Documents in the Cloud is a way to sync documents and data across your devices. While it may seem like it takes the place of iDisk, it doesn’t replace it. There is no Finder-like access to a file structure. Each app has its data sandboxed, so it’s app-specific. If you open the same file in Pages and GoodReader, and tell each to upload that file to iCloud, you will have two copies of the file up there.

Setting up Documents in the Cloud

The initial setup of Documents in the Cloud is very easy. On your iOS device go into Settings, then iCloud, and make sure Documents and Data is set to “On.” You can also tell it to not sync when only on cellular networks.

To use the iWork apps with Documents in the Cloud, you’ll need to be running the latest versions of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. The first time you launch each of these apps, you’ll be asked if you want to use iCloud. If you choose to use iCloud, any local iWork documents you have will be uploaded to iCloud, so don’t worry about losing them. However, once you enable iCloud, you will no longer be able to use iTunes to add a document to an iWork app. Using “Open With” from an e-mail still works just fine.

Syncing between iOS devices

Right now, syncing between iOS devices is Documents in the Cloud’s strong suit. Changes made to a Pages document on my iPad show up within seconds on my iPhone. As a control, I performed a worst-case scenario for syncing: I deleted Pages from all my iOS devices and reinstalled it on my iPad. All my files were still there.

This service isn’t limited to just iWork, as games like Scribblenauts Remix will let you use iCloud to sync your saved games between devices. GoodReader for iPad also supports iCloud. The GoodReader for iPhone update is still in Apple’s review queue as of this writing.

Syncing between Windows and OS X

This is where Documents in the Cloud starts to fall down. While there is a Documents and Data checkbox in the iCloud Preference Pane in Lion, I can’t tell where the data is saved to. I also doubt it’s user-accessible.

The only way to get data from my Mac to iCloud right now is via the iCloud.com website. Unfortunately, the only apps that show up on the website are the three iWork apps. The good news is, you can upload and download either iWork or Microsoft Office files from here. The bad news is, if you have PDFs on your Mac you want to get into GoodReader and iCloud, there isn’t an easy option outside of iTunes syncing (that still works for GoodReader).

There are APIs available for developers to use on Windows and OS X that hook into iCloud. My bet is in the long run developers that want to make it easy for users to put data into their apps. Omni Group has said the next version of OmniGraffle for iPad will support storing documents in iCloud, but I don’t see any mention of OmniGraffle for OS X and iCloud. Omni Group tends to be on the leading edge of development, so I’m curious how they will handle this.

Final thoughts

Buyer Beware

I had little faith in iCloud retaining my data during yesterday’s craziness. My tests on seeing if a changed document was properly updated on the web and iOS were successful. However, at least three times when I went back to look at something on the web interface, my documents were gone. I would either have a web page empty of documents or one prompting me to get iWork for iOS. The first time this happened was during the afternoon and I was having trouble updating the apps. I thought maybe one of the apps got rolled back and threw iCloud off. The second time I had noticed my iPhone wanted to download the update again (I think I had deleted it) and I thought maybe something had gotten wonky again. The third time I didn’t do anything. I went to the web page, saw no documents and opened up Pages for iPad and watched three documents delete themselves.

Problems are ongoing. When I create a new document in Pages on iOS, it prompts me to either create a document, or import one even though iCloud is specified in Pages’ settings. This is how Pages worked pre-iCloud, and turning iCloud on and off doesn’t fix the problem.. When this happens, both the iPhone and the iPad can’t see iCloud. At which point I thought to myself: Yep, these are the guys that brought me MobileMe. It’s possible it’s related to all the iCloud launch issues, but I’m very scared to trust it with my data.

These issues aside, until there’s an easy way to always update documents on a Mac or a PC, Documents in the Cloud is of limited use to me. I’m not optimistic this is going to happen any time soon. All of Apple’s promo videos that show iWork on iOS being used with iCloud never show a Mac as part of the chain (the Mac does feature prominently when they demonstrate photo stream). I also don’t like that third-party iCloud-enabled iOS apps can’t register themselves on the website so you can drag files to them.

I was really hoping I would be able to round-trip files from OS X to iOS without doing the download/upload two-step. It didn’t seem like a fantasy to work on a document on OS X Pages, close it, and head to diner and have it magically appear on my iPad. Until Apple and other developers use those OS X and Windows APIs, that fantasy won’t come true.

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Facts and figures.

