Keynote recorded cue implementation

Question

Level 1

9 points

Keynote recorded cue implementation

Anyone know how the cues are integrated into a recorded Keynote presentation? Are they something mixed into the sound recording used? Or...? JimA

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jun 10, 2010 4:30 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Chau

Level 1

59 points

Jun 12, 2010 8:34 PM in response to JimA99

Hi JimA99, sorry, but what do you mean by "cues"?

Reply

Answer 2

JimA99 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 12, 2010 11:02 PM in response to Chau

I should have said clicks. I have a presentation slide stream in place with many transitions and builds. I also have a prerecorded audio track. I am talking about the mouse clicks (cues) used to trigger many of the slides in synchrony with the audio track as I am recording them in order to create a self-playing presentation. I want to know how those clicks are integrated into the recorded presentation.

Reply

Answer 3

Chau

Level 1

59 points

Jun 13, 2010 12:08 AM in response to JimA99

Hi JimA99,

Thanks for clarifying. For Keynote there are 2 ways you can present a pre-recorded presentation.

1. Via Recording: Plays like a movie using your prerecorded narration and timing. Viewers can pause the presentation. For detailed instructions, see Keynote Help in menubar.
2. Via Self-playing: Advances automatically, like a movie. No user interaction is possible. Self-playing presentations are useful, for example, in a kiosk setting. For instructions, see Keynote Help in menubar: Creating Self-Playing Presentations.

What's nice is that when you're exporting the presentation as a movie you actually have quite few options: You can have a stand alone movie that moves forward manually by clicks (more control to the presenter), via hyperlinks, via recorded timing, or via fixed timing (can adjust slide and build durations). The two last options are the most automated options, the first 2 options require presenter or viewer interaction.

Try out the different options and see which one fits your purpose best, especially with regards to your audio tracks and timing. All of the options should be find for your audio, it just depends on how automated your want the presentation to be. In the most automated options (3 and 4), Keynote will create a self-playing movie presentation based on the details that you have incorporated in your transitions and builds (the order and the timing). Hope this helps a bit.

Reply

Answer 4

JimA99 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 17, 2010 10:07 PM in response to Chau

I appreciate the response, but I understand how to make the recorded presentation (I think). I believe I'm way beyond that. I have many dozens of presentations behind me with a variety of transitions and builds. including that wonderful magic move transition!

I have a very nice 7.5 minute presentation with all sorts of magic moves, and builds. There is a prerecorded audio track behind the presented slides I am attempting to synchronize with the audio track by recording the clicks over the slide sequence and audio in record mode (the mike volume is set to zero). The images are all stills, ...no video clips in this one.

My problem is [like many many others, judging by what the Internet has to say], that my presentation as recorded will not play right, or even consistently.
(1) The recorded presentation has run once perfectly.
(2) Other than that, it neither runs perfectly (skips certain cues), nor is always consistent in always failing in exactly the same way from run to run.
(3) It fails differently (misses different recorded clicks)when played on a different MacBook (both with 2M of memory, and plenty of hard disk space). Rebooting my MacBook seem to make no difference, nor does running only the Keynote application, nor does shutting off the wireless capability.
(4) Nearly all the "fails" consist of missing one or more transition, ...sometimes a cluster of them at the end of the presentation.
(5) I had to hand click this presentation at the fund-raiser for which the presentation was created! It went flawlessly (mercifully).
(6) In light of the difference in operation on two machines, I also reniced the processor resource to give the maximum allocation to Keynote. I cannot tell that even that helped.

My query was really about (exactly) how the clicks are integrated into the presentation, driven by a hypothesis that the unreliability of the click detection might have to do with a marginal amplitude of the recorded click "cue", in whatever form it is recorded and integrated into the recorded presentation.

Any insights? Am I missing something simple and/or obvious, or trying to do something that is not going to be possible? At this point, I am way over 100 hours trying to resolve this problem by trying different stuff, including quite a bit of twinking of transitions and builds to try to overcome this problem. This has been very disappointing. JimA

Reply

Answer 5

Chau

Level 1

59 points

Jun 17, 2010 11:31 PM in response to JimA99

Hi JimA99,

Sorry about that 🙂 Well it looks like you pretty much already tested and tried a whole bunch of things, and you've already spent lots and lots of time trying to find a solution... I would advise trying to contact someone from Apple directly and if they can't help you, you should write a feedback note to Apple. Congratulations on your presentation and good luck!

Reply