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10 Expert Tips to Create and Deliver a Killer Keynote Presentation

So you’ve got a keynote presentation coming up, and you’re hitting the books to make sure you’re armed with the best plan possible. Besides taking notes from all the greats on TED, you’re reading up about a message structure that works, and looking for the perfect template.

While it seems like you’ve got your bases covered, like all things in life, there’s always a way to streamline the planning process.

According to Aaron Weyenberg , the UX Lead for TED and a self-professed “master of slide decks,” and the wizards behind Apple’s presentation slides , there are a number of tricks of the trade that you can rely on to create a rocking keynote presentation .

Below are some of our favorites. And to easily create a professional-looking presentation , sign up for Piktochart . It’s free and it allows you to make beautiful visuals without being a graphic designer.

1. Do your slides last

While most keynote speakers will typically build their presentation around the structure of a template, Weyenberg says that “building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation.” Before working on your slides, you should put together your main message, structure, supporting points – then practice and time your presentation. The reason for this, he says, is that the presentation needs to be strong enough to stand on its own. Approaching a keynote like this requires a shift in thinking.

While a beautiful set of slides is imperative to your presentation, it should not be central to it.

Weyenberg said it best: “The slides are just something you layer over [the presentation] to enhance the listener experience.”

Observe these 2017 Google I/O keynotes, especially CEO Sundar Pichai’s – the role of the slides are to support what the speaker is saying – not the other way around.

2. Get creative with photos

Often times, presenters will be far too literal or cheesy with their image choice. Weyenberg suggests to use images that are simple, yet punchy – and pairs nicely with your spoken words. He says to look for photos that are:

• Related to your keynote’s concept
• Are not complex in terms of composition

3. Simplify charts and graphs

While most presenters will simply drop an image of their charts and graphs into their deck, Weyenberg points out that it might be a bit “unsightly.” If you need to use data to back a point that you’re making, you should make the extra effort to make it more attractive – and this can be done by recreating it in your presentation maker .

There are a couple benefits to doing this:

• It will make your presentation seem consistent and well-thought out
• You’ll have control over colors, typography, and more.

4. One theme per slide

According to the designers of Apple presentation slides, less is certainly more. Trying to cram too many ideas on one slide can only work to your detriment. Beyond ideas, the same goes for statistics.

Let’s play a little game: For the following idea, how many slides would you use? “The developer program is incredibly vibrant. We have over six million registered developers. Demand for this show has never been greater. We sold out in just over a minute [71 seconds].”

While the average person might think that 6 million and 71 seconds would belong on the same slide and be short and sweet enough, let’s compare it with what Apple’s CEO Tim Cook did.

He only leveraged two slides: The first said “6 million,” and the second: “71 seconds. Sold out.”

5. Create a visual experience with data

Taking a leaf again from Apple’s presentation book, once you’ve gotten the hang of having just one stat per slide – you should also make it as visual as possible.

One data point per slide, combined with it being visually interesting – is sure to be memorable.

6. Practice Really Makes Perfect

Imagine the late Steve Jobs, a legendary keynote presenter, still rehearsed for months before a presentation. According to Brent Schlender , one of the co-authors behind the Steve Jobs biography “Becoming Steve Jobs,” Jobs would rehearse and prepare “exhaustively” for all of his public appearances.

Despite being a natural on the stage, Jobs never would wing it, he came to the show well prepared.

“I once spent an entire day watching him run through multiple rehearsals of a single presentation, tweaking everything from the color and angle of certain spotlights, to editing and rearranging the order of the keynote presentation slides to improve his pacing,” remembers Schlender.

While you may not be a perfectionist like Jobs, you are likely also not nearly as good of a presenter as he is – so practice really makes perfect in this case.

7. Tell A Consistent Story

Circling back to Weyenberg’s tips – he suggests that in a good slide deck, every slide should feel “like part of the same story.” Think of your deck like a story – every slide should feel cohesive to the big picture message you’re trying to communicate – as opposed to random ideas juxtaposed together.

You can do this by:

• Using the same or similar typography, colors, and imagery across all slides
• Using presentation templates can help with maintaining the same look and feel

8. Less is more

We explored the less is more concept earlier in the article by suggesting you keep to one idea per slide. The same can be applied to text.

When it comes to creating slides for your next keynote, the cardinal sin is a slide with ample text that is verbatim of your spoken presentation.

What this does is encourage people to keep their eyes on your slides instead of listening to you.

Weyenberg also points out that a text-heavy slide forces the brain to multitask between focusing on what it’s reading and hearing – which is quite difficult and will compromise your presentation.

9. Consider topic transitions

While you want to make your slides look like a cohesive unit, you want to also keep in mind that making every slide look the same may be boring. Weyenberg suggests to:

• Create one style for the slides that are the “meat” of the message
• Then create another style for the slides that are transitioning between topics

For example, if your overall slides have a dark background with light text, you can use transitional slides that have a light background with dark text. This way, they’ll still feel like they’re from the same presentation family without being completely uniform.

10. Tell a captivating story

It is fitting that our final tip comes from likely the greatest keynote presenter of all time. The late and great Steve Jobs had the ability to captivate and inspire his audience with his talks, and that’s because he was a very good storyteller. And that’s the golden leaf that you can take from Jobs’ book today.

Always aim to tell a captivating story.

One example is perhaps when he introduced the iPod: “In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. It didn’t just change the way we all listen to music. It changed the entire music industry.” Listen to Steve Jobs weave a story about the digital music revolution when unveiling the iPod.

Bonus Round: Tips From Piktochart Designers  

• Always remember that your audience is sitting far away . So ensure that your title font size is large enough to be seen from a distance, and that your body text is no smaller than 20px.
• Use only two colors for your entire presentation – a primary and secondary color. If you must use a large color palette, your maximum choice should be up to five colors.
• Make sure that there is enough white space throughout your presentation . This will give your content room to breathe. Less is definitely more in this case.
• Emphasize only one object per slide – whether it’s an image, statistic, quote. This will make sure your audience stays focused.

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17 Presentation Techniques For A Great Keynote

• Presentation design /
• Public speaking

How much time do you take to design your presentation? Days? Weeks? Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you find the right design elements? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could create a remarkable keynote presentation in a day or two? I think anyone can do it, if they pay attention to the following presentation techniques and manage to combine them in a way that helps them put the right ideas in the right context.

Also read:  7 Things To Improve In Your Keynote Speech Presentation

Achieving presentation flow is a challenging task. Not everyone has a knack for design. So pay attention to each of these ideas, both the simpler ones and the more complex, and make your own combo to improve delivery and convince your audience.

1. Visuals are your friend

Using different types of visuals can be a great way to help your audience remember and react. Photos, illustrations, icons, symbols, sketches, figures, and diagrams are much more easy for the brain to retain than words. Think of a company logo for example – how many times has your brain recognized the logo even before you remembered the name of the brand?

Another great thing about using imagery is that it makes you more charismatic. It seems that speakers are seen as more charismatic when otherwise identical speeches contain more imagery . Here’s a great example – a former US president’s inaugural address was rewritten to create low and high imagery versions in an experiment. The audio recordings of the two speeches were played for the participants to the study who were randomly assigned. After listening to the speech, they provided ratings on various summary leadership measures. The result? The speech with high imagery was attributed to a more charismatic person.

2. Keep the presentation short and to the point

Thousands of psychological, neurobiological and social science studies have been conducted on how humans “pay attention.” The famous Microsoft “study” claimed that the human attention span went from 12 seconds on average in 2000 to just 8.25 seconds in 2015, which is shorter than that of a goldfish. What most of these studies concluded is that, most of the time, we don’t pay attention. It’s just how our brain works.

Keep your presentation short and sweet and, more importantly, simple. Even if your ideas are complex, you need to find a way to help your audience focus and follow your speech. Make sure your slides are not too busy if you want the audience to listen to you instead of reading slides.

3. The rule of three

This is a rather well-known technique that’s based on the fact that people tend to only remember three things. When you design the flow of your presentation, work out what the three messages that you want your audience to take away are. Then, structure your presentation around them, using the right design elements to separate the three.

The same rule can be applied to an individual slide –  it’s recommended that you use a maximum of three points on a slide. Make sure that they aren’t bullet points or presenter notes. Those should not be on the screen when you’re doing a keynote speech. If Google’s CEO does not  use bullet points , neither should you.

Also read:  5 Pro Tips For Giving Better Presentations

4. Focus on telling stories instead of throwing numbers

Even if you have a technical or scientific topic to present, you still need to tell a story. That is the essence of a keynote speech, to be memorable, emotional, compelling. And that means storytelling.

Tell stories and anecdotes to help you illustrate your ideas and your research. This will definitely make your presentation more effective and memorable. In a UCLA study , students were asked to recall a series of speeches they had heard. Only 5 percent remembered any individual statistic, while 63 percent remembered the stories presented in those speeches.

“Things are not what they seem.” It’s that to get people to sit on the edge of their chair or to get them involved in your story, the audience has to constantly discover something new.

Howard Suber, UCLA

5.  Know what slide is coming next

Memorizing every single word in a presentation is not a good idea. That’s why you shouldn’t have chunks of text altogether. But knowing what slide comes next is a must. Even if you are an amazing speaker and you’ve been really busy so you’ve had the presentation made for you, go through it at least once before.

It helps to build trust and keep the audience engaged when you say “On the next slide [Click] you will see…”, rather than than act confused when the next slide appears. It will also help with the flow of the presentation.

6. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

Practice is key for public speaking. Many experts say that rehearsal is the biggest single thing that you can do to improve your performance. This technique will make you so comfortable with the presentation content that you won’t need notes or prompts and you’ll appear conversational but knowledgeable.

Perform your presentation out loud at least four times. You can try something different each time: one in front of your friends or colleagues, one alone and one in front of a real scary audience, for good measure. You should also try to do a video recording of a rehearsal. It will help you spot improvement points, from how you are standing, if you are jangling keys, to how well your presentation is structured.

Also read:  Use These Presentation Apps To Rehearse Anywhere

7. Have an emergency plan

This does not include running off the stage. But it is a well known fact that something is bound to go wrong. It’s either the projector, the lights, the audio, the laptop, the fonts, etc. It’s always good to have a back-up plan. This way you won’t be blindsided, stressed and confused in case something goes off track. A useful tip is to check out the presentation room beforehand, so that you know what could go wrong.

Murphy’s kit: Have a printed out set of slides, data stick of your presentation and a laptop with your slides on it.

8. Involve the audience

One of the most powerful presentation techniques is inviting the audience in and have them contribute in some way. This will get them emotionally invested and it will differentiate you from inexperienced, nervous speakers.

Plan a inclusion of the audience in your presentation somewhere. It can be a slide with a question, a game or just an empty slide to help you connect with people and re-gain their full attention. Here are some ideas for audience activities–from a simple show of hands, to requests for brief personal input, to role playing and games, to small group exercises- and their merits:

The show of hands is good for polling the audience and gaining real-time feedback. It lets audience members know where they stand with respect to the group.Brief personal input reveals the diversity of experience in the room.Role playing and games are excellent for practicing sales situations and interpersonal responses.Group exercises allow participants to learn from each other.

9. Don’t read off the slides word for word

Please. Your audience is surely capable of doing that for themselves. They don’t need you to be standing in front of them reading off the screen.

Build your presentation in a way that it provides context for your speech, with visual elements and clear, simple ideas. Use your slides as outlines or conversation points that you build on, just like you would in a normal discussion. Experienced speakers often use slides to add a quick parenthetical note to something they’re saying to the audience.

10. Find the right speed

Most people go too fast. Mostly because they’re nervous or they’re pressured by the time constraints of the format. It’s really easy to rush through your content and speak very quickly, especially if you’re panicked. But it’s much easier for an audience to engage with your content and remember something if your delivery falls into a natural rhythm. Pace yourself and remember to punctuate your speech with pauses to emphasise key points.

Here’s a great exercise shared by Sims Wyeth , who learned it from Marian Rich, a voice and speech teacher in New York who worked with many famous actors to help them improve their vocal presence.

“The exercise will teach you that your voice is a wind instrument, and you must have ample air in your lungs to play it well.

Mark a paragraph / in this manner / into the shortest possible phrases. / First, / whisper it / with energetic lips, / breathing / at all the breath marks. / Then. / speak it / in the same way. / Do this / with a different paragraph / everyday. / Keep your hand / on your abdomen / to make sure / it moves out / when you breathe in / and moves in / when you speak.

Before you whisper each phrase, take a full bellyful of air and then pour all the air into that one phrase. Keep your throat open, and don’t grind your vocal chords. Lift your whisper over your throat. Pause between phrases. Relax. Then, take another full breath and whisper the next phrase. Whisper as if you were trying to reach the back of the room.

Once you’ve whispered the paragraph, then go back to the start and speak it in a conversational way, but again, pour all the air into each phrase and honor the silence between phrases. I can’t stress that enough. Take your own sweet time at the forward slashes.”

If you’re more of a slow talker, with a constant calm rhythm, you might run the risk of boring the audience. Keep people awake and interested by learning to increase your speaking speech without losing articulation and thought clarity. Start by learning what makes you slow. Record a one-minute monologue on tape and use a stopwatch or second hand; listen for the following types of slow spots.

11.  Include some humor

Humor can be one of the most powerful techniques for giving a great keynote presentation. You can use it in the beginning to relieve the tension in the room and help ease the transition into the bulk of the content. Appropriate humor that’s true to you let’s your audience get a sense of your personality and makes for a memorable presentation.

If you’re not a natural punster, do not despair. Anything can be learned. Here are a few techniques you can try:

Exaggeration: “Then I talked to a woman whose voice was so high only the dog could hear it.”Puns: “Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.”Self-deprecation: “And then, even though I knew it was too hot to eat, I bit into the pizza anyway. Because, clearly, I am an idiot.”Wordplay: “She brought me a plate of french fries instead. At least I thought they were French because they had an attitude and wore berets.”References: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda

12. Follow Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki wrote that a presentation “should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points”. Although this was meant for entrepreneurs creating pitch decks, it’s a useful pointer for keynote speeches as well, especially from a design point of view.

Opt for a legible font and type size. Don’t use eccentric fonts that will make it impossible to make out the actual words. Stick to standard, easy-to-read fonts, preferably sans-serif (fonts such as Arial or Helvetica).

13. Pause from time to time

Both in your speech and in your presentation, white space is an important component. Whitespace is a fundamental building block of good design. Its one of the first thing any visual designer is taught. However, to many speakers it is simply a waste of space that could be used to better promote their message or express an additional idea.

