How do I restrict keynote to one screen

That really is a ridiculous design. Clearly no-one in the Keynote dev team actually uses the product, or they'd quickly discover how impractical it is to take over the other monitor during a slide show, especially when presenting a webinar where you need to see lots of other windows in relation to questions and chat messages from webinar audience members. This fatal flaw in Keynote is forcing us to now use—wait for it—Google Presentations in webinars because in Zoom we can choose to show only that browser window, leaving screen real estate available to place the Q&A, Chat, Attendee list etc. via the Zoom.us software.

While we're at it... Keynote should also provide an option to display a slide show in just a portion of the screen to leave what's around it available for these other app windows. I have a large monitor in front of me, plus my MacBook Pro and using Keynote for webinars is not feasible due to this "we will take over all your screens" flaw in its design.

What he wants and also what I want to know is how do I use keynote on only one display while leaving the other display free to do other things on. I want keynote to only show up in full screen mode on one screen.

Surely you jest!? I know of no other program that renders my second screen inop when they are running. I didn't buy a dual screen system just to have Keynote blank one out. I need to know how to use my other screen for other programs when keynote is playing a slideshow. Thanks in advance.

Ugh I am having this problem today, what a terrible design flaw. How could they not provide an option for this? Like the average Keynote presentation is going to be too much for a poor little mac to handle without locking up both screens. This bug is almost as irritating as the smug stubborn replies by the insufferable dude in this thread who insists that we're all wrong.

Same problem. I think I'll migrate to Google Slides so that I can use both Zoom and a presentation at the same time.

If I want to run a presentation in a screen sharing/chat application, I shouldn't have to share my screen first, before beginning he presentation. This is ugly and unprofessional.

I'm am also totally blocked because I want to use Panopto to video my presentation. The Panopto screen goes black. Apple brags about their multitasking, well here is a simple, and useful case where your own software doesn't allow it. I have also had occasions where i needed to look up something during a presentation and I had to use my phone instead. Unfortunately, I couldn't present that information over the keynote display. Why on earth would you do that?

Gary, you really seem to know this software. Too bad you don't know much about listening to customers. You may not realize this, but your comments are actually alienating people who WANT to be excited about your product. The tech graveyard is littered with companies who thought they could speak to their customers this way...

I have to disagree with you Gary. It is bad design. I remember there was a time when you made an app full screen, the other display would become black and unusable. It kinda defeated the purpose of using 2 displays the reason why nobody bothered to use fullscreen mode.

Luckily that problem was fixed in Mavericks and you can freely make an app fullscreen in one display while being able to use the other display for whatever you need.

This is the same problem that is occurring in Keynote. Yes it is an issue. Your argument that the system needs the full graphics does not hold up as simple animations are barely processor intensive considering the CPU and graphics cards modern PCs hold. This can be easily fixed if the programmer of keynote just reprogrammed it the way it should be like they did with full-screen apps.

Hello andrewbatz,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

For more information on this, take a look at:

Viewing a Presentation on an External Display or Projector

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6244

Best of luck,

Mario

The point about PowerPoint is incorrect, as it has a mode that lets you do exactly what the posters (other than you) want, which is to show a presentation in one display and have the other one open. I need to do that, too, and so I can't use Keynote anymore, which makes me very, very sad.

Hi,

This is a very valid use case (god, those replies from people saying "this is not what users want" drives me nuts). It's probably the primary flow for me - I present to small groups, and need to make detailed notes as I'm showing them the slides (and my handwriting is appalling, and why write notes twice!).

I've found a reasonable workaround, which is to stick the keynote in icloud. Don't mirror screens and run the presentation up. Put the browser tab with the presentation runnign in icloud on your main screen, and then you can do whatever you want on your second.

Hope that helps!

Hi Andrewbatz,

I too was frustrated by this design flaw. Here is a workaround that may suit you.

Step 1) Drag Keynote to the monitor that you wish to display your slide

Step 2) View > Slide Only

Step 3) View > Enter Full Screen

Step 4) View > Hide Toolbar

Step 5) Click on slide and press FN key and down arrow to advance slide, FN key and up arrow key for previous slide

NOTE: You lose all animation and slide transitions. However, you can show the content of the slide and run your second app. You will need to create multiple slides where text is manually added to the slide to avoid all the text appearing at once.

Gary, Actually PowerPoint:mac 2011 does offer a way to present a slide show in a single window, ie not take over complete control of the graphics system. Select the menu item Slide Show|Set Up Show... and select the Browsed by an individual (window) choice. Then when you enter Slide Show mode, the slide show is simply an OS X window like any other. Builds work of course.

I wish Keynote would provide the same simple functionality. I give many virtual presentations from my MacBook via a group-collaboration/screensharing app and I like to be able to see information from the app while presenting, eg who is on the session, do they have their virtual hand raised, what are people saying in the chat session. It is a real problem that I can't do this with Keynote.

I wish I could use an alternative presentation application, but I bought my Mac specifically to use Keynote for Mac. I also really like Keynote. There are just some shortfalls, which I feel need to be implemented to improve the user experience. Please give these ideas some consideration instead of totally writing them off as it's evidently a very important feature to people who actually use the app.

I also don't understand what you're saying when you say other applications are experiencing this same "bug". I've tried some of the programs you listed and they in fact do not take up both the displays. It will if you're using an old version of OSX as I explained before, but it definitely does not do that in Yosemite. Running Final Cut Pro X will only take up one display; Same with Quicktime. This is true even in windowed or full screen mode. I'll include some screen shots so you get the idea.

The second screen can not be used by other applications when Keynote is in Play, the second screen either shows Presenter Display if it is set in

Keynote Preferences > Slide Show > Enable Presenter Screen

or it will have a black screen.