Q: Is it possible to present a keynote presentation from a windows pc through iCloud?

Keynote is available for Mac and Apple devices only, there is no Windows version.

Keynote must be installed on the computer you are using to play Keynote files, therefore windows can not playback Keynote files.

An alternatve would be to create the presentation in Keynote, export a Powerpoint file from Keynote and play that on the Windows system.

The export to PDF or PowerPoint works very well. I often create presentations on my iPad on the commute to work and then email them to my work account, converted to PowerPoint,

I would suggest Quicktime instead of Powerpoint, because it will keep the same fonts, same effects, and solve other issues that can be encountered. Just make sure Quicktime is installed on the Windows you will present on.

You can use “export to html”, you will have to open the file in a browser, preferably Safari, but this will let you to use the animations and transitions available in Keynote, while “export to PowerPoint” just replaces the fonts, animations and transitions with the Office alternatives.

I'm thinking about buying a SurfacePro3 but really like Keynote and the remote function on my iPhone. If you export to html, can you still use the remote? Or, is it more like a a movie as if you exported to QuickTime?

Some of these answers have truth to them, but do not answer your question directly.

Although there is no Keynote application program for Windows, you can in fact present a Keynote presentation through any up to date browser (including Internet Explorer/Chrome/Firefox/Safari on Windows) on iCloud.com via Keynote for iCloud. Just login, open your presentation, and click the play button!

However, the experience is in my opinion not ideal. Local fonts won't carry over and many transitions and animations, the very ones that make for a premium experience, simply don't work that well or don't work at all.

More information can be found here:

http://www.apple.com/iwork-for-icloud/#keynote

https://www.apple.com/support/iwork-for-icloud/keynote/

Keynote for iCloud beta: Play a presentation

In the end of the day, I would push for physically bringing a Mac to your classroom - whether it's personal or from your college's IT department. In my experience most classrooms have VGA connections that allow you to connect.

You may use iCloud to run your Keynote via a browser.

You may want to consider using an iPad to present your Keynote slides in the classroom. You'll simply need to switch the classroom projector's input from the computer to the iPad, and most colleges allow lecturers to use a laptop, so you'll just need to get the correct adapter. I use this approach and really enjoy how the iPad allows me to easily annotate on top of my Keynote slides as I lecture.

I needed to share a 1Mb, 20 slides Keynote on a shared server. PDF export was 57Mb, PPT was 27Mb (and several format changes, especially fonts). Quicktime export is 19Mb.

Finally I exported everything as images (1.6Mb), then inserted the images one by one into a blank PPT (I also have MSOffice on the Mac), final size 1.6Mb (no overhead filesize). Of course forget about transitions and other effects.

If you're in a hurry and the presentation is not fancy, just zipping those images to view them with a standard image viewer works, and fits within acceptable size conversion limits.

Overall, as a new Mac user, sharing Keynote content with Windows users does not strike me as convenient.

A viewer for Windows would indeed be desirable.

as a new Mac user, sharing Keynote content with Windows users does not strike me as convenient.

Certainly with the way you suggest, it's a very long way round for a shortcut, most users will either export to PowerPoint  (File > Export PowerPoint) or upload the Keynote file into iWork for iCloud.

Well size was the issue for PDF, PPT is still too big and not WYSIWYG (font issues, as Mac fonts are called in and replaced by the nearest font), Quicktime too big still. I mean respectively 57, 27 or 19 Mb for a 1.5Mb original file! And no, I cannot use iWork for iCloud, this is corporate content which cannot leave the company's network.

I am wondering what the resolution for PDF export is in dpi.

Considering that the image on the projector or someone else's screen will only typically reach 92 dpi (not sure what my Mac's screen size is in pixels, the typical PC screen is 1400-1600 something wide), print 150dpi (full page print), rasterizing need not go higher than this to be efficient ; most presentation paper printouts are done half page so even 75dpi could still do the trick.

Maybe the fonts are "convert to curves" instead of a more efficient "include fonts as subset". My presentation used a template from Keynote with a repeated image, I assume Keynote ("Exhibition") so I suppose Keynote internally reuses the image and thus keeps the size low.

Adobe InDesign offers many options to tweak PDF export, but as PDF does not support animations either, I would say my best workaround is export to images (all font issues solved, perfect WYSIWYG), play images from the image folder, and zip the images to a single file if I need to share it on a file server. Windows or Linux users are also covered (I was not thinking about the penguins at first but it also works for them so everyone is happy... )