Speech pauses allow you to punctuate your spoken words, giving your listeners clues as to when one phrase, one sentence, or one paragraph ends, and the next begins. Brigitte Zellner notes that pauses “participate in rendering human communication more intelligible. (…) In other words, pauses “stick out like sore thumbs”, and thus may occupy “beacon” positions in speech, serving to structure the entire utterance for both speaker and listener.”

14. Try some icebreakers

Why not reference some fun facts? Or have audience members introduce themselves? The most effective keynotes are both informative and enjoyable at the same time.

“For the brain to remember, presenters must deviate from a pattern in some significant way.”

Carmen Simon, co-founder of Rexi Media

Although not everyone is comfortable with icebreakers it doesn’t hurt to try one or two and see how they work for your keynote. Here are some different icebreaker ideas.

15. Make it thematic

Another out of the box idea is to make the most of an upcoming or recent event/holiday/movie release etc. and create a thematic presentation. Go for a memorable appearance, costume and all, and a well-designed presentation to accompany your speech. Get the audience to remember your presentation by connecting it to something they like or even dislike. The emotional connection will help spark a valuable conversation and it will increase the chances of people remembering your ideas.

Connections among elements in memory can make a real difference. Art Markman uses the analogy of a bowl of peanuts in his book Smart Thinking. He says that if you take peanuts out one at a time, you get three peanuts when you reach into the bowl three times. But, if you pour caramel over the peanuts, then when you pull one out, you get a whole cluster. After you draw from the bowl three times, you may have gotten almost all of the peanuts out. Memory functions in a similar way. By encouraging connections among the key points in your talk, you help pour caramel over the peanuts in memory and increases the amount that people remember from what you present.

16. Stay connected

Make sure you have an offering for the gods of social media. A tweetable bit on a slide, a hashtag to connect online and to encourage comments and debates or a website with online resources. Connect this technique with the one on involving the audience and you’ll get online engagement as well as offline.

Your “tweetables” should resonate with the audience and to do that they need to be catchy. Use strong verbs and keep it short. Think about what you want your audience to take away from your presentation.

17. Share your slides after the event

It’s nice to build a long term relationship with your audience. After all, they will be the ones ensuring your the growing reach of your ideas. Sharing your slides is a great way to help them recall the content of your presentation. It’s also a great way to encourage engagement after the event so don’t forget to include the date, time and title of the presentation as well as your contact details.

Let them know that you’ll be making the slides available from the very beginning of the presentation so that they don’t feel the need to spend too much time taking notes instead of watching you. But don’t share your slides before the presentation otherwise you’ll spoil the show and give people an excuse to leave without watching.

What are some other powerful presentation techniques that work for you?

If you’re looking to step up your public speaking game, check out these 10 easy steps to becoming a keynote speaker!

Download the free guide

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Apple keynote: how to make an interactive presentation..

Although we have all heard of Powerpoint as a powerful tool for presentations, I believe that after using the Apple keynote, I have also learned that it can be used to create impressive and engaging presentations.

In this story I’m going to show you how we can create and Deliver a Killer Keynote Presentation using Keynote

Set it up correctly :

Start Keynote, then choose a Theme . Choosing an appropriate theme can save you time and effort in redefining styles, backgrounds, and image formatting.

Planning your content :

The Slide is the core component of Keynote, so it’s best to view your interactive piece as a series of small, slide-sized chunks. If you want to tell an interactive narrative, you’ll want to write it one slide at a time in words, images, video, or short animations.

Create your content :

The first page will be a title slide , so write a good welcome text ,Also use simplify charts and graphs to present your data,Always try to put points in further interactive way so that viewer can understand and grasp the slides veritably and fluently. it'll also helps to make the bystander always stick with the slide.

Short animations :

• On the slide, click to select the object you want to animate.
• In the Animate sidebar, click the Animate tab.
• Click Add an Effect, then select an animation.
• To set animation options such as the duration and direction of the animation, use the controls that appear.(Start Transition,Delay)

A Good Animation can help make a PowerPoint presentation more dynamic, and help make information more memorable. The most common types of animation effects include entrances and exits. You can also add sound to increase the intensity of your animation effects.

Presentation experts recommend using animations and sound effects sparingly. Animation can be useful in making a presentation more dynamic, and help to emphasize points, but too much animation can be distracting. Do not let animation and sound take the focus away from what you are saying.

Present it! :

Go ahead — press Play and test out your presentation. Everything should work as you’d expect, and you can press Escape to exit. Save your Presentation to iCloud, then open it on your iPad, and everything will work just the same there.

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November 16, 2023

You have some great tips. I also appreciate the paragraph about using sounds and animations sparingly. It never fails when I introduce Keynote to students, that their first presentation has sounds and animations for everything. Thank you for sharing, Keynote is one of my favorite apps.

November 22, 2023

There's nothing like a great, well-thought-out Keynote. Thanks for sharing your step-by-step guide.

November 30, 2023

Another great tips would be to use purposeful animation. If your an explaining how gravity work, using the anvil composition to have an object (or even the word GRAVITY) fall for the sky and land in a smoke dust deliver a message out the topic. And you are right to use is sparingly, use it to gain focus, to surprise you listener.

Great topic and explanation!

December 01, 2023

Hi Satyajit

Who doesn't love keynote? Thank you for the reminders on creating a presentation. You will have to share one you have created!

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Pro Speakers on How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation

Updated: January 13, 2021

Published: November 03, 2020

Two years ago, I was asked to give a presentation about my HubSpot article on emotional marketing . It was by far the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking experience of my professional life.

I don’t necessarily hate public speaking. However, leading up to the event, I felt the full responsibility of not only delivering a good presentation but also teaching the audience valuable , actionable information — and that was very intimidating.

I wanted to do a good job, and I wanted to be a good teacher.

Therein lies the importance of keynote presentations : to be effective, they should be educational and entertaining. Do you have a keynote presentation in your future? Read on for some advice from professional speakers.

First, what is a keynote presentation? Glad you asked.

You may also be tasked with a keynote presentation in order to secure funding, make a sale, or update stakeholders or executives. Whatever stage you find yourself on, delivering a keynote presentation is an important responsibility as a public speaker.

How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation, According to the Experts

I spoke with four professional speakers on how to deliver a near-perfect presentation. Here are five pieces of advice they shared.

1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

When it comes to public speaking, practice quite literally makes perfect. Every expert I spoke with mentioned how frequently they rehearse their presentations.

“However much you think you need to rehearse, rehearse 10 times more than that. When you show up to a concert, you expect that the musicians know their songs, and you certainly don't want the first time they try to play it to be right there on stage. You owe your audience and the folks hiring you to speak the same respect,” said Melanie Deziel , international keynote speaker and founder of StoryFuel . (She received this advice herself from Michael and Amy Port at Heroic Public Speaking .)

Provided by Melanie Deziel

As more presentations and events become fully virtual, the likelihood of technical difficulties also grows. Rehearsing your content can help you weather any interruptions or last-minute changes.

Rehearsal not only leads to content mastery; it allows freedom in your presentations. “The more you rehearse and become comfortable with the content, the freer you'll be to take chances, experiment, and truly focus on your delivery, rather than trying to remember what comes next,” shared Deziel.

How do these experts recommend practicing your presentations? “[Use] a mirror,” said Olivia Scott , keynote speaker and founder of Omerge Alliances . “I take the time to see how I'm being received, I look at my body posture, and I look at everything to make sure that I feel good about what I'm delivering. This isn’t exactly a tool or technology, but it's a way to practice and rehearse.”

Additionally, consider asking friends, family, and trusted colleagues to listen to your practice runs and provide feedback on your presentation.

2. Ask for feedback.

Speaking of feedback, expert orators know to ask for it on a regular basis — from friends, peer groups, mentors, audience members, and clients. “Find a support crew and connect with other speakers in the industry,” mentioned Karen Hopper , keynote speaker and data strategist at M+R. Hopper personally recommends Shine Bootcamp , which provided her with lifelong friendships, helpful feedback, and a priceless education about public speaking.

Provided by Karen Hopper

“We help each other with feedback on our pitches, topics, outlines, and presentations, and we celebrate each others' wins,'' said Hopper. “ ... It’s well worth surrounding yourself with people who will cheer for you and who will give you honest feedback — the fastest way to get better is to ruthlessly seek out that feedback.”

Clients can also be an incredibly helpful source of feedback. If you’re asked to speak at an event or conference, consider asking the people who hired you. “I ask my client for their reaction immediately after every presentation. It’s important to know how they felt, and whether the presentation achieved their goals. Every time my client is happy, that’s my most successful presentation,” said Jeff Toister , keynote speaker, author, and customer service expert.

Lastly, the best feedback often comes from the source — in this case, your audience. Whether you ask questions during your presentation (which we’ll discuss next) or ask for feedback following your presentation, it’s never a bad idea to know what your audience thought about your keynote.

Feedback may look different if giving a remote keynote presentation, but it's still possible.

“It’s been a creative challenge to adapt a talk I'd hoped to give in person to work in a virtual environment. It's much harder to tell how your talks are received online, without being able to see nodding and note-taking and hear laughter and clapping. But all the feedback I have received [over email] indicated that my talk successfully changed the way many people are thinking about their content idea generation process, and that was the ultimate goal of the talk: to change how people think ,” shared Deziel, referring to her recent keynote at Content Marketing World 2020.

3. Engage your audience.

Nobody likes being talked at . Sure, delivering a keynote presentation involves you doing most of the talking, but it doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation. Many of the experts I interviewed encouraged some sort of audience engagement or interaction to enhance your presentation.

“People love to be involved in a presentation. Rather than explain a concept to my audience, I find a way to have them experience it,” said Toister. “For example, when I share how multitasking hurts productivity and causes us to make more errors, I have the audience try a brief multitasking exercise so they can experience the problem themselves.”

Did you know that audience engagement levels drop considerably (14%) if a presenter does most of the talking, versus if the audience talks just as much? Moreover, 64% of people believe that a presentation with two-way interaction is much more engaging than a one-way presentation.

Presentation engagement also takes practice — just like your presentation content itself. “ ... Entertainment comes from the performance itself: the way in which you deliver that content and the energy you bring to that delivery. This is a separate skill you need to practice. Work with a coach, watch back recordings of yourself to identify opportunities to improve your craft, and watch videos of top-notch comedians, poets and other speakers to see what you can learn from them,” encouraged Deziel.

Lastly, as important as engagement is, don’t let technology stand in the way. While smartphones and polling software can make audience interaction easier, they can also get in the way of you connecting with your audience. “I prefer to just have people stand up, raise their hand, or clap to participate in the poll. It gets the audience moving, and I don’t have to worry about WiFi connections or whether the polling software is working,” said Toister.

4. Prioritize your content as much as the delivery.

While entertaining and interacting with your audience is helpful and exciting, it shouldn’t take precedence over your presentation content itself. “Nearly all of what the audience can learn from you comes from the content: the stories you tell, the examples you share, the facts you cite and the other information you explain. Carefully crafting those materials and testing it out ensures that the audience will get the information they were promised from your session,” said Deziel.

Tools like PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and Canva can help you hone your content and develop a story within your presentation. A 2018 Prezi study (another presentation tool option) showed that 90% of people believe a strong narrative makes for a more engaging, interesting presentation. Data can help form arguments and explain facts, but stories stay with your audience long after your time on stage.

Storytelling is yet another way to engage with your audience, especially by evoking emotions like humor. “It’s entertaining to ask questions, saying, ‘Can anyone relate to this? Has anyone ever had this type of experience before?’ and then getting them involved with some laughter around those experiences. Laughter always helps,” said Scott, who presented at INBOUND 2020 .

Hopper, who was also a Breakout Speaker at INBOUND 2020, agreed: “Don't be afraid to be funny or drop in jokes — there are studies that show that laughing actually helps your brain retain information better, so not only will your audience have a good time laughing with you, but they'll also get more out of your presentation. It’s a win-win!”

5. Focus on the audience.

Finally, everyone can agree that public speaking is either revered or feared. If you relate to the latter and find yourself nervous when giving presentations, turn your focus on the audience.

“Speakers easily get nervous when they focus on themselves and worry too much about their own performance. Focusing on your audience first takes the nerves away and redirects your attention to making sure your audience gets something of value from your keynote,” shared Toister.

That’s the goal of a keynote presentation — to provide value to your audience. Regardless of what story you’re telling, what tools you’re using, or how you’re engaging the crowd, as long as you deliver a presentation that inspires your audience to think differently — even for 30 minutes — you’ve given a perfect keynote presentation.

Note: HubSpot Marketing teams reserve the right to use guest blog author’s likeness across our content as we see fit, including but not limited to HubSpot’s social media channels.

