy does is run the content.


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## FACTplayers (Jul 21, 2012)

Footer said:


> Laugh at the person and walk away.
> 
> Build a hackintosh.



Illegal


FMEng said:


> I would just smile and remind them that OSX is still only 6% of the market, while Windows (XP, Vista, 7) is 85%. If they want a Mac, they should provide it.



It's more around 20% and with iOS around 60%.


With that being said, everyone should still be saving as .pptx. Even if they save as .ppt, odd are .ppt won't work (perfectly) with office (dear God, please have the newest versions since most companies offer the software for $10). As an avid mac and win7 user, open the file with google docs. It does a decent to good job of converting the file.


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## Tex (Jul 21, 2012)

FACTplayers said:


> Illegal



AFAIK, the only thing questionable about a hackintosh is running the OS on non-Apple hardware. That's a violation of the EULA, but not the law.
Just don't sell them...


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## Van (Jul 21, 2012)

FACTplayers said:


> ...As an avid mac and win7 user, open the file with google docs. It does a decent to good job of converting the file.



Unfortunately a "decent job" is never what my people want. they want the EXACT look they have on their MAC. Unfortunately there is no way to get that.


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## ruinexplorer (Jul 21, 2012)

So, being as that I am not a Mac guy, is Keynote a standard issue with any Mac, or do you need something additional? Is there a viewer on the Mac that does not require buying a suite of some sort? I'd rather not invest in something just as a safety net, but if I must then I'd rather not have to spend too much.


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## josh88 (Jul 21, 2012)

The girlfriend has a Mac and if I remember I think keynote is something that is standard. Pretty sure they all ship with it. Hers did at least


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


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## metti (Jul 22, 2012)

Keynote is part of the iWork suite which definitely does not come with Macs. When one is ordering a Mac online there is the option to pay to have it included or one can purchase it separately but it is not something that is bundled with every Mac. On the Mac app store the whole iWork suite costs $60 and Keynote alone costs $20.


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## zmb (Jul 22, 2012)

ruinexplorer, a Mac Mini starts at $599 and figure an additional $100-200 for a keyboard, mouse, and other display adapters. It has HDMI and Thunderbolt/Mini Displayport built it. Not sure what you would need to hook in with your existing setup, but that's your cheapest Mac computer.


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## museav (Jul 22, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> I wish this were so simple. There's an entire magazine for people who do presentations, I just wish presenters would read it. Problem is, most people doing a presentation are not regular presenters. They fly across the country because their boss told them to, and they might bring their own computer, but often don't even own an adapter. Also, I have worked with many presenters who have someone else build their presentation because they don't even know how. Or they provide a computer which their IT department put "security" features on it, which makes it virtually useless for a presentation machine, so you have to use the one that you brought along.
> 
> There's just no simple solution to doing presentations because it isn't the regular thing for most presenters. Have I ever said that large corporations should have a quality presentation AV person as part of their staff? That way the presenters go off to their meetings prepared.


I think this is something where we all have to get the word out that the concept of being able to walk into any venue and display anything is not a practical reality. It is interesting that the same people that created and promote HDMI, ThunderBolt, DisplayPort, EDID, HDCP, etc. that make delaing with media in professional applications so difficult are marketing those aspects to consumers as making it so simple. People see a commercial where the audio and video from a tablet, laptop, smartphone, etc. seems to magically appear on their TV and they think that means anyone can do that anywhere. People confuse wirelessly transferring media files or wirelessly controlling a media server with wirelessly streaming the media. And the manufacturers don't discourage these impressions because they help sell products.

At the same time, device manufacturers keep developing and promoting the latest and greatest in order to drive product sales. Your current media output may work fine, but its not ready for 4k, deep color with hyperspatial 3-D and 32.7 sound, so you need a new device with this new connection in order to be 'state of the art' and ready for the future. The fact that you are displaying simple PowerPoint slides that would be fine with 1024x768 and no audio is irrelevant, you need this. Of course by the time the future arrives where that may even be relevant for most people, the manufacturers will be on to the next great thing and what you have will already be obsolete, but that just creates another product sale opportunity.

All that is business but it unfortunately seems to leave those dealing with public presentation systems greatly on our own to inform both presenters and facility management of the realities of using products and technologies developed for the home in larger audience presentation applications.


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## ruinexplorer (Jul 22, 2012)

Brad, so true. After all, it is easier to distinguish yourself as a company with a different technology that appears better than trying to convince someone that you are better at doing something with the same technology everyone else uses. Why bother with putting in some standard connection if you can say, "our new technology is superior"? I guess they figure that it's the consumers problem in dealing with how to actually use that technology.


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## FACTplayers (Jul 22, 2012)

Tex said:


> AFAIK, the only thing questionable about a hackintosh is running the OS on non-Apple hardware. That's a violation of the EULA, but not the law.
> Just don't sell them...



There was a company building the hardware and shipping you the OS X install disc along with the hardware (the name escapes me) a year or so ago and Apple took them down. I believe the court ruling was that it was a violation of the EULA and a violation of the law. I'm sure Apple did some fancy talking. 


Van said:


> Unfortunately a "decent job" is never what my people want. they want the EXACT look they have on their MAC. Unfortunately there is no way to get that.



