Mac presentation software, not PowerPoint or Keynote?

November 23, 2004 6:25 PM

Are there any decent Mac "presentation software" programs for out there that are not PowerPoint or Keynote?
posted by stefnet to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Well it really depends on what you want to do. e.g., If you're just doing simply slideshows and don't care about fancy transitions, you can author as a PDF and play back in Acrobat Reader.
posted by nathan_teske at 6:36 PM on November 23, 2004

On the other side, if you want to get really fancy, Macromedia Flash works well.
posted by travis vocino at 6:41 PM on November 23, 2004

Response by poster: Ah! Acrobat or even Preview will fill my needs perfectly. My past presentations have involved either the low-tech overhead transparencies or the full video shebang, neither of which will be appropriate for this thing I have to do for a class. So I'm out of the loop on all of this middle range stuff. I'm loath to use PowerPoint and don't need all of its hoopla anyway.

Thanks!
posted by stefnet at 6:46 PM on November 23, 2004

There is also Open Office which exports to pdf, powerpoint, etc... and happens to have somewhat straightforward presentation utility.

Not sure if there is build for OS X or not.
posted by dasibiter at 7:07 PM on November 23, 2004

If you want to do LaTeX, there are a bunch of options available, that all would result in pdf. I've seen the beamer class in particular recommended as being easy to use.

There is an X-windows version of open office for OS X (there are working on a native port). I tried to use it and it caused one of the two really hard crashes that I've had on my ibook - the kind where a friendly message comes on your screen and says "you must turn off your computer now" in about 8 languages. YMMV.
posted by advil at 8:30 PM on November 23, 2004

Why is keynote bad?

It will make the "PDF stuff" look good (if you lay it out), handles full screen video, and is very "mac" vs. powerpoint (which isn't horrible, just not great.)
posted by filmgeek at 5:47 AM on November 24, 2004

Dude, Hypercard!
posted by oraknabo at 5:52 AM on November 24, 2004