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Keynote User Guide for Mac

• What’s new in Keynote 14.1
• Intro to Keynote
• Intro to images, charts, and other objects
• Create a presentation
• Choose how to navigate your presentation
• Open or close a presentation
• Save and name a presentation
• Find a presentation
• Print a presentation
• Undo or redo changes
• Show or hide sidebars
• Quick navigation
• Change the working view
• Expand and zoom your workspace
• Customize the Keynote toolbar
• Change Keynote settings on Mac
• Touch Bar for Keynote
• Create a presentation using VoiceOver
• Add or delete slides
• Add and view presenter notes
• Reorder slides
• Group or ungroup slides
• Skip or unskip a slide
• Change the slide size
• Change a slide background
• Add a border around a slide
• Show or hide text placeholders
• Show or hide slide numbers
• Apply a slide layout
• Add and edit slide layouts
• Change a theme
• Add an image
• Add an image gallery
• Edit an image
• Add and edit a shape
• Combine or break apart shapes
• Draw a shape
• Save a shape to the shapes library
• Add and align text inside a shape
• Add 3D objects
• Add lines and arrows
• Animate, share, or save drawings
• Add video and audio
• Record audio
• Edit video and audio
• Add live video
• Set movie and image formats
• Position and align objects
• Use alignment guides
• Place objects inside a text box or shape
• Layer, group, and lock objects
• Change object transparency
• Fill shapes and text boxes with color or an image
• Add a border to an object
• Add a caption or title
• Add a reflection or shadow
• Use object styles
• Resize, rotate, and flip objects
• Move and edit objects using the object list
• Add linked objects to make your presentation interactive
• Select text
• Copy and paste text
• Use dictation to enter text
• Use accents and special characters
• Format a presentation for another language
• Use phonetic guides
• Use bidirectional text
• Use vertical text
• Change the font or font size
• Add bold, italic, underline, or strikethrough to text
• Change the color of text
• Change text capitalization
• Add a shadow or outline to text
• Intro to paragraph styles
• Apply a paragraph style
• Create, rename, or delete paragraph styles
• Update or revert a paragraph style
• Use a keyboard shortcut to apply a style
• Adjust character spacing
• Add drop caps
• Raise and lower characters and text
• Format fractions automatically
• Create and use character styles
• Format dashes and quotation marks
• Format Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text
• Set tab stops
• Format text into columns
• Adjust line spacing
• Format lists
• Add a highlight effect to text
• Add mathematical equations
• Add borders and rules (lines) to separate text
• Add or delete a table
• Select tables, cells, rows, and columns
• Add or remove rows and columns
• Move rows and columns
• Resize rows and columns
• Merge or unmerge cells
• Change the look of table text
• Show, hide, or edit a table title
• Change table gridlines and colors
• Use table styles
• Resize, move, or lock a table
• Add and edit cell content
• Format dates, currency, and more
• Create a custom cell format
• Highlight cells conditionally
• Format tables for bidirectional text
• Alphabetize or sort table data
• Calculate values using data in table cells
• Use the Formulas and Functions Help
• Add or delete a chart
• Change a chart from one type to another
• Modify chart data
• Move, resize, and rotate a chart
• Change the look of data series
• Add a legend, gridlines, and other markings
• Change the look of chart text and labels
• Add a chart border and background
• Use chart styles
• Animate objects onto and off a slide
• Animate objects on a slide
• Change build order and timing
• Add transitions
• Present on your Mac
• Present on a separate display
• Present on a Mac over the internet
• Use a remote
• Make a presentation advance automatically
• Require a password to exit a presentation
• Play a slideshow with multiple presenters
• Rehearse on your Mac
• Record presentations
• Check spelling
• Look up words
• Find and replace text
• Replace text automatically
• Set author name and comment color
• Highlight text
• Add and print comments
• Send a presentation
• Intro to collaboration
• Invite others to collaborate
• Collaborate on a shared presentation
• See the latest activity in a shared presentation
• Change a shared presentation’s settings
• Stop sharing a presentation
• Shared folders and collaboration
• Use Box to collaborate
• Create an animated GIF
• Post your presentation in a blog
• Use iCloud Drive with Keynote
• Export to PowerPoint or another file format
• Reduce the presentation file size
• Save a large presentation as a package file
• Restore an earlier version of a presentation
• Move a presentation
• Delete a presentation
• Password-protect a presentation
• Lock a presentation
• Create and manage custom themes
• Transfer files with AirDrop
• Transfer presentations with Handoff
• Transfer presentations with the Finder
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Keyboard shortcut symbols

Create a presentation in Keynote on Mac

To create a new presentation, you first choose a theme to use as a starting point. Themes use coordinated fonts and colors for a unified look and often include placeholders that you can replace with your own content.

Create a presentation from a theme

To open Keynote, click the Keynote icon in the Dock, Launchpad, or the Applications folder.

If the theme chooser (shown below) doesn’t appear, click New Document in the bottom-left corner of the dialog. You can also choose File > New (from the File menu at the top of your screen).

Note: If you’d like the ability to format table and chart data using the conventions of another language, choose the language in the bottom-left corner before choosing a theme. See Format a presentation for another language .

In the theme chooser, browse the themes by category, then double-click the one that looks closest to what you want to create. To narrow the choices, click a category along the sidebar on the left.

Some themes aren’t downloaded to your computer until you choose them or open a presentation that uses one. If your connection is slow or you’re offline when this happens, placeholder images and slide backgrounds in the presentation may appear at a lower resolution until you’re online again or the theme finishes downloading.

Each slide layout offers a different arrangement of text and images that you use as a starting point for your content.

To add your own content to the presentation, do any of the following:

Add text: Double-click placeholder text and type your own.

Choose File > Save, enter a name, choose a location, then click Save.

Keynote automatically saves your changes as you work, so you don’t need to worry about saving your presentation manually. However, it’s a good idea to rename your presentation so you can easily find it the next time you want to work on it. You can change the name of the presentation or change where it’s saved at any time.

If iCloud Drive is set up on your Mac, Keynote saves the presentation to iCloud Drive by default.

To end the presentation, press the Esc (Escape) key. For more ways to show a presentation, see Play a presentation on your Mac .

To close the presentation, click the red close button in the top-left corner of the window.

Select a default theme for new presentations

You can set Keynote to always open a new presentation in a particular theme instead of from the theme chooser.

Choose Keynote > Settings (from the Keynote menu at the top of your screen).

Click General at the top of the window, then select “Use theme” in the For New Presentations controls.

The name that appears after “Use theme” is the currently selected theme.

Click the Change Theme button, select a theme, then click Choose.

To close the window, click the red close button in the upper-left corner.

After you change this setting, you can still open a new presentation with a different theme. Hold down the Option key, then choose File > New from Theme Chooser (from the File menu at the top of your screen).

20+ Keynote Tips to Deliver an Outstanding Presentation – UPDATED

Updated on 27 th March 2021

If you have a Mac or work with the iWork productivity suite, then you must already be familiar with Keynote. The tool is developed by Apple to enable users to create visually appealing presentations pretty easily. In the world of PowerPoint and Google Slides, you can simply stand out by taking the assistance of Keynote.

To help you achieve the same, we have come up with this informative guide. Keynote allows us to include numerous themes in a single presentation and control the slideshow remotely. Read on and learn how to draft a stunning Keynote presentation by implementing these suggestions.

1. Make Fast Edits with Master Slides

Many times, we make a lot of effort to edit each slide separately when we need to apply an identical change everywhere. This is exactly when a master slide can help you. Any change on the master slide will automatically be reflected in the entire presentation.

You can go to the Keynote toolbar and click on the “+” button. From here, you can add a master slide and later place it wherever you want. Modify the master slide as per your needs and click the “Done” button on the slide canvas to apply these changes. Furthermore, you can go to View > Guides > Show/Hide Master Slides to make the master slide visible (or invisible) to your viewers.

2. Set Ruler and Alignment Guides

Too often, users find it hard to create a uniformly designed presentation. To make sure that all the slides look symmetric, you can set ruler and alignment preferences for Keynote. Simply go to Keynote Preferences > Rulers to access this feature. You can set rulers in inches, cm, points, etc. This will also let you know how the page will look after getting printed.

Afterward, whenever you place an object outside the ruler, you will be notified. Designers usually set ruler ratio in percentage to make sure everything is uniformly placed. The overall design can further be improved with the Alignment guide. You can view alignment related to the canvas center, edges, relative sizing, and relative spacing. The feature can also help you divide your canvas to design it in a better manner.

Once the designing is finished, you can get rid of guides by visiting View > Guides and selecting “Clear All Guides”.

3. Add a Magic Move Transition

Apple has certainly worked on minute details while developing Keynote. One of the best ways for transitioning from one slide to another is by adding a parallax-like effect. This can be implemented by using the Magic Move transition. It also makes our presentation more interactive and appealing.

In order to attain the magic move transition, you need to duplicate the slide and rearrange the elements. While it might seem a little tedious in the beginning, you can surely master it in no time. Here is an informative tutorial that can help you add the magic move transition to your presentation.

4. Use Animations for Transition

Another cool way of transitioning between different slides can be done by adding animations. Keynote has tons of animations that can readily be used. You can also copy and paste animations or format them easily. Though, to make your presentation look uniform, you should use a single animation for every transition (even when you would be tempted to use all of them).

Select any slide and go to its sidebar. In the Animate section, you can choose to add effects for the transitioning of the slide.

You can also go to the Format menu to copy and paste the animation on a slide. Keynote fully supports all the major types of animations and will let you work on them freely.

5. Play with Themes

Keynote has got tons of advanced features to make your slides visually stunning. If the presentation is pretty lengthy, then your audience can lose their interest in between. To avoid this, you can categorize your presentation by applying different themes. If you want, then you can have a different theme for every slide.

There are several options for themes that Keynote provides. Simply select the slide and click on the “Change Theme” option. Though, you need to make sure that the presentation doesn’t have any master slide to apply different themes.

6. Edit Videos without Using Any Other Tool

We all know that almost all the popular presentation tools support videos. Though, you can only add videos in most of these tools and can’t edit them as per your requirements. Thankfully, Keynote can help you make small edits in the imported videos to let you save your time. Simply select the video and go to its sidebar. From here, you can set the start and end time for the video, trim it, change the poster image, and do so much more.

You can even make some amazing video edits by using Keynote’s native interface. For instance, did you know that you can create a video overlay effect using Keynote? Have a look at this tutorial to learn the same.

7. Work on Pre-designed Templates

If you want to make sure that your audience would remember your Keynote presentation for a long time, then take the assistance of professionally-designed templates. You can easily alter these HD templates and work on a remarkable presentation without investing your precious time. SketchBubble has a wide range of Keynote templates that are designed by experts and are easy to edit and deploy.

8. Include Stunning Charts and Graphs

Keynote also provides a fast and hassle-free way to add aesthetically-pleasing charts and graphs on any slide. You can access the feature from the “Charts” option on the toolbar and choose to add 2D, 3D, or interactive charts. Later, you can edit the chart or alter it as per the provided data.

If you want to create donut pie charts that are unlike those run-of-the-mill pie charts, then you should go through this quick tutorial.

9. Export Keynote to Different Formats

Since not everyone out there uses Keynote, you might need to convert your document to different formats. This will also let you run your Keynote presentation on other systems that don’t have the software installed. To do this, simply go to File > Export and select the target format. You can export your Keynote file to a PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, and a few other formats.

10. Outline Your Presentation with Zero Distractions

Every artist knows that creativity can strike anytime. Chances are that you might think of a brilliant idea while working on a project. Keynote has an Outline Mode that can let you write pointers quickly without any distraction related to designing. The interface has four viewing modes. The navigator mode is the default one that lets you design a Keynote presentation and add your content.

Though, you can change it by visiting the View option and selecting the Outline mode. The interface will be changed instantly, letting you add pointers and the outline of the document that can later be used for reference.

11. Record Slideshow for Playback

If you own a YouTube channel or are making a presentation for educational purpose, then this trick will be of great use to you. All you need to do is visit Play > Record Slideshow to start recording. The interface will alter a bit and start recording the slideshow of the presentation. You can stop it anytime you want. As you stop it, the red recording icon will be disabled.

Furthermore, you can customize the recording as well and make some changes. Before you start recording, go to Play > Customize Presenter Display . From here, you can change the layout, timer, and make other adjustments. By default, the inbuilt microphone of your computer would be used. To change (or test) it, you can go to System Preferences > Sound .

12. Control the Slideshow Remotely

This trick will certainly impress your audience and let you control your presentation from your fingertips. If you have Keynote 6.1 (or later versions) on your Mac, then you can use your iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad) to control your presentation remotely. To do this, launch Keynote on both the devices and make sure they are wirelessly connected. Now, go to the Preferences option on your Mac’s Keynote. Under the “Remotes” option, you can choose to link your iOS device.

A one-time code would be generated that needs to be verified to build a secure connection. Once the iOS device is connected, you can use it as a remote control to play the presentation and switch between different slides.

Besides controlling the flow of the presentation, you can also make annotations, doodles, and marks that would be reflected on a real-time basis.

13. Customize Your Toolbar

As you can see, Apple Keynote is an extremely resourceful application that offers a wide range of features. To be honest, sometimes these features can be a bit overwhelming and you can end up spending a lot of time just to navigate the interface. If you wish to save your time, then consider putting a personal touch to the toolbar. Just go to View > Customize Toolbar to get a list of all sorts of actions that you can perform. Now, select the features that you wish to add to your toolbar as shortcuts to customize it.

14. Interlink Different Slides

This has to be one of the most interesting Apple Keynote tips that you would love to explore. The application lets us make any object into an action button. That is, when we would click on the action button, it can directly jump to a designated slide. To do this, just select any object and press Command + K to get various options to link it.

In this way, you can link the present slide with the first, last, or any other specific slide. You can even include multiple action buttons in a single slide, according to your presentation needs.

15. Change Fonts in the Entire Presentation

While drafting a Keynote presentation, I always struggle with picking the perfect font. If you also encounter the same issue, then this would be one of the best Apple Keynote design tips for you. The application lets you pick a font and implement it in the entire presentation with a single click. Once you make the relevant changes in the font, click on the “Update” button. This will automatically change the formatting of the other similar objects as well. For instance, if a change is made in the title, it will also modify other titles of the Keynote.

16. Broadcast Your Keynote Presentation

If you wish to target a wide range of audience, then this would be one of the most resourceful Apple Keynote tips for you. A while back, Apple has added the Keynote Live feature to broadcast its slideshows. Anyone can view your presentation on a Mac, iOS device, or via iCloud.com. To access it, just visit the Keynote Live option on the application. This will launch a dedicated wizard that would help you set up Keynote Live to give a live slideshow to your audience.

Once your Keynote Live presentation is ready, Apple will give you several options to invite your audience. For instance, you can mail/message them the link or even share it on social media.

17. Collaborate with Others

If you are working in a team, then this would be one of the most useful Apple Keynote tips. Just like most of the other presentation platforms, Keynote also lets us work in a team. If you wish to invite others to work with you, just click on the Collaborate icon at the top of the interface. From here, you can get different options to send the invite to others. You can send them individual emails, messages, or just share a link that they can access to collaborate.  You can easily collaborate through both – iCloud or Mac.

18. Use Keynote on iCloud

Let’s be honest – Keynote is not the most popular presentation tool out there. The good thing is that apart from platforms like Mac and iOS, Keynote can also be accessed on iCloud’s official website. Just log-in to your iCloud account and access the “Keynote” feature from its home. This will let you import Keynote presentations or work on a new document from scratch. While it can’t substitute the extensive features of the desktop application available for Mac, it will certainly let you access all the basic functions of the tool. Additionally, your presentation will be saved on iCloud that you can access anytime you want.

Recently Updated Tips

19. use presenter notes to plan your presentation.

Keynote comes with various incredible features to enhance your speaking during the presentation. Presenter Notes is one such feature that lets you add detailed notes (keywords, statistics, facts, outline, etc.) for each slide. Go to View > Show Presenter Notes . You can use it as your speaking cue tool.

20. Secure Your Presentation to Make it Password-Protected

If you want to make your presentation visible only to the selected participants, secure it with a password. For this, go to the File > Set Password . Then, fill in the required information and click Set Password.

Important Note: You can’t recover the password if you forget it, so note it down in a safe place. However, if your computer supports Touch ID, you can open the presentation with your fingerprint.

Learn more in this tutorial:

21. Transfer Your Presentation Between Devices

You can transfer your keynote presentation to a nearby Mac, iPhone, or iPad via AirDrop or Handoff.

