2005-01-29
Well, this week I have spent some of my little free time looking at relationships between S5, OmniOutliner, and Keynote. I don’t have to give many lectures, but it’s nice to be able work on them easily, and to minimize repetition of work. When you go through the trouble of creating a presentation, it’s nice to be able to create handouts and web versions without reinventing the wheel each time. Additionally, Keynote (or Powerpoint) is not necessarily the best tool to use while creating the content for the presentation.
I think I am settling more and more on using OmniOutliner to create the content. I can use the outline to organize each slide (title) and the various points to be made. You can use the notes section to write up content that can be used as speaking points, or as content for a handout. OmniOutliner can easily export to Keynote, and with a little tweaking, you can create your presentation, along with speaking points (it needs to be updated for Keynote 2 - for now you need at least one version 1 theme to allow OmniOutliner to export). Then you can export from OmniOutliner to S5 as well, to be used as a web version of the presentation, or to create a handout, complete with the notes. In this manner, you can create a coherent presentation with handouts and slides that match up easily.
I’m still experimenting, and some of the tools to do this are still in flux. But it beats organizing your talk in one app (or on paper), then creating the slides and speaking points in another app, and then creating your handout in yet a third app. Additionally, I believe that by working on all three items in one app, you are forced to be organized, and to keep your slides clutter free. Many of us have a tendency to try and write too much on the slides - when you know your content is right there on the handout, and in your notes, it’s less of an issue….
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