Schiller also mentioned a few examples of how the Mac App Store has benefited developers. Autodesk, the company behind the SketchBook apps, has seen over a million new users since entering the App Store. Pixelmator, the low-cost Photoshop alternative, has seen a quadrupling of its revenue in the past six months. The Pixelmator app made $1 million in the first 20 days of being available in the App Store — at $30 a piece, that’s over 30,000 new users just in the first 20 days. As Schiller said, the Mac App Store has been a “huge hit for the small players”.

New features

After running through the numbers, Schiller also talked about a few new features coming to the App Store in Lion. First was news that apps will now be able to use in-app purchase, in the same way as iOS apps already do. You will be able to purchase upgrades or add-ons from within the app itself using your iTunes account.

The other new feature is the inclusion of Push Notifications, again taking a page from the iOS book. Just as your iPhone can tell you when something happens with a sound or a message, so will your computer be able to. Think of it like Growl for Mac App Store apps.

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9:31: Pictures from inside the Moscone Center

9:45: The doors are open and all 5000+ attendees are filing in, finding seats, and snapping the requisite crowd photos.

9:57: And now, our own requisite pre-keynote photos of the stage and audience at Moscone:

10:00: Standing ovation as Steve Jobs walks onto stage, 10am sharp.

10:03: Jobs says WWDC sold out within two hours. Over 5200 attendees are here today. Says hardware is the brain of our products, and software is our soul.

10:07: Phil Schiller, SVP of product marketing, takes the stage and introduces Mac OS X Lion, which has 250 features. He says he will be talking about 10 of them today.

10:13: Craig Federighi, SVP of OS X software, takes the stage to demo the first three features introduced by Schiller: multi-touch, full-screen applications, and a “mission control” app navigation feature.

10:17: Phil Schiller is back onstage following Federighi’s demo. He says the Mac App store is now the number 1 channel for buying PC software. Surpassing Best Buy, Walmart and Office Depot. The Mac App store is now built-in to Lion, with in-app purchasing and push notifications.

10:20: The 6th new feature in Lion is called “resume”– when you launch an app in Lion, it brings you right back to where you were when you quit it last. The 7th feature is “auto-save”, that saves a document automatically as you write it.

10:22: The 8th feature is “versions,” which saves each version of a document that’s been auto-saved. The feature looks a lot like Time Machine.

10:25: Federighi comes back on stage to demo Lion’s built-in version of the Mac App Store, which includes a launch pad navigation feature. He also demos the experience of working with documents in Lion, including auto-save and versions.

10:29: Schiller is back onstage. Feature #9 is “Air Drop” which allows you to share documents via a peer-to-peer WiFi based network. Using this feature allows you to drag and drop documents to other users who are running Lion’s Air Drop nearby.

10:33: Schiller announces new features to Mail in Lion, as the 10th feature update. The search function has received a major upgrade with better search features. Federighi comes back on stage once again to demo the Lion Mail features.

10:37: Schiller comes back on stage and announces additional features to the 10 he’s highlighted, such as Windows migration. He notes that the OS has more than 3000 APIs for developers. Lion will be available only within the Mac App Store, he says. Lion will be a 4GB download and can be used on all a user’s authorized Macs.

10:38: Lion will be available for $29.99, $100 less than the typical price. That gets a huge response from the crowd. It will be available on sale to everyone in July, Schiller says.

10:40: SVP of iOS software Scott Forstall takes the stage to provide some iOS numbers. He says more than 200 million iOS devices have been sold, and more than 25 million iPads have been sold to date. Over 15 billion songs have been sold in the iTunes music store, making Apple the number 1 music retailer in the world. More than 14 billion apps from the app store have been downloaded. Apple has paid out more than $2.5 billion to developers building apps for the app store.

10:45: Forstall says he’ll announce 10 new features to iOS 5. The first is a better UI for push notifications.

10:46: The new iOS has a notification center where all notifications– voicemail, emails, text messages, Facebook messages, along with stocks and weather, will be updated in one place.

10.47: You get access to the notifications by swiping your finger from top to bottom. The notifications don’t interrupt and it acts like a launcher for the app. Notification center is pretty cool.

10.48: News Center is the new production and it has major publishers who have signed up for the subscriptions. Talking about a whole lot of magazines – the usual suspects. A single place for finding all the papers and magazines in one place. It is like the iBooks, but for Magazines and Newspapers with background downloads.

10.49: And there is twitter. …We are doing a number of things – single sign-ons. Twitter is built into iPhone, iPad and you can sign-in. Logged in and don’t need to sign on again. Oh, Facebook doesn’t like that :-) It integrates with our apps – Cameras etc. You can include Twitter @username in contact list and use Twitter to update photos of your friends.

