Keynote 4+

I have recently started using Keynote for my presentations as a substitute for Latex and Powerpoint. While the output in Keynote looks much better compared to the previously mentioned softwares, I have been suffering from a defect which might be happening to other users too. Its regarding dragging objects around on a slide. Lets say I write an equation using Latexit or say copy and paste an image from my computer, it sometimes get “stuck” and won’t move around when selected and dragged around. It will eventually but I have no clue as to the origin of the problem. This is time consuming and annoying while editing presentations at the last minute or in general. I haven’t found a good solution to this problem online. The typical solution suggested is to use coordinates which works but sometimes and more often you would like to place the object according to your liking which is difficult to judge from the coordinates. Compared to Keynote, it is seamless in Powerpoint to drag and drog items. Barring this issue, Keynote is a wonderful software, easy to start with and highly useful in presenting your research anywhere.

I've been using Keynote to build lecture presentations for university courses since shortly after it was originally releasted in 2003. My needs tend to be pretty simple, and I find that it suits me much better than PowerPoint does. The user interface works very well for me, I like the templates, and it integrates multimedia files like movies really well. In the last couple of years, however, I've focused more on making my presentations accessible to those with disabilities. Because Keynote doesn't create live captions, I've had to switch to PowerPoint for presenting in class (I still use Keynote to build the presentations). I'm hopeful that Apple's systemwide live captions feature (still in beta in Macos Ventura 13.1) will allow me to go back to presenting with Keynote, but the feature isn't functional in that way yet. When I start the presentation, the live captions don't show up on screen. I'm hopeful that Apple will implement something like what they're doing for the live captions in FaceTime (on a per-app basis), but it's just not there yet.

Keynote has been recieveing some big updates recently: the object list, text masking, and collaborative enhancements have made it an incredible design and storytelling tool. Other features are added that take away some of its functionality and have left me (a power user) feeling frustrated.

One example: the new 'face detection' feature. This feature is intended to make masking images of humans easier by centering the content on ther face. sounds great on paper, however the feature was implemented with zero options, parameters, or variables. This means that if you are creating a custom shape (to cut out a person or achieve another artistic effect) the subject is repositioned within the mask. This is incredibly frutrating and feels like a major step backwards. Please Apple Keynote team - if you read this review (or the other feedback I have submitted) add an option to disable face detection,.