Newsroom Update

New features come to Apple services this fall. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Is there any way to customize the size of windows in the presenter display?

I have updated keynote to the newest version (6.0). Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I can customize any part of the presenter display. I can add or remove windows/panels, but not resize them. Is there really no way to do this? That would be a major drawback and would certainly make me consider going back to a 4+ year-old version of Keynote.

Keynote 6.0 (mac)-OTHER, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 7:15 PM

Reply
80 replies

Nov 8, 2013 4:51 AM in response to SimplyVinnie

You can export the file as a Keynote '09 file. I think I read that there is a 'revert' command in there somewhere as well, though I believe that is for files that were created in old Keynote then opened in new Keynote but not edited in new Keynote. Not sure what formatting issues you might run into in either case, but at least you'd be working with the file in Keynote '09 again.

Nov 25, 2013 9:52 AM in response to ybreton

I want to add my drop or two into the ocean of complaints about Keynote 6. The reworking of the interface is okay with me (on my smaller laptop I found the floating window of the Inspector mildly irritating), but not being able to adjust the Presenter's screen with notes, etc., was a stunning omission. My guess is that it was made by those who love programming the aesthetics of the software but did not the need to test its usability. Perhaps my favorite thing about Keynote 5 was that I would make the 'Present Slide' something like a thumbnail, the 'Next Slide' big enough to jog my memory of what was next, and the Notes could be expanded to fill all available space (and what I thought was the final stake in the heart of Powerpoint). Keynote 6 makes my notes almost useless: make the text large enough to read, and you see ever less of what you need to read?! So back to the the floating inspector unless/until Apple reconsiders the relationship between iOS aesthetics and advanced useability.

Jan 17, 2014 12:09 AM in response to ybreton

For anyone interested, I wrote a short piece for the UK's MacUser magazine (published a few weeks ago) about this:


Adam Banks' editorial captured an important point of successful innovation - knowing when to say no. Not saying no leads to a softening of focus, 'mission creep' and eventually to products and services which fall short of expectations and disappoint. Microsoft Office is a good examp[e of a product which, in trying to please all of the people all of the time, ends up pleasing none of them - serviceable yes, pleasing no.


Apple was, is and continues to be a visionary company which, as Adam Banks pointed out, absolutely means knowing when to say no. But saying no is a very close bedfellow indeed of hubris - the ever present danger of losing touch with the real needs and desires of the people who use your products (does anyone remember the Dyson washing machine?). For the last 30 years as an Apple user, I've rolled along with their vision and when, quite rarely, I've been bemused by some aspect of this or that new product, I've told myself that there must be millions of users for whom whatever it is is a compelling useful addition.


Which brings me to the new iWork, also reviewed in the last edition. It's predecessor (iWork 09) attempted to overturn 30 years of deeply embedded human behaviour by removing the Save As option. Ah well, I told myself, there must be loads of people who are new to all this and for whom this autosave function is a lifesaver - hilariously, in practice, Keynote crashes more frequently as a result of this feature, which it never did before, thereby making the function useful.


But now, there is a serious whiff of hubris about the new release of iWork (reviewed in the same edition). Tom Gorham omits to mention a serious loss to Keynote - that the Presenter Notes field cannot be enlarged or changed (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5467879?start=0&tstart=0). If, as is suggested, this is one of a few things which have fallen away in pursuit of a common iOS/Mac platform, where people can work on an iCloud based document simultaneously, then hubris is definitely settling in . . . I don't know anyone who does this, but then maybe there are a few in the corporate corridors of Apple who do. Creating and giving presentations is, by and large, a solo activity - it's people like me (a designer), it's teachers and lecturers, it's business folk - most of whom wouldn't dream of giving a presentation via an iPad, still less work simultaneously with colleagues via iCloud (view yes. Change? You must be joking!)


And many of these people have, over many years, got used to the brilliant Presenter View (with its ability for a big viewable typeface visible from 15 feet) as an aide-memoir in the delivery of a presentation. And I'm pretty sure that even Steve Jobs had the odd note in front of him on those stage front monitors. All now gone!

Function sacrificed on the altar of . . . what exactly? Smells like hubris to me!



Jan 25, 2014 2:06 PM in response to Rodneybowes

Right. They claim the latest update features "enhanced presenter display options." What's "enhanced"? It's still impossible to resize and re-arrange windows in the presenter display, which keeps the new keynote completely unusable for me. That and the idiotic decision to disallow animations on master slides (and to remove them if found). Why did they take a tool that one could boast about and make it useless?


And please, don't tell me that I can always use Keynote 5.9. Yes, I can, by either (a) deleting the new one altogether, leaving only the old version; or (b) explicitly opening each presentation with the old version, being careful never to just click on a keynote file. The fact that you can't even set the old version as the default for a single file (let alone for all keynote files) and have it stick is just one more piece of awful planning.

Apr 2, 2014 1:03 AM in response to JMR

You say that yesterday's update hasn't fixed this. Apple claims Improved Presenter Display layouts and labels but the torrent of incompatibilities and problems that flowed post the November launch of Keynote 6 persuaded me not to upgrade back then. So what is improved in Presenter Display?

We need people on the forum who have dowloaded 6 to run this upgrade and give us all feedback on what is, and what is not fixed. I will stay on 09 until I am quite sure we have our old and loved presenter display back!

Is there any way to customize the size of windows in the presenter display?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.