Apple Teacher - Keynote Badge and Keynote App
I knew before beginning these reviews that Pages was the Apple equivalent to Microsoft Word, but I wondered to myself: What about PowerPoint? This is where Keynote, the Apple presentation creator, comes in. Keynote, like Pages, is very similar to its more widely used Microsoft counterpart. Thus, it too is easy for Microsoft users to grasp. It faces many of the same issues as Pages does in comparison to their Microsoft equivalents, being lack of compatibility and restriction of direct access from a file directory. Again, this is very common with Apple applications and products, which is frustrating to me and a majority of people I know personally.
It does however have some unique features that sets it apart from PowerPoint. One of these features is the pre-made stickers and objects that the app provides you with. There is quite a selection of little objects that you can stick in your presentations, ranging from arrows to people and animals to a nice wine glass. You can color and format these objects as you wish, which allows them to be used in a huge variety of ways. It does not have access to the ClipArt feature signature to Microsoft programs, but few people (should) use those in the professional world anyway so I am not counting this as a loss.
Perhaps its best feature is its unique set of transitions, specifically the Magic Move function. This function allows you to duplicate one of your slides and reformat elements around, bridging the gap between both slides and creating the transition for you. This is a fantastic feature that sets it apart from PowerPoint and related applications, though one could argue that it is similar to Prezi's transitions. Here is a quick and dirty example that I whipped up in just a few minutes.
It does however have some unique features that sets it apart from PowerPoint. One of these features is the pre-made stickers and objects that the app provides you with. There is quite a selection of little objects that you can stick in your presentations, ranging from arrows to people and animals to a nice wine glass. You can color and format these objects as you wish, which allows them to be used in a huge variety of ways. It does not have access to the ClipArt feature signature to Microsoft programs, but few people (should) use those in the professional world anyway so I am not counting this as a loss.
Perhaps its best feature is its unique set of transitions, specifically the Magic Move function. This function allows you to duplicate one of your slides and reformat elements around, bridging the gap between both slides and creating the transition for you. This is a fantastic feature that sets it apart from PowerPoint and related applications, though one could argue that it is similar to Prezi's transitions. Here is a quick and dirty example that I whipped up in just a few minutes.
Granted, this is merely a primitive example of the possibilities that Magic Move let alone the bevy of other transition styles provides. I've seen some fantastic effects created with just this one function. For a more in-depth tutorial on how to use Magic Move, watch the video below!
I am ultimately much higher on Keynote than I am on pages. While there are still a few issues with it (mainly the product of being an Apple software in conjunction with being on a mobile device), I think it actually has unique and useful features that set it apart from similar programs. Definitely will give this a spin again in the future!
If you'd like to find more information on how to use Keynote or other Apple apps in the classroom, or want to look more into the Apple Teacher Program, click on the following link: appleteacher.apple.com/.