• Via AirDrop 

AirDrop enables users to transfer files from one Mac to another without using an external storage device or email. This transfer doesn’t use a local Wi-Fi network or the Internet; it uses Bluetooth to create a connection. One important point to note here is, AirDrop only works with devices that are within 30 feet or 10 meters.

Learn more through this video:

• Via Handoff 

The Handoff feature of iOS and macOS lets you use a Universal Clipboard to copy images, text, or files between your Apple devices. You can use it to copy and paste images and text between documents while working with two or more devices. This way, you can also transfer entire files.

Watch this video to learn more:

We are sure that after getting to know about these Keynote hacks and tricks – you would certainly be able to use this incredible tool at its best. If you are familiar with some other expert Keynote tips that our readers should know, then feel free to drop a comment below and share your feedback with the rest of us.

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Ashish Arora

Pitching | Presentation | Public Speaking | Resources | Storytelling

15 pro tips to ace your keynote presentation.

Written by Shavinyaa Vijay

Keynote presentations can be terrifying for some of us. We fear messing up, looking bad on camera, forgetting our notes… The list of nightmares just doesn’t end.

While it’s not possible to have an entirely foolproof plan, we can minimize the number of ways where things can go wrong. So if you have an important keynote presentation coming up, here are some of our tips to help you out.

How to Ace Your Keynote Presentation

We’ll give you a concise guide on what you should be doing, from the time you start planning to the time you conclude your speech. Take these 15 quick tips and master them so you can deliver a stunning keynote presentation in no time!

1. Know Your Purpose

Before you start creating the layout of your slides or typing out the content of your speech, take some time to ask yourself — what is the purpose of your keynote presentation? What is the takeaway that you want the audience to have after your presentation? Essentially, you need to ask yourself, “What is my message?”. While it feels like time is ticking away, rushing into your slides will backfire in the long run. You need to ensure that the intention behind this presentation is clear and focused, as that would help you in creating a keynote presentation with clarity and confidence.

2. Be Confident

Ever heard of the phrase, ‘fake it till you make it’? Now’s a great time to take that advice! A significant factor in determining the success of your keynote presentation is your audience’s trust in you, and to gain their trust, you need to be confident in yourself first. Confidence in presentations comes from two sources: your posture, and your mastery of the content you are presenting. For posture, remember not to fidget and stand in a relaxed position. Stretch for a couple of minutes before presenting to loosen yourself up. As for your content, be sure to know the subject of your presentation like the back of your hand; read up as much as possible and do not start on it last minute.

3. Give Your Credentials

When introducing yourself, simply sharing your organization and position is not enough; if your audience wants to know where you’re from, all they need is a quick search online. What they do want to know however, is why you are the best person to deliver this presentation, and what you have to offer them. By sharing this, your audience will know that you’re knowledgeable in the field you’re presenting on, and that you have the solution to their needs or problems. Doing this will not only make your audience lean a little closer, but will also give you a great segue to move them into the next part of your presentation.

4. Deliver Your Hook

Research shows that the audience will stop listening to a presentation within 10 minutes if they are not persuaded that there is something in it for them. It is therefore important that you “hook” your audience by convincing them that they can benefit from your keynote presentation. You can do this by showing your audience that the key idea behind your presentation has the ability to make them feel happy or successful.

5. Introduce Your Agenda

At the start of your speech, be sure to let your audience know what the takeaway of your message is. Dedicate a slide to show your audience the agenda, and when presenting, remember not to read from the slides! Instead, offer a brief and general summary of your presentation. Give your audience the direction of your presentation, as this will allow them to follow your content better.

6. Ensure Smooth Transitions

Transitions are like sign posts that guide your audience throughout your speech, so they must be easy to follow, the last thing you need is a confused audience! Unclear transitions can be a nightmare as it may potentially distort the content of your presentation. In the end, the audience grasps only bits and pieces of your message, or worse, gives up on following your presentation. This applies not just to the visual effects that PowerPoint has, but also to the words you use. When transitioning from point to point, use words such as ‘next’, ‘then’, and ‘after’, and number your points using words like ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’, and ‘thirdly’. This will help the audience understand when you’re moving on to another idea or part of your presentation.

7. Give a Credible Statement

If you wish to gain your audience’s trust and establish a professional relationship with them, you need to get them to buy into your presentation. One way would be through giving credible statements that support your message. This can come in the form of data, or in the form of professional advice from experts in the field of your presentation. For example, make use of graphs and statistics to show the importance of a certain situation, and share quotes from someone with authority in a similar (if not the same) industry to backup your statements.

8. Use Images for Maximum Impact

The beauty of well-selected images lies in their ability to communicate a message without throwing dozens of words at an audience, so use them to your advantage! Select photos that encapsulate the message of your keynote presentation, or to highlight a specific idea that you’re sharing. Images that look simple can deliver the most powerful messages, and do what words sometimes cannot achieve — stir emotions in an audience. However, while images are a great tool, moderation is key. Stay away from photos that have been used too often (icebergs, anyone?), and use them sparingly throughout the presentation, as too many may reduce their impact.

9. Present data simply

Data is important in any credible presentation, and like we mentioned earlier, can help to establish your audience’s trust. However, it is crucial that the data be presented in a simple and uncomplicated manner. Too many numbers or graphs can be distracting for the audience, and may obscure the real intention of presenting the data. If you have large chunks of statistics, ask yourself: What is the key idea of the message you’re sharing? Which figures will back your statements up? From there, choose the appropriate data and highlight them accordingly.

10. One slide – one theme

Like transitions, each slide can be used as markers of the various points you aim to cover. Not only does this make your presentation easy for the audience to follow, it also makes it easy for you to remember your points as they are neatly categorised in each slide. It may seem tempting to squeeze all your information into few slides, but remember, moderation is key!

11. Be minimalistic

For a keynote presentation, simplicity is important when designing and organising your deck. You do not want the pattern or design to distract your audience from the real content and message. Again, it is also important that you do not overload the slides with words, so keep the sentences and points in your slides short. Let your speech expand on the ideas that you want the audience to take with them. Your communication and connection with them is more impactful in sending your message across than words on the slides.

12. Be consistent

Consistency is essential, especially when it comes to your presentation. Avoid using different backgrounds in every slide, and ensure that the design is reasonably similar throughout, unless you wish to use differences to distinguish individual points in your message. This makes the transitions in your presentation smooth, and thus it makes the story that you are telling easy for the audience to follow.

13. Practice, Practice, Practice

Rome was not build in a day, and similarly, a perfect presentation will not happen instantaneously! Rehearse your presentation a couple of times before the actual one, as this will help you in two ways. Firstly, you will gain familiarity with the content, which will definitely increase your confidence in delivering the presentation. Secondly, going through the deck aloud will allow you to listen to your speech from the audience’s perspective. This will aid you in tweaking and adjusting the content and structure of your presentation, to best fit the needs of the audience.

14. Analyse your audience

On the day of your presentation, analyse the audience. Get a general feel of the crowd. Are they excited? Are they bored? Are they tired? By doing this, you will be able to tweak the content of your presentation to fit the needs of your audience. If they are bored, you may wish to start with an interesting story related to your message. If they are tired, you could give them some time to get refreshed, either through a 5 minutes break or a quick activity to keep them alert. This way, you can ensure that you have a receptive audience ready to listen to what you have to say.

15. Q&A session

It is absolutely important that you leave some time at the end of your keynote presentation for a short “question and answer” session. Since the presentation was done from your perspective, the audience may have missed some important links and connections in your ideas. Therefore, a Q&A session is great in resolving any potential confusion that the audience may have.

There you have it, 15 simple tips to ace your keynote presentation! Just remember:

• Know Your Purpose
• Be Confident
• Give Your Credentials
• Deliver Your Hook
• Introduce Your Agenda
• Ensure Smooth Transitions
• Give a Credible Statement
• Use Images for Maximum Impact
• Present data simply
• One slide – one theme
• Be minimalistic
• Be consistent
• Practice, Practice, Practice
• Analyse your audience
• Q&A session

Now you’re good to go, all the best for your keynote presentation!

Article Written By: Shavinyaa Vijay

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9 Keynote Tips and Tricks for Stunning Apple Slides (+ BONUS Expert Hacks to Make Keynote Better)

Looking to create captivating and professional Apple slides? Look no further! With these Keynote tips, you can unlock the full potential of Keynote and deliver impressive presentations that will leave your audience in awe.

From mastering slide transitions to customizing your toolbar, we’ll explore essential techniques that will take your slides to the next level.

Let’s take your slides to new heights with these invaluable Keynote tips.

• Animate Individual Objects on the Slides
• Master Magic Move
• Edit Your Slide Layouts
• Use Action Buttons for Shapes in Keynote
• Use a Pre-Built Template Design
• Customize Your Keynote Toolbar
• Edit Videos without Using Any Other Tool
• Record Slideshow for Playback
• Control the Slideshow Remotely

BONUS Keynote Tips For Engaging Presentations

Keynote tips faq, #1 – animate individual objects on the slides.

Elevate the impact of your Keynote slides by animating individual objects to control their appearance and engage your audience. 

Here are three best practices for animating individual objects on your slides:

• Control the timing: Animate objects to appear on your slide exactly when you want them to. Whether it’s a text box, an image, or a shape, you can choose when it enters the screen to create a seamless and engaging presentation.
• Preview your animation: Before finalizing your slides, take advantage of the Preview button to see how your animation will look in action. This way, you can make any necessary adjustments and ensure a smooth transition between objects.
• Customize your animation: Keynote offers a range of animation options to fit your needs. From simple fades to complex movements, you can customize the animation of each individual object to create a visually stunning and memorable experience for your audience.

#2 – Master Magic Move

Little known Keynote tip: You can use a cool feature called Magic Move to seamlessly animate and transition objects between slides.

Magic Move allows for smooth animation and transition between slides, creating a visually engaging and dynamic presentation.

To utilize this feature, duplicate the slide and adjust the position of objects to create a seamless animation effect. Then, select Magic Move from the Add an Effect section to apply the animation between the slides.

Customize the duration, match with text, and define the transition start time for the Magic Move effect to ensure it aligns with your presentation needs. Then, preview the smooth animation to ensure it meets your expectations.

#3 – Edit Your Slide Layouts

To achieve consistent styling in your Keynote presentation, utilize the Edit Slide Layouts feature. This powerful tool allows you to customize your slide layouts and designs, ensuring a cohesive and professional look throughout your entire presentation. Simple but effective, this is a Keynote tip most people overlook. 

Here are three ways you can make the most of this feature:

• Easily add a title and photo: By editing your slide layouts, you can include a title and photo section in every slide, saving you time and effort. Simply adjust the layout to include these elements, and they’ll automatically appear whenever you create a new slide.
• Define your frequently used layouts: If you have specific layouts or designs that you frequently use in your presentations, you can define them using the Edit Slide Layouts feature. This way, you can easily access and apply these layouts whenever needed, streamlining your workflow and ensuring consistency.
• Explore alternatives if needed: While Keynote offers a wide range of slide layouts to choose from, you may find that none of them fit your specific needs. In that case, it’s worth exploring Keynote alternatives that provide more customizable options for slide layouts.

#4 – Use Action Buttons for Shapes in Keynote

To enhance your Keynote presentations, incorporate action buttons into your shapes. Action buttons can add interactivity and engagement to your slides.

Here are three reasons why you should consider using action buttons in Keynote:

• Easy navigation: Action buttons allow you to create clickable links within your shapes. By linking a shape to another slide or a specific location, you can create a seamless navigation experience for your audience. They can simply click on the shape to jump to the desired section or information.
• Interactive elements: Action buttons can be used to add interactive elements to your slides. For example, you can create buttons that play videos, open websites, or trigger animations. 
• Enhanced user experience: By incorporating action buttons, you can provide your audience with a more interactive and hands-on experience. They can actively participate in the presentation by clicking on buttons and exploring the content at their own pace. 

#5 – Use a Pre-Built Template Design

This Keynote tip is another important one to not overlook! Even if you’re creative and love to design from scratch, using pre-built templates as a starting point can save you a ton of time. 

Keynote users can enjoy minimal and modern pre-built templates that are both popular and easy to manage. These templates can serve as a great starting point, offering a foundation for customization and personalization . By utilizing pre-built templates, you can maintain a consistent styling throughout your presentation, especially for large decks. This ensures that your slides look polished and you look like a professional speaker .

Additionally, if you prefer a more personalized touch, Keynote allows you to create your own custom templates or slides . This flexibility enables you to tailor your presentation to your specific needs while still benefiting from the convenience and efficiency of using pre-built designs.

#6 – Customize Your Keynote Toolbar

When it comes to enhancing your Keynote presentations, one important step is to customize your toolbar for easy access to frequently used tools. By customizing your toolbar, you can streamline your workflow and save time during your presentation preparations.

To customize your toolbar in Keynote , go to the View menu and choose Customize Toolbar . From there, you can drag and drop the features you use most frequently into your toolbar. Once you’re done, simply click the Done button to finish customizing your toolbar.

Take advantage of this feature to make your Keynote experience more personalized and efficient.

#7 – Edit Videos without Using Any Other Tool

There are some pretty cool Keynote tips for anyone who integrates videos and other media into their presentations. 

Take your video editing to the next level with Keynote’s built-in tools, allowing you to seamlessly trim, enhance, and add dynamic effects to your videos directly within the presentation software. 

Here are three ways you can edit videos without using any other tool in Keynote:

• Trim and crop: Use Keynote’s video editing options to easily trim unwanted sections and crop your videos to focus on specific areas, ensuring that your videos are concise and visually appealing.
• Enhance and adjust : Keynote enables you to enhance the quality of your videos by adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation. You can also apply filters and effects to give your videos a professional touch.
• Add text and annotations: With Keynote’s built-in text and shape tools, you can add text overlays, annotations, and captions directly onto your videos. 

#8 – Record Slideshow for Playback

Enhance your presentation experience by easily recording your slideshow for playback. With Keynote, you have the option to record your presentation, allowing you to share it with others or review it at a later time.

To start recording , simply go to the Play menu and select Record Slideshow . Before you begin, customize the recording settings to your preference. You can choose to include narration and even enable pointer options to highlight important elements on your slides.

During the recording, navigate through your presentation as you would during a live presentation. Use the pause and stop buttons to control the recording and make adjustments as needed.

Once you’ve finished recording, take the time to review and edit the recording if necessary. This way, you can ensure that the playback is smooth and professional.

Recording your slideshow is a convenient way to capture your presentation and share it with others, whether it’s for training purposes, remote meetings, or simply to have a record of your work. No matter what your role is, this Keynote tip can be especially useful if you share your presentations with others!

