10 Apple Keynote tips

You can use shapes to create masks of photos. Click Shape and add a shape to the presentation.

Then click Media > Photo and drag an image into the Shape.

The shape will create a mask for the image.

Click Done to add it to the Keynote presentation.

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Highlight an image and click Style to access the Border, Shadow, Reflection and Opacity options.

If you create a style for an image that you like, you should add it to Image Styles area.

Click on the right-arrow in Image Styles to reveal an Add Style option.

Click it to add the style to the Image Styles area.

Now just click the new icon to add the exact same style to any highlighted image.

You can add links to other slides into a presentation. These enable people to view other slides by clicking on the link. This is perfect for creating kiosk style information presentations.

Select text and click Format > Add Link (or press Command + K) to add a link.

You can quickly remove the background from an image by using the instant Alpha Mode.

If an image has a strong background colour, click on the image and Format > Image > Instant Alpha. Click on the background and drag a line (in any direction) to increase the intensity of the mask.

One way to tidy up a presentation is to match the colours of your text with the photographs using the Color Picker.

Highlight text and click on Format > Text and click the Colors icon (the small circular rainbow icon).

Now click the magnifying glass and click on a colour from an image. The text will now be changed to that image.

One way to make presentations look great is to use Magic Move to animate between slides.

This takes similar objects on one slide and animates them individually to the next slide. It makes a slide look like a single animation rather than a deck of slides.

Click on Animate > Add An Effect > Magic Move.

A neat way to create a unique presentation is to pick a gradient theme and edit the master slide to a different colour.

Select the first slide in the presentation list and click on Format > Change Master.

Change the Background to Gradient Fill and pick a different selection of colours.

Click Done when you’re ready to start making presentation.

If you have the Keynote app installed on an iPhone you can use Keynote Remote to control the presentation on your Mac.

This turns your iPhone into a great remote control. Open the Keynote app on the iPhone and Mac.

Go to Keynote > Preferences > Remote in Keynote for Mac and place a tick in Enable.

Now select your iPhone and click Link and Confirm.

Charts and graphics are the bane of any presentation, but Keynote makes them look amazing. Click Chart > 3D and pick a chart (we often use the top-right option). You can rotate it around to make it look more impressive.

You can insert tables and create functions such as Sum, Average, Minimum and maximum directly within Keynote.

If you are only creating the data to place in a presentation you can save time by doing it directly inside Keynote.