Apple releases Keynote 1.1 update

Apple on Wednesday released Keynote 1.1, an update to its presentation software. The new version contains a number of improvements, and Apple recommends that all Keynote users should upgrade to the new version.

Keynote was first unveiled this past January during Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation at Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Positioned as an alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint and other similar presentation software, Keynote enables Mac users to create media-rich slideshow presentations complete with animation, embedded QuickTime content, and much more. It’s what Jobs himself has used to present his own keynote addresses at Macworld events for some time.

Apple lists the following improvements as part of Keynote 1.1:

Ability to jump to specific slide during slideshow

Preference to reduce image resolution on insert to fit images on slide

Option to show series label on X-axis of charts

New 3D transition preference

Improved interaction and feedback while working with slides in the navigator view

Improved PowerPoint import and export compatibility

Reduced size of PDF export files

Improved QuickTime playback during slideshow

Improved QuickTime export

The 30.8MB download is available through the Software Update System Preferences pane. You can also visit Apple’s Keynote Web page at the URL above and download the 1.1 update from there.

MacCentral spoke to Apple’s Peter Lowe and Alan Eyzaguirre to find out more about the changes that have taken place with Keynote 1.1.

When asked about stability improvements and bug fixes in the new version, Lowe said, “With any update release we want to address any outstanding customer issues we’re aware of. We’ve been monitoring feedback from our customers and testing for any issues they’ve reported.”

Tuesday saw Apple’s release of QuickTime 6.3. Eyzaguirre explained that Keynote 1.1 leverages QuickTime 6.3 to improve MPEG-2 playback performance, as well.

Eyzaguirre also mentioned that Keynote 1.1 sports more efficient use of themes than the previous version. Themes in Keynote presentations now occupy less than half the space as they did before — about 500K versus 1.2MB, in some cases. In fact, you may be able to save a bit of file size by opening up documents created by the older version of Keynote — simply open them in Keynote 1.1, re-choose the theme, and save.