#9 – Control the Slideshow Remotely

This is a cool Keynote tip for anyone who hosts presentations! Control your Keynote slideshow remotely using the Keynote app on your iPhone or iPad. With this feature, you can easily navigate through your presentation without being tethered to your computer.

Here are three ways you can take advantage of the remote control functionality:

• Connect your Mac and your iPhone or iPad to the same Wi-Fi network. This ensures a seamless connection between the devices.
• Open the presentation you want to control on your Mac , then tap the ‘Play’ button in the top-right corner of the Keynote toolbar. This starts the slideshow on your Mac.
• Once the slideshow is running, you can control it by tapping the ‘Next’ or ‘Previous’ buttons on your iPhone or iPad . This allows you to move through your slides effortlessly, even if you’re standing across the room.

But that’s not all! You can also use your iPhone or iPad as a laser pointer during the presentation. Simply press and hold on the screen, and a laser pointer will appear, helping you emphasize important points and engage your audience even more. Cool, right? 

Choose A Set Of Icons & Stick To It

For a visually cohesive and professional presentation, choose a set of icons that aligns with your theme and consistently use them throughout.

Not only does this create a visually engaging presentation, but it also reinforces your personal branding and message. The use of a specific set of icons helps in maintaining a streamlined and polished design aesthetic , ensuring that your slides look cohesive and well-designed.

A consistent set of icons also aids in guiding the audience’s understanding and navigation. It provides a visual cue that helps them follow along and comprehend the information presented.

Make Fast Edits with Master Slides

Say goodbye to manually editing each slide individually. Instead, make fast edits to the design and formatting of all slides by modifying the Master Slide templates.

With the Master Slides feature, you can efficiently update fonts, colors, and layout elements across all slides in your presentation.  

Imagine the efficiency of making a single edit and seeing it instantly reflected throughout your entire presentation. With Master Slides, you can ensure consistency and cohesiveness in your slides without the hassle of repetitive editing.

Play with Themes

Enhance the visual appeal of your slides by exploring the Play with Themes feature and experimenting with different visual styles and aesthetics.

With Keynote, you can easily change the entire look and feel of your slides by applying different themes from the Themes chooser. This allows you to customize the themes by adjusting colors, fonts, and slide layouts to match your content and branding.

Include Stunning Charts and Graphs

Consider incorporating visually stunning charts and graphs into your Keynote presentation to enhance data representation. By utilizing these powerful visual aids, you can simplify complex information and make it more accessible to your audience.

Incorporating visually appealing charts and graphs into your Keynote presentation is a simple yet effective way to engage your audience, enhance data representation, and leave a lasting impact.

Export Keynote to Different Formats

This is another keynote tip that most people don’t realize the usefulness of at first glance. To ensure compatibility and easy sharing, Keynote allows you to export your presentation to various formats, including PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, and images . 

To export your presentation, simply go to the File menu and select ‘Export To’ . From there, you can choose the desired format and adjust settings to customize the export process. 

Consider the needs and preferences of your recipients when selecting the format for exporting your Keynote presentation. For example, if they primarily use PowerPoint, exporting to that format would make it easier for them to view and edit your presentation. On the other hand, exporting to PDF can ensure that your presentation retains its formatting and can be easily viewed on any device.

How Do I Make My Keynote Slides Look Good?

To make your Keynote slides look good, utilize slide transitions and animations, customize your toolbar for efficient editing, use pre-built templates, and incorporate interactive elements strategically. Take advantage of support options for additional assistance. And of course, don’t forget to apply best design practices!

What Are the Cool Things You Can Do in Keynote?

You can do many cool things in Keynote! Create smooth transitions, customize object animations, use Magic Move for seamless slides, and edit slide layouts. Customize your toolbar for quick access to frequently used tools.

How Do You Make a Keynote Presentation Effective?

To make your Keynote presentation effective, utilize the features on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Collaborate in real-time and sync across devices. Access support options like searching for answers, connecting with experts, and using user guides and forums.

Is Apple Keynote as Good as Powerpoint?

Yes! Apple Keynote is a powerful presentation software that offers unique features, seamless integration across devices, and a user-friendly interface. It provides a wide range of tools and templates to create visually stunning and engaging slides.

By utilizing these powerful Keynote tips and features, you can create beautiful and professional Apple slides that will impress your audience. Simply put, if you’re trying to become a keynote speaker , you should know these Keynote tips.

From mastering slide transitions and animations to customizing your toolbar and controlling the slideshow remotely, Keynote offers a range of tools to enhance your presentations.

With the ability to collaborate in real-time and seamlessly sync across devices, Keynote is the ultimate presentation software for unleashing your creativity and delivering impactful presentations.

Do you have other Keynote tips to share? Comment below and share your favorite Keynote features!

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Getting Started With Keynote: How To Create Your First Keynote Presentation

If you’re new to the Apple ecosystem, then you’re probably a stranger to Keynote, Apple’s very own presentation software. Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about it at this point, that’s what this article is for. So, stay tuned as I introduce you to this popular alternative to PowerPoint. You’ll learn how to navigate the Keynote workspace and later on, how to create your first Keynote presentation.

Why Use Keynote?

I’ve got a few good reasons why Keynote is an awesome presentation software for Mac users.

• It’s free and readily available

Keynote comes pre-installed on new Macs. You don’t need to download it, but if you need to, you can always download it for free on the App Store . For the PowerPoint (and Windows) faithful who’ve made the switch to Apple computers, you’re probably asking this very question right now:

“Why use Keynote when PowerPoint is available on Macs?”

Truthfully, the answer is you don’t have to. However, PowerPoint (and Microsoft Office) isn’t free. If you want to install PowerPoint on your Mac, then you’d need to buy a Microsoft Office license or a subscription to Office 365.

If you absolutely don’t need to use PowerPoint, then why not give Keynote a try? It’s pretty simple to use, it’s intuitive and it works great on Macs. Plus, it’s free, so you don’t need to spend extra cash just to use the app!

• It’s designed for Macs

Keynote was designed by Apple for Apple. This means you’re not going to find Keynote on Windows or Linux or any other operating system. Apple is known for the quality of their products and Keynote is no different. It’s sleek, sexy, easy on the eyes, and it’s fairly easy to use.

For those saying they’d stick to PowerPoint on their Mac, that’s absolutely fine. But if you’re expecting your Mac PowerPoint experience to be on par with your Windows experience, then you’re going to be disappointed. The Mac version lacks many of the newer features you’ll find on Windows. And frankly, it’s just not as good as the Windows version.

If you need to use PowerPoint on Mac, I recommend you use Boot Camp or install third-party software like Parallels Desktop . This is so you can run Windows apps natively on your Mac.

• It’s user-friendly

Apple products are designed to work out of the box. It’s one of the reasons why many people swear by Apple products. You don’t need to be a designer to use Keynote. The interface is clean, intuitive and relatively simple. Sure, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s nowhere near the time you need to spend to master PowerPoint.

If you’re coming from PowerPoint, you may even think Keynote is too simple. But that’s why Keynote users love it – they don’t need to overthink their slide designs. You may not have granular control over every single aspect of your presentation (and this may be a no-no for diehard PowerPoint users), but plenty of Keynote users don’t mind. When all is said and done, they know they’ll have a great-looking presentation.

• Works on all Apple devices

If you’ve invested heavily into the Apple ecosystem, then Keynote should be your presentation software of choice. Why? Because you’re not limited to using just one device to edit your slides. You can work on your slides on your MacBook, iMac, iPad, and even your iPhone! You can even access your Keynote file on non-Apple devices – simply fire up a web browser and go to iCloud Keynote!

• It’s PowerPoint-friendly

Ah yes, PowerPoint users need this reassurance. You’ve probably been burned in the past when PowerPoint and Keynote didn’t play too well with each other. And you had all sorts of problems trying to sort out compatibility issues.

Well, it’s 2019 now. According to Apple themselves, they’ve redesigned Keynote to work better with Microsoft Office products. They regularly update the software too to ensure better compatibility.

Here’s an article detailing the compatibility of Keynote with PowerPoint. You’ll notice there are more ticks in the Supported and Partially Supported columns than the Not Supported one. So, hurray for PowerPoint and Keynote fans!

Getting Started With Keynote

Now that you know just how awesome Keynote is, I’m going to give you a rundown of the software’s interface. To get started with Keynote, launch the app from the Launchpad or look for it in the Dock. You’ll then see the theme chooser (see screenshot below). Choose whether you want to use a standard (4:3) or wide (16:9) theme.

Note : If you don’t see the theme chooser above, press the Option key on your keyboard and click File > New to open a new Keynote file. The theme chooser will then appear on your screen.

Navigating the Keynote workspace isn’t as hard as it looks. The interface is relatively cleaner and simpler than PowerPoint. This is what the Toolbar looks like:

As you can see above, I’ve divided the Toolbar into 5 different parts. Here’s a run-down of what each part does:

1 – This is the navigation panel. As you can see, there are 3 buttons in this section (View, Zoom, and Add Slide):

• Under View , you can decide whether you want to use the Navigator view (default), Slide Only view, Light Table view, or Outline view. This is also where you go to edit the Master Slides, show object list, and more.

• You can also Zoom in or out of whatever view you’ve selected. If you don’t want to mess around with the percentages, you can always click on Fit Slide .

• Lastly, you can click on the Add Slide button to, well, obviously, add a slide. However, this is where it gets interesting. When you add a slide, Keynote doesn’t automatically add a blank slide (like PowerPoint). Instead, you get to choose the slide layout you want to use.

2 – This section consists of the Play and Keynote Live buttons.

• Clicking on the Play button will play your slideshow.
• Hit Keynote Live if you want to present a live slideshow to anyone in the world. Your audience can watch your presentation on any Apple or iOS device, or any browser connected to the Internet.

Note you’ll need to be connected to iCloud for this feature to work. Once you’re logged in, you can copy and paste the link to your slideshow and send it to your audience. You can also lock your presentation with a password if you’re concerned about security.

3 – In this section, you can choose from 6 different elements you can add to your slides. You can add a table , chart , text , shape , media (images, videos, audio) and comment . The first 5 elements are largely self-explanatory.

For the 6 th element (comments), these are helpful if you’re collaborating with somebody else. You can have a chat in real-time about your ideas and any changes you want to make to the design. In case you’re wondering, the comments won’t appear in your actual presentation.

4 – If you’re collaborating with other people, then you simply need to click the Collaborate button. You can specify who can access your Keynote and their permission level. Here’s what it looks like:

5 – The fifth section is where you go to edit the properties of all the elements and slides in your presentation. You can see 3 options or buttons here: Format , Animate and Document .

• Format. To format your slide itself, click on a blank space on your slide. You’ll be able to change your slide layout here as well as edit the Master Slide. You can also change the appearance of your slide (change background appearance, etc.).
• Format an element . The format menu options will change according to the element you click on. Say, for instance, you click on a text, then the formatting options for text will appear on your screen. If you click on a photo, then the image formatting options will appear, and so on.
• Animate (Slide Transition) . If you want to add animations when you transition from one slide to another, this is the correct button to click. Slide transitions are categorized into four: (1) Appear & Move, (2) Flip, Spin & Scale, (3) Object Effects, and (4) Text Effects. You can adjust the duration, color, delay, and more, of your selected effect.
• Animate (Element Effect) . You can choose to add a Build In effect, an Action effect, and a Build Out effect for your elements.
• Document . Click on this button to change your document settings. In here, you can adjust your Slideshow Settings, Presentation Type, Slide Size and more. Additionally, you can also record your slideshow in the Audio tab and add a Soundtrack . This is great if you plan on playing your slideshow in conference kiosks (self-playing) or converting your Keynote to video.

Additional Keynote options

You’re probably wondering if that’s all that Keynote can do. Well, of course not! In addition to the Toolbar, you can also access more settings and features in the Menu bar. You’ll see this at the very top of your screen:

If you think the default Toolbar lacks some important feature, and you don’t want to go looking for it in the Menu bar every time you want to use it, then you may want to customize the toolbar.

Here’s how you do it:

Go to View > Customize Toolbar . You can drag and drop your most frequently used buttons to the toolbar. For example, if you find yourself frequently using the Group and Ungroup options, then you may want to drag it into your toolbar so you can group/ungroup elements with just a single click. If you’re very particular about the size of your fonts, then add the Bigger and Smaller buttons to your toolbar.

The good thing about customizing your toolbar is that you can always go back to the default settings. If you find yourself wanting to go back to the original toolbar menu, then go back into the Customize Toolbar menu again.

As you can see on the screenshot above, there’s an option to drag the default set into the toolbar . Don’t forget to hit the blue Done button when you’re finished.

Using iCloud Keynote

If you want the ability to edit your Keynote presentation on other devices, then log in to iCloud on your Mac. Go into System Preferences and click on iCloud . You’ll see this on your screen:

Type in your Apple ID and password if you already have one. If not, click on Create Apple ID .

Now that your Mac is logged in to iCloud, all your photos, contacts and documents (including Keynote files) will be stored in iCloud. This means if you have an iPhone or iPad, and you’re logged in using the same Apple ID, then all the files uploaded to iCloud will automatically appear in your Apple devices. So, you can create your Keynote on your MacBook or iMac, and then continue editing on your iPad or iPhone. Awesome, right?

But what about if you need to need to make last-minute changes to your presentation and you don’t have an Apple device nearby? Will all your hard work go to waste? Thankfully, not.

Just open a web browser on any computer and go to https://icloud.com . You’ll see this prompt on your screen:

Once you’re logged in to iCloud, you’ll see this menu on your screen:

Click on Keynote and you’ll be able to see all the Keynote files you’ve made on other iCloud-linked devices. If you want to create a new file, click on Create Presentation .

Just like in the desktop version of Keynote, you’ll see the Theme Chooser menu on your screen:

Click on the theme you want to use. A new tab will automatically open on your browser. This what the iCloud Keynote workspace looks like:

As you can see, it looks almost exactly the same as the desktop version. You’ve got the View and Zoom icons, the Play slideshow button, the 6 element types you can add to your slides (table, chart, text, shape, media, comment), the collaborate icon, and the format and animate button.

At a quick glance, however, you can see that the Keynote Live and Document icons are missing on the toolbar. Unfortunately, like most web-based presentation software, iCloud Keynote also has its drawbacks. A number of features from the desktop app are missing.

For instance, once you’ve selected your theme on iCloud Keynote, you’re going to have to stick with it. You simply don’t have the option to change it to another theme.

For this example, I used the Artisan theme in the screenshot above. I wanted to change it to the Gradient theme, but iCloud Keynote doesn’t have the Document button (available on the desktop version) that allows you to change themes and slide sizes.

