3 ms·

I was Director of Animated GIFs at a recent conference, and part of my responsibilities involved harassing presenters for their slides. I would like to mention

by phillmv 14y ago

I was Director of Animated GIFs at a recent conference, and part of my responsibilities involved harassing presenters for their slides. I would like to mention that quite possibly the most important audience for your slides is the conference videographer. These people often have a hard time transferring fancy html presentation decks into slides they can easily slice in with your talk video. With that in mind, I bid thee: use Keynote. It's like $20. Or at the very least, make sure whatever framework you use exports to pdf cleanly.

paulirish 14y ago
Capturing the video display from the presenter seems almost easier than having a videographer manually time static slide changes along to the video afterwards. This also assumes that people use slide decks that can't be shared afterwards (in their original glory), can't iframe content, or have syntax highlighting within reach? I'm sorry but for developer speakers and audiences, Keynote is a poor choice.
- phillmv 14y ago
  >Capturing the video display from the presenter seems almost easier than having a videographer manually time static slide changes along to the video afterwards. Yes and no. For starters, it's more expensive. You need a second camera and, at worst, potentially a second operator to worry over it. Secondly, it's more error prone. Copying the VGA feed off the video switcher will fail in hilarious ways/also require a second person whose job it is to look over it. I've thrown two conferences, and been responsible for front of the house AV for a total of three and a half. You're often understaffed or overbudget, and something often gives. Even in the best of situations you end up wanting the slides as a backup. >This also assumes that people use slide decks that can't be shared afterwards (in their original glory) Post your .ppt or .key file! >can't iframe content PLEASE do not have your talk depend on conference wifi. It's impossible to guarantee stable internet with hundreds of nerds trying to slurp down hotel internet. >I'm sorry but for developer speakers and audiences, Keynote is a poor choice. I disagree. There's absolutely nothing these frameworks give you other than the warm fuzzies over the 3d transitions and that you got to style it using css. You're displaying words and pictures on a screen, and Keynote is absolutely a killer at that task.
teach 14y ago
If I don't own a machine that runs Mac OS, can I run Keynote? I only have Linux machines at home (really).
- phillmv 14y ago
  Keynote's just the state of the art in Powerpoint presentations. Your nearest copy of your favorite OpenOffice clone will more than suffice at the same task.
  - ralfn 14y ago
    Now, you are just joking. I dont have any experience with keynote, but libreoffice (as its called these days!) is a nightmare. Handcoding html/css is, for this audience, easier and less frustrating. Actual powerpoint is somewhat doable, except for the whole having-to-boot to windows. There is a cognitive dissonance that just gets on your nerves. So, in the general case, for the technically handicapped Powerpoint may be an alternative, but people in the industry are either using Linux or OSX. So, that leaves them with keynote (which im not familiar with) or some webbased solution. LibreOffice presentations are not usable by anyone. And learning the idiosynchrasies of powerpoint seems like a much bigger assault on our patience, than just coding it up. I do have to admit, that on an iPad, keynote could be brilliant. Touch makes a lot of sense for something this visual. But i havent tried that version of keynote either,
  - azylman 14y ago
    Keynote's just the state of the art in Powerpoint presentations You know Microsoft succeeded when Powerpoint has become so generic that Keynote is described as being for "Powerpoint presentations".

by phillmv 14y ago

paulirish 14y ago

Capturing the video display from the presenter seems almost easier than having a videographer manually time static slide changes along to the video afterwards. This also assumes that people use slide decks that can't be shared afterwards (in their original glory), can't iframe content, or have syntax highlighting within reach? I'm sorry but for developer speakers and audiences, Keynote is a poor choice.

phillmv 14y ago
>Capturing the video display from the presenter seems almost easier than having a videographer manually time static slide changes along to the video afterwards. Yes and no. For starters, it's more expensive. You need a second camera and, at worst, potentially a second operator to worry over it. Secondly, it's more error prone. Copying the VGA feed off the video switcher will fail in hilarious ways/also require a second person whose job it is to look over it. I've thrown two conferences, and been responsible for front of the house AV for a total of three and a half. You're often understaffed or overbudget, and something often gives. Even in the best of situations you end up wanting the slides as a backup. >This also assumes that people use slide decks that can't be shared afterwards (in their original glory) Post your .ppt or .key file! >can't iframe content PLEASE do not have your talk depend on conference wifi. It's impossible to guarantee stable internet with hundreds of nerds trying to slurp down hotel internet. >I'm sorry but for developer speakers and audiences, Keynote is a poor choice. I disagree. There's absolutely nothing these frameworks give you other than the warm fuzzies over the 3d transitions and that you got to style it using css. You're displaying words and pictures on a screen, and Keynote is absolutely a killer at that task.

teach 14y ago

If I don't own a machine that runs Mac OS, can I run Keynote? I only have Linux machines at home (really).

phillmv 14y ago
Keynote's just the state of the art in Powerpoint presentations. Your nearest copy of your favorite OpenOffice clone will more than suffice at the same task.
- ralfn 14y ago
  Now, you are just joking. I dont have any experience with keynote, but libreoffice (as its called these days!) is a nightmare. Handcoding html/css is, for this audience, easier and less frustrating. Actual powerpoint is somewhat doable, except for the whole having-to-boot to windows. There is a cognitive dissonance that just gets on your nerves. So, in the general case, for the technically handicapped Powerpoint may be an alternative, but people in the industry are either using Linux or OSX. So, that leaves them with keynote (which im not familiar with) or some webbased solution. LibreOffice presentations are not usable by anyone. And learning the idiosynchrasies of powerpoint seems like a much bigger assault on our patience, than just coding it up. I do have to admit, that on an iPad, keynote could be brilliant. Touch makes a lot of sense for something this visual. But i havent tried that version of keynote either,
- azylman 14y ago
  Keynote's just the state of the art in Powerpoint presentations You know Microsoft succeeded when Powerpoint has become so generic that Keynote is described as being for "Powerpoint presentations".