Unless you have a mac with Keynote and office (all versions) and a windows computer with all versions of office you will never be able to have EXACTLY what the client created. .ppt and .pptx (don't forget all the little add-ons you can have) created a mess with compatibility. As it has been stated above, no one should expect to just bring a file and expect it will open. What one person/company uses as a standard doesn't mean the next company they visit will use the same program. I understand what you want to do, however, just tell the people using Keynote to save as .pptx. 

Also, Keynote opens .ppt, .pptx, and whatever the keynote file is.


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## Tex (Jul 23, 2012)

> There was a company building the hardware and shipping you the OS X install disc along with the hardware (the name escapes me) a year or so ago and Apple took them down.


The company was Pystar and they were installing OSX from an image, then packaging the disc along with the PC. In the end, it was copying the discs that brought them down. The portion of Apple's EULA that applies to installing only on Apple hardware has never been tested in court. A similar breach of an Apple EULA is jailbreaking the iPhone, which a federal court has upheld as fair use. 
I'm not trying to be argumentative, but an End User License Agreement is a contract (hence the word agreement). Breaching a contract is not against the law. The smallest possibility exists that Apple could sue the end user, but I don't see that happening.


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## DuckJordan (Jul 23, 2012)

Tex said:


> The company was Pystar and they were installing OSX from an image, then packaging the disc along with the PC. In the end, it was copying the discs that brought them down. The portion of Apple's EULA that applies to installing only on Apple hardware has never been tested in court. A similar breach of an Apple EULA is jailbreaking the iPhone, which a federal court has upheld as fair use.
> I'm not trying to be argumentative, but an End User License Agreement is a contract (hence the word agreement). Breaching a contract is not against the law. The smallest possibility exists that Apple could sue the end user, but I don't see that happening.




* a few days later*

"Tonight at ten, Apple sues jimmy for jail breaking his phone. Details to come in this heartbreaking story, of a company and their overly protected device"


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## cpf (Jul 23, 2012)

DuckJordan said:


> * a few days later*
> 
> "Tonight at ten, Apple sues jimmy for jail breaking his phone. Details to come in this heartbreaking story, of a company and their overly protected device"



Although jailbreaking has been affirmed as fully legal - even if it does void your warranty.


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## ruinexplorer (Jul 23, 2012)

FACTplayers said:


> Unless you have a mac with Keynote and office (all versions) and a windows computer with all versions of office you will never be able to have EXACTLY what the client created. .ppt and .pptx (don't forget all the little add-ons you can have) created a mess with compatibility. As it has been stated above, no one should expect to just bring a file and expect it will open. What one person/company uses as a standard doesn't mean the next company they visit will use the same program. I understand what you want to do, however, just tell the people using Keynote to save as .pptx.
> 
> Also, Keynote opens .ppt, .pptx, and whatever the keynote file is.



Therein lies the problem. People shouldn't expect that what they create will play on someone else's machine, but they do. Often times they don't bother to check what they can use (well, good clients do, but they aren't the issue). 

With Keynote being able to open .ppt and .pptx files, this is where I thought that at this point there would be an add on to PowerPoint to play .key or .knt (I think that's the new one) files. 

Well, so far I haven't run into this issue, as I don't tech a lot of presentations anymore (outside the company at least). Thanks for the discussion, all.


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## museav (Jul 23, 2012)

cpf said:


> Although jailbreaking has been affirmed as fully legal - even if it does void your warranty.


Sorry for getting off topic, but that ruling has been so misinterpreted and misrepresented. Jailbreaking was never made 'legal', it was just exempted from being a copyright infringement in two specific situations. It was a Librarian of Congress ruling to the US Copyright Office regarding DMCA that created exemptions related to circumventing access controls in specific situations, one of which related to operation of phones on other networks and another to enabling interoperability of legal third-party software on smartphones. The reason that mattered so much, and was thus often presented as perhaps being something more than it is, was that Apple and others had been using copyright infringement as a basis to prohibit jailbreaking and using copyright infringement suits to pursue people for jailbreaking. Manufacturers could still essentially do whatever they want to prevent circumventing any access controls, such circumvention was simply no longer a potential copyright infringement for the two conditions defined. Also that exemption is not permanent and although the same exemptions are likely to also be included, and perhaps expanded to include tablets and/or video games, in the next ruling, there is the potential that they could expire soon.


ruinexplorer said:


> Therein lies the problem. People shouldn't expect that what they create will play on someone else's machine, but they do. Often times they don't bother to check what they can use (well, good clients do, but they aren't the issue).
> 
> With Keynote being able to open .ppt and .pptx files, this is where I thought that at this point there would be an add on to PowerPoint to play .key or .knt (I think that's the new one) files.


I think that PowerPoint may be like AutoCAD, so dominant and/or such a 'standard' in their market that they don't see a need to be compatible with other's files while their files are so prevalent that many others need to be compatible with them.


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## zmb (Jul 23, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> With Keynote being able to open .ppt and .pptx files, this is where I thought that at this point there would be an add on to PowerPoint to play .key or .knt (I think that's the new one) files.



I wouldn't expect that to happen with the closed-atmosphere of Apple. I don't know how all the licensing works, but many products work with PowerPoint and the rest of the Office documents. Microsoft has a free addon for QuickTime on Mac to play Windows Media files but it doesn't work the other way, Windows users have to get the full version of QuickTime. I just wouldn't expect anything like that from Apple.


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