There’s also no option to edit the Master Slides. While there’s a Media button, you’re limited to adding images only. This means inserting videos and audio files are not going to be possible on iCloud Keynote. Formatting options are also limited, so keep this in mind when creating and editing slides on the web.

The good news, however, is that iCloud integration is fantastic. You can create your slides in iCloud Keynote. Once you get your hands on an Apple computer, you can just edit your file on the desktop app. iCloud Keynote is great for editing presentations while you’re on the go. For maximum control, however, Keynote desktop is the way to go.

Tips to Make Your First Keynote Presentation a Standout

Even the most novice of Keynote users can make something stunning in just a few minutes. How? Well, if you haven’t noticed, Keynote’s built-in themes already look great. So, really, if you’re in a hurry, you can just choose one of the themes from the Theme Chooser. Then, select the layouts you want to use and replace the placeholders with your own content!

But, of course, if you truly want to make your keynote presentation a standout, then it’s best to actually put some time and effort into making one that your audience is going to love. So, here are some tips you can use to impress your audience and make sure your message is heard loud and clear.

• Keep text to a minimum

No matter what presentation software you use, it’s best to keep text to a minimum. You don’t want to copy and paste several sentences or a few paragraphs in your slides. You don’t want your audience to just read your slides. If you do this, then there’s really no incentive for them to listen anymore, is there?

As the popular saying goes, “less is more.” Strive to have a simple presentation instead of going for all the bells and whistles you can think of. Your audience isn’t there to read, they’re there to listen to your presentation.

Think of your slides as mere visual aids. They’re there to make your presentation more interesting. They’re supposed to help your audience understand your main points.

• Use the right font

Different fonts convey different emotions. There are fonts that look professional. Then there are those that look fun. There are even retro fonts and scary-looking fonts (perfect for Halloween-themed presentations).

Adding new fonts to your Keynote presentation is relatively quick and easy. You’ve got two ways:

• You can download a font package and add it to Font Book . You can look for this app in your Applications folder or you can search for it using Spotlight (press both Command + Spacebar ). Click the (+) icon in Font Book and locate where you saved the downloaded font. Your new font will now appear in the Font dropdown in Keynote.

• The second option is to download an app called SkyFonts . You can download and install fonts from Google Fonts, Fonts.com, Monotype and MyFonts. Personally, I prefer this option because you don’t need to download the fonts to your computer. These are stored in the cloud and you can easily remove the fonts you’re no longer using.

Just a word of caution though. If you intend to download fancy fonts and use different devices to edit your Keynote slides, then you may be in for a shock. The fonts in iCloud Keynote are predefined, so whatever font you install on your Mac isn’t going to appear in iCloud Keynote.

• Use high-quality graphics

As the old cliché goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. You can put a picture on a slide, and it will tell the audience its own story. All without you needing to say a single word about it. That’s how powerful images are.

So, one of the first things you need to do once you figure out what you’re going to say in your presentation is to look for an image that will perfectly capture your main points. It doesn’t have to be an original photo or one that you took yourself.

You can use photos as background for your slides or you can use it as the main subject. The good news is there are millions of free images on the web. You just need to know where to look. Places like Unsplash , StockSnap and ISO Republic all offer high-quality images for free.

• Utilize white space

A busy-looking slide will only distract your audience. They won’t know exactly where to look. But if you have plenty of white space on your slides, then you can direct their attention to whatever you’re showing on screen.

Contrary to popular belief, white space doesn’t actually need to be white. It can be any color that will fit in well with your theme. For instance, take a look at the screenshot below. There’s a lot of blank space on the slide – this is what’s known as white space.

As you can see, it’s easy to follow what the slide above is trying to say. Doodling helps stimulates the brain, helps to see the big picture, improves learning, and helps to organize knowledge. The graphics used are simple enough to understand.

• Use third-party themes and templates

There’s obviously nothing wrong with using the built-in themes and templates on Keynote. But, if you want to stand out from the crowd of similar-looking presentations, then it’s best to use something else that not a lot of people are using. This is where third-party themes and templates come in.

You can download themes and templates that are made specifically for Keynote . Or you can use those that are made for PowerPoint! Surprised? Yes, PowerPoint templates do work on Keynote!

How To Use PowerPoint Templates For Your Keynote Presentations

To use PPT templates for Keynote, all you have to do is fire up Keynote, click on Open, then look for the PowerPoint file. If there are compatibility issues, Keynote will give you a list of things that may look different.

For this example, I downloaded one of our free templates, the Competitor PowerPoint Template pack. Note that you need to create a free account so you can download any of our templates.

Most PPT templates when opened in Keynote will probably have a few issues. I saw a couple of slides which needed a bit of editing. Here’s an example:

For the most part, however, the majority of slides looked great on Keynote! Here’s a screenshot of slides 5-10:

As you can see, the slides look really good. All you need to do is just edit and replace the placeholder content with your own, and you’re good to go! You can then save the file as a Keynote presentation or export it to another format.

Final Words

Apple users, rejoice! You’ve got a free and very capable presentation software on your hands. You don’t need to spend extra cash just to use PowerPoint. As you’ve learned in this article, Keynote is relatively easy to use. You’ll be able to create your first Keynote presentation in no time at all!

You might also find this interesting: PowerPoint vs Keynote: Which Is The Best Presentation Software?

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How to Create a Keynote Presentation Template Design

Designing good Keynote presentations aren't as challenging as you might think. By using a reliable workflow, making good aesthetic choices, and answering the right questions, you're setting yourself up to design a successful Keynote presentation. Once complete, you can save your Keynote presentation template design as a theme to use again and again.

In essence, we can summarize the workflow in the following steps:

• set up your story
• choose the art direction
• wireframe your slides
• design your presentation template
• fine-tune the animation
• save your final theme

The results of any presentation are a reflection of the quality of your content and how well you deliver your message, but it also depends on your underlying presentation design.

Guide to Making Great Presentations (Free eBook Download)

Before you jump into this tutorial, be sure to download our free eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It will help you not only design, but also come up with killer presentation ideas, write effectively, and put together the perfect presentation. 

Also, if you need a professional design solution right away, you can browse through our collection of  Keynote presentation templates  on GraphicRiver. Otherwise, let's look at how to design your own.

Design Supports Your Presentation

Design is the foundation of all the content of your presentation. It  enhances   the message that you're working to convey. It makes storytelling easier by showing visual assets such as photography, illustrations, and animations to bring forth your story. 

Successful presentations depend on the strength of your design as much as your raw content. With a Keynote theme uniquely designed for your audience and message, you're armed to make an impact. Let's look at the process.

1. Define Your Audience and Story

Before opening Keynote, it all begins with crafting a story. Well-designed presentations have a beginning, middle and end. You should avoid a linear presentation of facts, but rather create a fluid story. 

This strategy helps keep your audience engaged during presentations, which is especially crucial if you're giving longer ones where it's easy to lose the attention of your audience.

Put Your Audience First

Define what audience you're speaking too. Consider how you can translate your content into a story which they can relate to. For the sake of this tutorial, we'll use the following example to create our Keynote presentation theme: A startup is pitching their product to an audience of potential users and investors. 

Craft Your Presentation Story

With our audience in mind, the next step is to decide upon the story. Startups often use the following storyline to present their pitch:

• Present the problem (often a personal experience).
• Describe the road to the solution.
• Present the solution (the product or service).
• Describe what makes the solution great (sell the product or service).

Based on that, we have a rough structure of how we're going to tell what we need to say in the form of a coherent story. 

2. Plan the Art Direction for Your Pitch

Now it's time to start with the actual design for your Keynote presentation. Why did we need a story as described above before we could start the design? The story will affect your art direction and visual style.

Choose Your Visual Elements

Based on your story you can define what type of visual elements you'd like to use in the presentation design. You have a variety of choices for the type of visual elements you'd like to use:

• photographs
• illustrations
• iconography

Consider Branding Needs

Another important factor for the art direction is branding. If you're creating a presentation template design for a specific company, be sure to check if they have branding guidelines in place. 

Maybe there is no formal documentation on their branding, but there might be a consistent use of fonts and colors. In essence, for the art direction it's not necessary to reinvent the wheel but rather respect a clients existing brand.

Of course, if there is no brand you have a lot more freedom to design your Keynote template as you please. 

Story as a  Catalyst to  Design

The story behind a presentation is helpful to lock down decisions in regards to the visual elements in your presentation. The story should convey emotions that motivate the audience you're targeting. You're able to make design decisions based on that concept. 

Prior to opening Keynote, these are the typical steps I take: 

• Define what the mood of the deck will be based on the story. This will affect my design decisions.
• Lock down the type of image assets which will be used and collect material to use (eg. What theme of photography or style of illustrations will I use?).
• Lock down the color scheme and typography (This is typically based on branding guidelines).

In our example we're using in this tutorial, we're creating a presentation design for a startup which sells bottled juices. The existing brand has a strong focus on warm colors as it's a product which is supposed to make people feel good about themselves. We can express these types of emotions through bold typography, warm colors and using photography in which people are in situations they feel happy. 

3. Wireframe Your Presentation Slides

We have a story and a visual direction for our deck, the next step is to define the presentation structure. 

The most efficient method I've found is to use paper and pencil to simply start sketching different slides. The idea is to rapidly prototype a number of presentations of how the slides will look structurally. I challenge myself to not spend more than 15 seconds per slide. I draw rough lines to indicate where text is placed, where visuals are placed and how I'm dividing the story into different slides.

Once I have a number of variations, I pick the best ones and start defining what the different slide templates will be. For a deck of around 20 slides for example, I typically have about 4-6 template slides I use to create the full presentation.

The idea is that you draw for about half an hour and then start with the production design of your Keynote presentation. 

For this tutorial and the creation of our startup deck, we're going to be focusing on two example template slides to design: 

• full-width photography slide
• features slide

In a full project, you'll often will have more template slides, but showing how to design these two will give you an understanding of the process.

4. Design Your Keynote Presentation Template

Now we have all the assets we need! We have the content and corresponding story. We have an idea of the visual elements we'd like to use as well as the structure of the presentation. Now, it's time to get designing!

Design the Photography Slide

One of the slide templates we need to design features a full width photograph with a color overlay on top. Let's dive in.

To design a presentation template in Keynote, we'll be using master slides. Let's learn a little bit more about that workflow.

Working With Keynote Master Slides

First open Keynote, I typically start with a wide, white document. Next we’ll set up our master slides. A master slide is a slide template you can reuse. By default Keynote provides a number of options when you tap on the plus icon to add a slide in the upper left, those are all different master slides. 

With master slides you can design your slide layout options, and give your Keynote template a number of predefined options. The advantage is that you can setup where your text and photos will go as placeholders in various slide layouts, so you can keep your presentation design consistent.

If you're creating a large Keynote template for use on a number of presentations, then multiple master slides can be quite useful, especially if you're going to hand the theme off to a client to use or sell it on an online theme marketplace , as the layout of pages are locked while it's still possible to change the content.

Step 1: Set Up Your Master Slide

The first step is to start editing your master slides. To do this, left-click on the initial slide appearing on the left sidebar and click on Edit master slides . In this interface, you can easily edit any of your slides and later add them in the deck using the Add slide button which has the plus icon. Use any of the existing templates, or right-click on any of the master slides in the left sidebar and choose  New Master Slide .

Now we'll set up the initial master slide.

First we need to find a photo we can use. I highly recommend Unsplash as a source to find photos to use as you please. Of course, there are tremendous amount of ways to find photos online (or you can  buy stock photography ).

Once you have a photo you'd like to use, delete all the existing text boxes in your master slide. Now, let's add a photo to the background of the slide.

First, click on the Format tab on the right side of the Keynote window. You should see Background as one of the options. When you click on the arrow to display the options, you are able to select  Image fill . You can upload your photo of choice and it will appear in the background of the master slide. Finally, you have to assure the photo fits correctly. Choose  Scale to Fill as sizing option and we're all set!

Step 2: Add Branding Elements and Color

Now we'll add some color. Press the Shape tool in the top toolbar and click on any square. A new menu opens on the right to manipulate the shape. Let's make sure the shape works for us:

• In the style menu, click on the Fill and select No Fill .
• Also, select  Shadow  from the dropdown menu and apply  No Shadow .
• In the Arrange menu, make the position 0 and 0  across both axis. Also, make the size of the shape 1920 by 1080 .
• Now, back in the style menu, let's add the primary brand color. Select the Color Fill and press on the Color Wheel so you're able to add your own color.

For the startup presentation template we're creating we are applying a bright red (#ee504f) for the primary color (as shown above in the branding guidelines). We'll add this as color to the shape. Next up, still in the style menu, change the Opacity to 65% . Well done, there's your color overlay! 

Step 3: Add Your Text to the Master Slide

Now, let's add some text. Click on the Text tool in the top bar to have a text field appear on top of the slide. The font of our brand for titles is Roboto Bold, so I'm changing the typeface to this font. 

I'm going to increase the font size to 72px to give the title a little bit more punch. Finally, I'm changing the font color to white as it provides a better contrast with the red background. To reuse this style in the future, I'll be adding this style as a new Paragraph Style . 

On top of the text tab there's a small dropdown you can click on to display diverse paragraph styles. Tap on the little plus icon to add yours, give it the paragraph style a recognisable name (such as Title for example) and you're good to reuse it elsewhere!

Write down "Enter your title" as a placeholder text to define the purpose of the copy.

Let's add a subtitle. Apply the similar steps as described above, but rather have a font size of 46px and choose Italic as font style.

Finally, an important step is to indicate the text is a placeholder. You need to do this manually for all elements you want to make editable when a user creates their presentation using the master slides you've designed. Click on the text, and over to your right in the style tab, make sure to check the Define as Placeholder Text . Save the master slide and you're all set!

Step 4: Duplicate Your Master Slide

Another way to easily scale your presentation is to duplicate your master slides and give additional color options. As an example, let's create a different color photography master slide.

First, right-click on the master slide you just designed in the slide list over to your left. Next, click on  Duplicate slide . A duplication will appear right below the original master slide.

Note that all changes you make to the duplicated master slide won't affect the original master slide. It's an easy approach to create a number of variations of a master slide.

Step 5: Add a Unique Slide to Your Presentation

Great, first let's change the color of the overlay. Click on the box of color and change the  Fill  color to #34A5DF. Now, let's change the background photo. Click on the slide in the slide list over to your left, and you should see the background is set to  Image fill . We can keep all existing settings and just upload a different photo of your choice by clicking the Choose button. Save the master slide.

