Over the course of the last 6 months, I have been doing a fair amount of PowerPoint at work. I've got the latest and greatest version, PowerPoint 2004 for my mac. So, it is from this perspective that I have taken a renewed interest in Keynote. Well, that, and Apple lowered the price of the new version. So, I asked one of the Apple guys who was demo'ing iWork my all important question: how does the new presenters mode of Keynote 2 facilitate giving demos? By that, I mean what happens when you are giving a presentation, and you want to command-tab over to some other application, in order to show your audience some other bit of information?

In PowerPoint 2004, this is really, really slick. I mean, Microsoft really nailed this feature. When you start a presentation in PowerPoint, it determines if you have two displays. And if you do, it automatically puts you into presenter mode -- where the primary display shows information to the presenter (current slide, next slide, current time, etc.), and the secondary display shows a full-size version of the current slide. But what's even better, is that when you hit command-tab to go to a different application, PowerPoint automatically switches the displays to mirrored display mode. This allows you to see the same thing on the screen that the presenter looks at as the screen that the audience looks at. It makes interacting with other applications a snap for the presenter. Then, when you are done, you command-tab back to PowerPoint, and it automatically un-mirrors the displays, and you can continue with your presentation.

The whole thing works so naturally, that it took me a little bit to realize what PowerPoint was actually doing. I mean, PowerPoint was doing the right thing, automatically, without me having to go in and configure a bunch of options, or fight with some bizarre keystrokes. In short, it was being mac-like.

Anyways, I described all of this to the first Apple employee that I talked to, and he didn't know what Keynote 2 would do in this situation. And he couldn't find out, because his G5 only had one display. The gentleman next to him, however, had a PowerBook with a secondary display. So, I waited in line (quite a while) for him to be free. I'll paraphrase our conversation:

Me: So, when using the new presentation mode of Keynote 2, what happens when you command-tab to some other application?

Apple Guy 2: Why would you want to do that?

Me: You know, for giving demos and stuff. Say I'm giving a presentation about how some application works, and I want to flip back and forth between my slides and the application.

Apple Guy 2: I'm not sure, let's try it.

[At this point, he starts a presentation in Keynote 2, and hits command-tab. Nothing happens]

Apple Guy 2: You can't.

Me (incredulous): What do you mean you can't?

Apple Guy 2: Once you are in presentation mode, the only way out of it is to stop the presentation.

[He notices the dumbfounded expression on my face]

.... Well, maybe this isn't the best way for Keynote to behave....

No kidding! I know it's dumb of me to reject a product simply because it doesn't have one feature or another, but this is a total deal breaker for me. At least, for the presentations that I have been giving, and am likely to be giving in the near future.

Dang.

-Andy.