Keynote on iPad seems incompatible with my Desktop Keynote

I'm not quite ready to take the thing back, as the kids seem to like having a $500 etch-a-sketch, and the book-reading, etc features seem to work great.

I was also thinking of doing the export of images followed by reassembly, but a bit more conservatively, keeping everything that works (or is easily fixed) and then patching what doesn't with this approach.

Ultimately, I think one of two approaches are needed:

1. Design the iPad keynote to be fully back-compatible, even if it means the ability to embed or load missing fonts and themes and transitions in a piece-wise, as-needed manner from the host Desktop computer.

2. Revise the iWork desktop Keynote.app so that you can work in a more restricted feature-set of "iPad safe" functionality.

It isn't the more limited functionality that bothers me, but rather it is the surprise of having things break. I could easily live with a subset of features as long as that subset is foolproof.

I certainly have no inside knowledge, but I can say that the folks at Apple really are interested in making this work, from what I have seen.

As end-users, I think the best thing we could do to help is identify what the most critical problems are, and if possible suggest tractable fixes.

For example, I think if the desktop Keynote could be put into a mode/option (reversibly) in which would guarantee that the output would be iPad-compatible, I would be very happy. I don't have a big problem with a reduced feature-set, as long as I don't have to guess at which ones are usable and which ones are problematic.

The only significant "bug" I think is not being able to import groups of objects.

In iTunes go into the "Apps" pane when the iPod is connected, and scroll to the bottom. You can add the file using that interface, It gives you a pop up file browser. There may be others, but this is by far the most straightforward.

Probably the easiest thing for Apple to do is to make iPad-specific themes (or enable you to copy the ones in the iPad keynote to the desktop Keynote) and then if you build within that subset, you should be reasonably safe.

For embedded PDF illustrations that don't show up, I have been exporting these as an image from Keynote, along with the background, and then reimporting that image as a replacement slide.

I have not found a workaround for quicktime movies that will not show up. My guess is that if I remade these they would work, but unfortunately presentations are a lot like folk songs. I have some slides that predate OS X.

No, I did not try it before I bought it. Nor have I tried probably the other $50K in Apple products that I have bought, both personally and professionally, over the years.

The main issue is that many of us had the impression (and I can give you ample justification for this if you really want to waste time) we could load existing presentations onto the iPad and have it "just work." There are minor incompatibilities with a few things when I go from my desktop to my laptop, but nothing on this scale. Several of us were caught off guard, and it is sufficiently uncharacteristic that we wondered whether we were simply doing something wrong that is easily fixed.

I am 100% happy with Keynote for the iPad as long as my presentation is prepared within the confines of its feature set. That isn't the issue here. Rather, it is simply one of portability.

I spent about six hours yesterday making an important presentation work. I used several approaches in combination:

1. For any previously existing slide with incompatible fonts, I made all the changes to a set of fonts that work within the iPad realm. Similarly with themes.

2. For any slide with a figure that would not show up, I exported the original file as a tiff image, then deleted the original slide, then reimported the tiff image of the original slide. I made each step of the build a separate tiff image, so that I only needed to replace the bit that was broken, pasting in working transitions and other features from the original slide. In other words, I made what was incompatible part of a customized background for that slide.

3. I changed any broken or missing transitions in the presentation once it was on the iPad, using the iPad's own interface.

This was time well spent for a presentation I give frequently, but for lectures I give once a year, it will be easier for me just to use them as they are on my MacBook Air.

There are a few things, like embedded movies, that are still problematic (some work, some don't).

If anyone thinks they can just drop a year's worth of lectures on this thing and run out the door, they will be in for a bit of a shock.

The compatibility gap between Keynote on the desktop and Keynote on the iPad is bigger than the gap between PowerPoint on the desktop and Keynote on the desktop. I would not have predicted that.

I think if we can figure out how to export a theme from the iPad to the desktop, that could help a lot.

This list of fonts someone posted above (Thanks!!!) is also really useful.