Now, people can easily add different content in their presentation. For example:

Design The Features Slides

The next template slide we'll work on is a feature slide. In the feature slide, we're making a simple slide explaining three benefits of the bottled juices the startup is attempting to sell. For this, we'll create a new master slide.

Step 1: Add a New Slide Setup the Text

First, let's add a new slide to the deck by adding a new master slide. Right-click on one of your slides and add a new master slide. Remember the title paragraph style we created in the previous slide? Add text using the Text  button in the top toolbar and use the dropdown to select the Paragraph Style 'Title'   we've created. 

Now, as the font color was white for the title you won't see anything because of the white background color. Let's change the font color to black and create a new Paragraph Style (be careful to not update the old one) and call it Title - Black . Make sure to check  Define as Placeholder Text  as we did previously.

Considering that we would like to add three benefits on one slide, the font is a little bit too big. Let's reduce the font size back to 56pts.

Step 2: Duplicate the Title Text

Now, we need to duplicate the title and add two more benefits. Simply hold the Alt key and drag the title to duplicate. As you drag them around, you notice how Keynote helps you distribute them equally by displaying yellow guides. I've structured my titles as following (all on a x-position of 160 and distributed vertically).

Step 3: Add Sentences

Let's add a single sentence description underneath each title. As you could see in the style guide, for the body text we use Roboto regular and a grey font color. Use Keynote tools to achieve the following result, assuring that the body text is also defined as placeholder text:

Step 4: Add a Photo

Now, finally let's add a photo which takes up the right side of the slide to complete the design. Similarly as we did with text before, you can check Define as Media Placeholder in the Style tab when you click on an image in order to make this easily changeable. Press  Done to save your master slide.

Now, when we use the master slide to start adding real content, it could look something like this:

Step 5: Rearrange to Add Variety

Now, let's duplicate the above master slide to create a variation. Enter the master slides screen, duplicate the above feature slide and let's rearrange some elements to create a different layout.

Practice your Keynote skills and recreate the following:

Step 6: Add Slides to Your Presentation

Now, finally go back to your presentation. Use the  Add Slide button to add all of the master slides we've created. You can change copy as well as images.

For text, you can simply click on any of the text fields and type to change the copy. For images, you can click on an image, go to the  Image tab and click on the  Replace button to change the image used.

• By working with templates and master slides, you can reduce the time required to create a strong presentation, especially if you'll be creating multiple presentations from the same theme.
• Master slides are especially useful if other people will be working with the source file as they can work within the theme you designed using basic text editing and formatting skills.
• In most presentation scenarios, less is more (less words, more simple photography, and limited color selection).
• Working with color overlays (colored shapes with transparency) you can quite easily 'brand' your photography. 
• Do a test run with your presentation! Often when presenting for the first couple of times, you might want to change a couple of things depending on how you like the flow of the presentation. 

5. Should You Use Keynote Animations? 

With that, we have our template mostly complete, which we can reuse to design the full presentation. There's one final step: Adding animations.

Using animations in Keynote is tricky. As easy as Keynote makes it to add animation to your slides, the first question you should ask is whether you should. It's important to consider if animations add value to your presentation or not. Animations could distract your audience or interrupt the flow of your presentation. Try it yourself and see if it works!

There are two types of animations:

• Transition animations which animate the transition between two slides.
• Emphasis animations in slides directly, which either build in, build out or perform an action in the slide itself.

Step 1: Add a Transition Animation

Click on one of your slides on the left and then click on the Animate tab in the top right of the interface. There's a large button  Add an Effect which upon clicking opens a large dropdown with diverse transition options.

Choose any animation and you can tweak the animation as you please in the tab on the right. Typically I make the  Duration a little bit shorter (0.5s) to make the presentation a little bit smoother.

Step 2: Add an Action Animation

Now click on an element within the slide, such as text for example. When you select an element in a slide, there are three new tabs added in the right pane.  Build in ,  Action and  Build Out . Either bringing elements in or out of the slide, or add emphasis to an element.

Use the same process as you did for the transition animation to add an  Action to the slide, for example  Pop   is a pretty good one.

Animation is something which is a little bit tricky to get into as there are many options! My advice is to keep it simple and experiment a little. For animations, most of the time less is more!

6.  Save Your Final Keynote Theme

Now it's time to save the template to reuse it at a later point, or use your current design for another presentation later by editing the master slides you've created. Simply click on  File in the top menu bar and then click on  Save Theme . Next, you can add it to the Theme Chooser. The next time you use Keynote, you can select this theme! You can also save it locally to your computer to make a backup in Dropbox for example.

That covered it! The above process makes it easier for you to design an effective presentation template. If you're looking for more inspiration, or would like to have access to great templates, check out the Keynote theme designs  created by excellent presentation designers on GraphicRiver.

The following are some of my favorite examples:

• Exalio Keynote Template  (shown above)
• Proposal Keynote Template
• Start Business Keynote Template

Also, you can find more great Keynote templates in the post below: 

Grab This New eBook on Making Great Presentations (Free Download)

Get your ideas formed into a powerful presentation that will move your audience. Download  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations  now for FREE with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter.  

It will will help you learn the complete process of how to make an effective presentation. Keep in mind that your design can only perform as well as your ideas, content, and delivery.

Should you have any questions, please ping me on Twitter ! Thank you for your time. 

6 Tips and Tricks for Amazing Keynote Presentations on Your Mac

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This is the one "boring" mac app you won't regret installing, these 6 apps help me turn procrastination into productivity.

Keynote is the simplest way to make a beautiful presentation on your Mac. If you pick a template you like and let the defaults do the trick, you'll most likely end up with something you're proud of. However, you've got a lot more options than just the basics.

When using Keynote, you can easily transition between different slides. On top of that, you can jump around however you feel necessary—along with much more. Here, you'll learn the best Keynote tips for making amazing presentations in macOS.

1. Master Keynote's Slide Transitions

Transitions and animations are the two biggest reasons to use Keynote for making a presentation. To add a transition effect, select the slide from the slide navigator on the left. From the top-right corner of the window, click on the Animate tab.

Then, select the Action option, and you'll see a big blue Add an Effect button.

When you click on it, you'll be able to select from more than a dozen effects. In the example below, we've used the Confetti effect.

Once you select a transition, you'll be able to define the duration, the direction, and the start time.

2. Animate Individual Objects on the Slides

Keynote lets you control exactly when and where your objects show up. You can animate these by going to Animate > Build In > Add an Effect .

Click the Preview button to see how it looks. If you want to animate multiple objects together or one after the other, select all of them when defining the Build In effect.

When multiple objects are involved, click the Build Order button from the bottom of the sidebar. Here, you can define the order in which the objects appear on the screen.

3. Master Magic Move

Magic Move lets you directly move an object from one slide to another, with complete control over the animation.

First, place the objects on the slides the way you want. From the Slide Navigator , duplicate the slide by using the Command + D shortcut.

Now, change the position of the objects on both slides. The first slide will have objects in the default state. In the second slide, position the elements where you want them to end up.

Select the first of the two slides (not both), and from the sidebar, click on the Animate tab. From the Add an Effect section, choose Magic Move .

Preview it, and you'll instantly see a smooth animation going from one slide to another. Keynote takes care of the transition and animation automatically. But if you want, you can change the duration, match it with text instead of objects, and define when to start the transition.

4. Edit Your Slide Layouts

If you're working on a big presentation, you'll probably want your styling to be consistent. To achieve this, you can use the feature that lets you edit your slide layouts—which will allow you to define layouts and designs you use frequently.

Finding this feature in Keynote is simple. On your Mac keyboard, hold the Control button and click on a slide with your trackpad. Then, choose Edit Slide Layouts from the context menu.

After selecting Edit Slide Layouts , you can adjust numerous areas of your Keynote slides. For example, you can include a title and photo—along with several other things.

When you're finished, hit the blue Done button at the bottom, and you'll have something that better fits your needs.

If you aren't a big fan of the presentation layouts in Keynote, you can always consider picking from various Keynote alternatives .

5. Customize Your Toolbar

The more you use Keynote on your Mac, the more you'll figure out what does and doesn't work for you. You'll also probably notice that you use some tools more frequently than others. Having easy access to these is a good idea if you'd like to work more efficiently when creating your presentations.

Customizing your toolbar in Keynote is quite straightforward. When using the app on your Mac, you'll first need to go to the View menu from the macOS menu bar and choose Customize Toolbar located at the bottom of the dropdown.

A pop-up window will appear; here, you'll see a huge range of icons and other things you can move around. Moving these is the same as if you wanted to change icons on your iPhone or iPad; you can drag and drop the features you most frequently use.

When you're done customizing your toolbar, you can click the Done button in the bottom right-hand corner.

Keynote isn't the only way you can customize on your Mac . You can change several areas on your computer—color schemes, icons, and sounds, to name a few.

6. Use Action Buttons for Shapes in Keynote

As you create your presentations in Keynote, you might want to use shapes for several reasons. You can use them to create graphics , and they're also handy for breaking up your text—among numerous other things. One of the app's best hidden features lets you turn any shape into more of an interactive button.

You can use the action options for shapes in Keynotes to jump to a different slide. But that's not all; they're also handy for opening web pages and even ending the presentation.

First, you'll need to add a shape to your Keynote presentation. You can do this by selecting Shape from Keynote's toolbar at the top.

Choose the shape you want to add to your presentation and select it. After that, use the Command + K keyboard shortcut.

Expand the dropdown menu, and you can choose whether you want your shape to link to a slide, a website, or something else.

After choosing the purpose of your shape in Keynote, complete the remaining steps that your Mac prompts you to do. You can then use your shape to supercharge how your presentation functions.

Get More Advanced With Keynote Presentations on Your Mac

If you use a Mac to create your presentations, you might want to use Keynote for several reasons. Its interface is user-friendly, and you have plenty of customization options. On top of that, the app makes it easy for you to move around to different slides and various other things—giving you more control over what you're trying to do.

Now that you've read these tips, you should have a better understanding of how you can improve your presentations and wow your audience. You've learned all about adding effects, skipping to different slides, and more.

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More From Forbes

Five tips to prepare a successful keynote.

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Standing on a stage and presenting to a crowd of thousands can intimidate even the C-suite leader. I’ve seen experts — who were brilliant in their fields and spearheading Fortune 500 companies — crumble behind a podium. A flop can be tough to watch, but more importantly, it can affect a leader’s credibility. But on the other hand, I’ve seen even the most guarded personalities become dynamic speakers.

So what’s the secret to delivering a wildly successful keynote?

A colleague recently put me on the spot with that question as we met over coffee. But as the CEO of a communications and public relations agency, I found that it’s actually not a secret at all: It’s preparation.

Here are five tips for preparing for a successful keynote:

1. Know your audience. You wouldn’t show up to a dinner party without knowing the hosts, so you shouldn’t enter a keynote presentation without knowing who’s in the room. Beyond the basics, such as audience size and format, think about who’s there and why. What challenges might they be facing? What new information could change their perspective? How can you motivate them to take a step in a new direction?

Research the audience like you would data for your deck. Once you know who will be there and why, you can start building a speech that will resonate with them.

2. Define your top three messages. Yes, just three. I believe if you have any more than that, you could risk losing your audience's attention. Think about what three things will change how they think about your area of expertise. What are your big ideas? Flesh them out.

Experts are asked to deliver keynotes because they’re just that — experts. There’s no question you know a lot about your subject matter. What unique points do you bring to the discussion? Capture the takeaways that the audience can only get from you.

3. Find your stats and stories. Next, break down the color commentary around your top three messages. Engaged audiences want a balance of practical data and personalized stories. We’ve all been in presentations loaded with chart after chart, so we all likely know that a data dump is boring. And in the reverse, you’ve probably walked away from a presentation questioning how you could recapture the past 45 minutes.

Research and pull data to support your messages. Package the data into graphics or slides that can be easily understood. Use the flash test: If you only had 15 seconds for your slide, would your audience get the point? If not, simplify your message.

What anecdotes do you have to complement your data? Whether it’s your own story, from a book you’ve recently read or based on a historical figure, think about making connections between the subject and your audience’s ethos. Stories can add color and solidify points that charts and graphs rarely can. They can leave your audience hanging on your every word.

4. Gather your tools. Depending on the audience (see tip No. 1), how you deliver a successful keynote presentation can vary. You can use slides for a visual cue of technical data or a moderated fireside chat to spark personal connection. Plan for energetic pacing with a wireless microphone, or request a barstool and microphone stand for a stationary spot. Hype the audience with a sizzle video, or fold in high-quality photography to give life to your stories. The tools really depend on the tone and takeaways you want to set.

Work with the venue and your communications team to get your tools in place ahead of time. Think of it as a carefully choreographed event. Every slide, file, visual and aid has the purpose to convey a powerful message.

5. Prepare your delivery. Even the most experienced presenters need practice. With each new audience and venue, a strong keynote comes from repetition and expert timing. It’s not unlike acting; timing is everything. Think through the order of the content to be sure it tells a cohesive story. Plan key phrases that will stand out and stick with your audience. Work in a few lighter moments, and allow time for questions. I believe preparation and practice lock in most of your material and leave a margin for a bit of the unexpected — where many of the best keynotes find their magic.

Sharing your expertise on stage builds credibility for your company and your personal brand. Take these tips and step onto the stage ready to captivate the audience with a compelling keynote, one story at a time.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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How to make a great presentation

Stressed about an upcoming presentation? These talks are full of helpful tips on how to get up in front of an audience and make a lasting impression.

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Tutorial: How to make animated videos with keynote

Many creators are hoping to create professional-looking videos for your online course, but are not sure where to start. Using Keynote (or its Microsoft equivalent, PowerPoint) is a simple and fun way to make beautiful videos at home . It’s relatively easy to make an animated videos with Keynote. We’ll show you how.

Transforming Keynote to video

Animation on Keynote is kind of magical. And it’s way more powerful than you might think.

For example, we made this colorful white-boarding presentation all on Keynote. But, you probably couldn’t tell right away by just looking at it. Just think about all the weeks or months you’d have to spend learning complex animation software to get the same results. Even the process of selecting animation software is overwhelming, and can be a huge barrier to new course creators.

You can harness this power too. And it’s not nearly as difficult as you might think. Below, we’ll walk you through step-by-step how to make animated videos with Keynote (without it even looking like Keynote at all).

Step 1: Make your presentation

Create a new keynote.

Create a new Keynote presentation to start. You’ll see that a new Keynote theme usually begins in “standard” size. Standard isn’t good for video, so you want wide instead.

Select “Wide” at the top and choose the theme you want to begin with.

Set up the right dimensions

Before you start changing around colors, or adding text and images, this is the most important action you’ll take. Customize your dimensions so they fit YouTube’s high-quality resolution. This will also upload seamlessly onto Teachable’s platform.

To do this, check out the righthand bar of your Keynote program. Select Document . Then you’ll see a category below named Slide Size . Click on that, and toggle to Custom Slide Size.

Next, enter the optimal custom slide size. We highly recommend 1920×1080 , which we will consistently use throughout the course of this tutorial on how make animated videos with Keynote.

Dimensions are really important. If you don’t get them right the first time, you’ll spend hours fixing it later.

Customize for brand colors and fonts

Now that your dimensions are set up, you can start on the design portion. It’s easy to customize Keynote slides to fit your brand colors and fonts.

You’ll find this customization on the right hand corner of your screen under Format > Edit Master Slide .

Editing the master slide means that you’ll pick the default colors and fonts for all the slides. This will make your life easier in the long run, because you won’t have to change font sizes, colors, and background colors every time you create a new slide.

You’ll get this warning because editing master slides will change all slides. Because you haven’t made any slides yet, though, this will be an asset instead of a problem. After you’ve selected your brand fonts, colors, backgrounds and overlays, you can finally get down to creating your course content.

Add images and text

Keynote leaves you plenty of versatility to add shapes, photos, charts, GIFs.

We especially love using their “Shape” section to animate our own videos. You can select as many of these icons as you want, then customize the color or add dimension.

For the SEO course we created, we used the free Keynote icons under “Shape” to animate the introductory video. Here’s an example of how it can look:

Play around with animation

Once you’ve added all the imagery and text you want for each slide, you’ve finally arrived to the part that makes this program special: animation.

This is where you can bring your keynote slides to life and make them look like a professionally animated video. Think of this as a shortcut to making professional, fun, highly engaging video, with just a few clicks of a button.

Click on the piece of text or image that you want to animate. Make sure you’ve toggled to the Animate button in the right hand corner, which sits between Format and Document.

Here are what the Keynote animation features mean:

• Build in – Whenever you build something in, it means you’re introducing that image or text to the viewer for the first time. The build in action you choose will bring your selected object into the slide.
• Action – The action button is for any object that is already in the slide. It won’t appear, it will already be there on the screen. You’ll use this feature when you want to animate or emphasize something that’s already on the screen.
• Build out – When you build out an object, you make that object leave the screen. The object will already be on the screen, and this exits with your build out of choice.

The best part? There are all different kinds of animations. Toggle around and hit the preview button to see what they’re like.

They’ll make your selected text or objects bounce, fly, go up in flames, burst into fireworks, or wipe away. With such a variety, you can make your videos look way more fun and engaging.

For example, in this part of my video, we used the transitions Move In , Scale , and Move Out . We also checked the Bounce box to give the objects a little pep.

Other features worth mentioning when learning how to make animated videos with Keynote:

• Duration – Duration means how long the selected animation will last. You can choose between a fraction of a second and a whole minute. Play around and see what pacing fits your video best.
• Direction – From which direction will your object appear? With most text and images, you can choose any different corner of the slide.
• Order – This part is important. You don’t want your supporting bullet to enter the slide before your headline. You can select your chosen object and then decide its order when building in and building out. Test all of your slides together to make sure they pop up in the right order.

Want to see more keynote to video clips? Here’s another Keynote animation example of the slides.

Note that we’ve put this in GIF format for easier viewing, but the frame rates are seamless and clean in the actual video.

Step 2: Change your screen formatting

Once you’ve completed your animation, you’re ready to prepare for recording. Many people hit snags in this process because the format of their screen is different from the format of their slides.

First, download SwitchResX , or a similar screen resizing software.

Once you’ve installed it, you can temporarily change the resolution size of your screen. Go to SwitchResX > Color LCD > Current Resolutions . You’ll see what your screen is already at (mine is usually set at 1680×1050).

Remember how we formatted the Keynote slides to 1920×1080 in the beginning? You’ll select the same screen resolution here to make sure your slides and your screen are perfectly aligned.

You’ll notice your screen resolution shift and things will look a little different. Don’t worry, that just means it’s working. Now, you’re ready to record.

Step 3: Select your recording method

There are several different ways to record your Keynote to video once it’s ready for action. Which method you choose largely depends on your preferences, but I’ll list some pros and cons of each.

Keynote recorder

As it turns out, Keynote has its very own recording app.

• You can read your slideshow notes while you’re recording, without them showing up in the end product.
• You’ll be taken to a recording “staging” area that will help you see your Keynote animations and slides one step ahead. That means you’re less likely to flub up your lines.
• It might be hard to set up an external mic if you would prefer your own while you’re recording the slides.
• You’ll have to do a proper recording all in one shot. It’s harder to redo recordings with this feature.

Screenflow is an app that can simultaneously record your screen and your computer audio at the same time.

• Allows you to record your voice and slides at the same time.
• Many people find easy to use.
• Can be buggy.

Consider recording the screenflow first and then bring in audio recorded from an external mic in later.

You can also see your Keynote program while using QuickTime. All you have to do is enter the program and then select File > New Screen Recording . You can select the entire screen instead of cropping because you’ve already formatted the screen correctly.

Once you’ve completed recording a video, make sure to export it in the correct dimensions as well. (See why we wanted you to know about all of them!)

For example, with QuickTime, once the recording is over, you’ll want to save the file in the correct dimensions as well. You can do this by going to File > Export As > 1080 . This fits the YouTube-style resolution we’ve been consistently using throughout.

Step 4: Choose your assembling method

Now, it’s time to mix your animated slides and audio together.

If you’ve decided to go with a computer mic and recorded this all together on Keynote, you may even skip this step. (We do recommend that you use an external mic or headphone mic if possible. You can read more about recording quality sound here .)

If you’d like to add intro and outtro slides, music, or other effects, you’ll need video editing software to complete the job. Here are some basic options, along with the pros and cons.

Apple Movie

Apple Movie comes with Macs and has an incredibly simple user interface.

• Very beginner friendly.
• Drag and drop makes it easy to visualize where your animated video and audio are aligning.
• Overly simple. Doesn’t allow you to edit your video in a more advanced way.
• Can sometimes be more slow and clunky than more advanced programs.

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is the industry standard for video editing. The industry standard used to be Final Cut Pro, until their product became too similar to Apple Movie.

• Offers advanced options for special effects, audio gain, and lighting.
• Seamlessly integrates with AfterEffects, Audition, and all other Adobe software.
• Is easier to layer narration, music, sound effects, and different types of visuals.
• Costs money for a subscription.
• Has highly advanced features that can be harder for beginners to understand.
• Can be easy for beginners to accidentally mess up and damage their files.

Overall, the choice of video editor is yours! Do your research to see which one would best fit your needs and your process to make animated videos with Keynote.

Step 5: Triple check your dimensions

We’ve talked about dimensions a lot in this post. But this is tip a million and one: Check your dimensions throughout every step of the process when it comes to understanding the process to make animated videos with Keynote. Here is where you’ve ensured your dimensions are 1920×1080 so far:

• Keynote slides
• Screen resolution before recording
• Saving the completed screen recording at the correct resolution

Next, you’ll have to look out for these, too:

• Setting up your video editor for the correct dimensions
• Exporting video for the correct dimensions
• Uploading for the correct dimensions

Step 6: Upload and share

You’ve created your slides. You’ve learned how to make animated videos with Keynote. And then you’ve edited and uploaded them with the perfect dimensions in mind. Once you complete these steps, you’ll have gorgeous, animated videos built for an exceptional online course .

Still curious what they can look like? Here’s another video we produced with Keynote:

And a couple others we found online:

Those videos will look so professional and may give you the justification to charge more for your courses .

More like this

Kristin Hoppe , Kristin is a writer and content marketer in New York City.

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How to write key takeaway slides (with examples and free template).

Table of contents

What are key takeaways, what is a key takeaway slide, when to use a key takeaway slide, how to write a key takeaway slide, examples of key takeaway slides, free key takeaway slide template.

BCG, Bain, and McKinsey consultants love the term “key takeaways”. When it comes to consulting presentations, the term usually refers to one of two things:

• Key takeaway slides: A slide that summarizes the most important conclusions, insights, or action points covered in the presentation or section.
• Key takeaway boxes: A small rectangular box of text at the bottom of a slide, sometimes also called a ‘kicker box’.

In this short post, we will teach you about the key takeaway slide, how it is different from the key takeaway box, how to write a key takeaway slide, and give you examples from McKinsey and BCG presentations and a free template for you to create your own.

Let’s dive in.

Key takeaways are the main points of a given project or presentation that you want the audience to walk away remembering. Key takeaways are not a play-by-play summary of every conclusion in the project or presentation, but rather the most important conclusions. Key takeaways of a project can therefore differ depending on who the audience is and what their objectives are.

Using key takeaways helps elevate your presentation from okay to truly impactful . It helps your audience to focus on what the presentation is about and allows them to read the detailed findings with the main conclusion in mind. This means they are less likely to get lost in insignificant facts and are more able to ask questions that have an impact on outcomes.

Key takeaways are the top of the pyramid when following the Pyramid Principle .

A key takeaway slide is very simply a slide summarizing the key takeaways of a full presentation or chapter/section within a presentation.

The key takeaway slide can be simple bullet points on a text slide like the example here:

Example of simple text-based key takeaway slides

Or the key takeaway slide can include more elaborate graphical elements like colored boxes, numbers, icons or similar like the example here:

Examples of more graphical key takeaway slides from our free template

How is a key takeaway slide different from a takeaway box?

The key takeaway slide is a summation of most important points from the entire presentation or section. It basically presents the answers to the questions that particular presentation or project was meant to uncover.

A key takeaway box in contrast is a graphical element used on single slides to highlight a point on that slide. The takeaways here are often more granular and relate only to the slide in question.

Not surprisingly, you should use a key takeaway slide whenever you feel it makes sense to summarize key points for your readers. This is often at the beginning and/or end of a presentation, or at the beginning of a longer section of a slide deck.

Generally, you can never repeat key takeaways too often, which means you more often than not should include a key takeaways slide. As a rule of thumb you can always add a key takeaways slide before every major section of your presentation and then delete it at the end of your slide writing if it feels redundant. This will help you a) make sure you have thought through what your key points for that section are and b) that the slides in that section actually support your key points without excess or unnecessary material.

See more on best practices for creating presentations here and here , or visit our full library of resources .

The key takeaways slide is in the family of summary slides with the executive summary  and recommendation slides . This trio of slides can be used in combination, often with an executive summary in the beginning (summarizing the most important key takeaways and recommendations from the entire presentation), key takeaway slides before or after every major section, and recommendation slides at the end.

Example of a key takeaways slide from McKinsey where main questions are summarized to put the key takeaways in even better context

Writing a key takeaway slide is somewhat similar to writing your executive summary slide.

Step 1: Start with the questions

Before you even begin writing your key takeaway slide then take a moment to remind yourself which questions your presentation or that section are meant to answer. 

For example, BCG once had a project for the Victoria State Government on Melbourne as a global cultural destination (see the project here ). The main question that the project and report was supposed to answer was how to improve Melbourne’s attractiveness as a cultural and creative destination.

The objective for a section of the report was to “Make recommendations on actions to achieve these goals and to provide the strongest value for money outcomes for the State”.

In the next steps, we’ll continue with that section and example.

Step 2: Outline the answers

Once you have the questions/objectives in mind, then write down answers to these questions. Don’t worry about conciseness or smart formulations right now, just get all answers down in text format on your slide. Also add sentences on any unexpected findings that could have major implications going forward.

Step 3: Group the answers

Now group your findings/takeaways into main bullet points. If there are takeaways that overlap somewhat, see if you can combine them or eliminate one (if it makes sense). The reason to group into bullet points is to make it clear to your reader what the main areas for objective x are.

Ideally, you should have between three and nine overall bullet points with sub-points in each if needed.

Step 4: Cut and trim the wording

Once you’ve grouped the takeaways, you want to start trimming words and restructuring sentences. Delete any additional words that you possibly can and structure the sentences in the shortest way that still gets the meaning across. Err on the side of more active sentences that tell the reader what to conclude or convey an actionable item.

You want your readers to be able to quickly grasp the key points and not get lost in a wall of text.

Step 5: Format the slide

Once you have the content of your key takeaways slide in place, you can start formatting it to make it even more digestible for your reader. You can either keep the simple bullet format or add graphical elements to make it more visually appealing and easy to interpret

Golden rule here: Simple is better. Only use different colors or add icons or numbers if these are used in the rest of the presentation to distinguish solution areas.

Step 6: Add an action title

Now you’re almost done with your key takeaways slide. The last missing piece is adding an action title [LINK]. Although this is not an absolute must, an action title will help your readers understand what objective/questions these key takeaways relate to. Best practice is therefore to use that objective/question directly in the action title, like the example below.

Step 7: Sanity check with others

The final step of creating your key takeaways slide is to sanity check your key takeaways with your team and/or trusted advisors to see if they find them clear and give answers to the questions/objective.

Ideally, your reader can see only your key takeaway slide and from that still relay to others what the outcome of your project or section is.

To make it more useful and real, we’ve also found some examples of key takeaway slides from real McKinsey and BCG presentations.

First, we see a great example of how to use a key takeaway slide from BCG (find the full presentation here ):

Example of a graphical key takeaway slide and supporting section from BCG

Here we see how the BCG team opens the section with a key takeaways slide in a graphical format that allows the reader to both understand the different levers and how the client is doing on each of these levers. The slide itself uses colors instead of sentences to convey a status.

The following slides in the section then reference back to this key takeaways slide using the letter-balls and lever headlines as guides.

Finally, the section ends with a key takeaways slide that says the same as the opening takeaway slide but in words instead of colors.

Second, we have an example of a simple text-based key takeaways slide from McKinsey (full presentation here ), which summarizes the key takeaways for a section of a presentation:

Example of a simple text-based key takeaways slide from McKinsey

Third, we have a more graphical example of a key takeaways slide from McKinsey using radically larger font sizes to appealingly display several key numbers (find the full presentation here ). Note also how the McKinsey team has drawn attention to the main messages by using bold text. This is a classic trick and very effective.

Example of a graphical key takeaways slide from McKinsey

Key takeaway slides are not only used in management consulting presentations. Below is a great example from an Uber investor presentation showing how use of simple icons and bold text help the reader focus on the messages.

Example of a key takeaways slide from Uber

Finally, we have a simple but effective example of a key takeaways slide from BCG using simple graphical elements like number balls and bold text to make the main messages stand out (see the full deck here ).

Example of a key takeaways slide from BCG

Get a jumpstart on creating your own key takeaway slides with our free PowerPoint template. Just fill in your information and get the template delivered to your email.

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