10:55: When you share an article via email on iOS Safari Reader, the entire body of the story is included in the email, not just the link. Also has added full tabbed browsing in iOS Safari– an announcement that elicited a lot of applause from the audience.

10:58: Forstall announces a new “reminders” feature added to iOS 5. Reminders app is basically a place to store to-do lists. You can associate dates and locations with these reminders– when the date arrives, or when you are geo-located within a certain place, you receive a reminder to do a certain task.

11:01: The 6th iOS announcement has to do with the camera app. iPhone 4 is the 2nd most popular camera overall used on Flickr. There is a new camera button accessible from the iPhone’s lock screen, so that even if there is a passcode set, the camera can be used without unlocking the screen. The volume up button can now be used to take a photo– an announcement that received a big whoop of applause from the crowd here.

11:03: Photos can be edited within the iPhone and iPad now– things such as red-eye reduction, and one-tap enhance are now added into the iOS camera app.

11:05: The 7th update has to do with updates to the mail application. The inbox now has drag and drop capabilities for adding email recipients, and search now includes entire message content. There is also a new feature that allows you to type easier with your thumbs by splitting the keyboard onto the right and left sides of the iPhone or iPad.

11:07: The 8th update, “PC Free”, receives a big cheer from the audience. Now, when an iPhone is taken out of the box, the setup does not prompt users to plug the device into a computer to activate the device. Software updates are now over the air, or OTA, so you  no longer need to plug the phone into a computer to update the mobile device. And instead of updating the entire OS, you just download what’s changed– known as Delta updates.

11:11: The 9th announcement has to do with Game Center. Forstall says iOS’ Game Center now has 50 million users. New updates to Game Center in iOS 5 are focused on making it more social– you can add photos, etc. Now Game Center has support for turn-based games like Scrabble in the OS.

11:15: The 10th update is a new messaging service that works between all iOS customers– on iPads, iPod Touches, and iPads, called iMessage. There are now delivery receipts, optional read receipts, typing indications, and muli-device sync, 3G and WiFi support, and full encryption. Forstall demos iMessage with Apple marketing VP Greg “Joz” Joswiak. iMessage is built on Apple’s own push notification system.

11:18: Forstall goes over a few other updates beyond the 10 he delved into: AirPlay mirroring, which mirrors the iPad 2 to a TV wirelessly. Also, he said iOS has added WiFi sync to iTunes. Forstall also goes into some new developer additions, and says the company will give out iOS Developer SDKs today at the WWDC conference.

11:19: iOS 5 will be shipping to customers “this fall,” Forstall says.

11:20: Steve Jobs takes the stage again to lots of applause. He says he’s going to talk about iCloud and jokes that “I’ll try not to blow it.”

11:22: Jobs says that the status quo of keeping all our information, such as pictures, up to date across all our devices is a broken system. “Keeping those devices in sync is driving us crazy. We’ve got a great solution to this problem… We’re going to demote the PC and Mac to being just a device, and move the center of your digital life in the cloud.”

11:25: iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices, and is completely integrated with your apps.  “You might say, why should I believe them? They’re the ones who brought me MobileMe,” Jobs says. He admits that MobileMe was “not our finest hour” but says that the company has learned its lesson. With iCloud they’ve built all the company’s apps from the ground up to work perfectly within this automatically synced system, he says.

11:27: iCloud will be completely free. It also won’t contain any ads.

11:30: iCloud will automatically do daily backups to the cloud over WiFi: Back up includes purchased music, apps and books, your photos and videos, your device settings, and your app data.

11:32: Jobs announces 3 more apps to iCloud– what he says are the “most innovative” aspects of the product. The first is Documents, pages that are automatically stored into the cloud and synced across all your devices.

11:33: Roger Wosner, VP of iWork takes the stage to demo the experience of iWork apps such as Keynote and Pages in iCloud.

11:37: Steve Jobs is back onstage to give more details about how documents are handled . He also announces iCloud storage APIs, so that developers can easily tie their own apps into iCloud storage.

11:40: Jobs announces PhotoStream, what he says is his favorite aspect of iCloud. This automatically syncs Photos into the cloud and across all devices. PhotoStream also works with AppleTV.

11:42: Apple VP of Internet services Eddy Cue takes the stage for an iCloud PhotoStream demo. This app is really slick.

11:44: Steve Jobs takes stage again to introduce “last, but not least– iTunes in the cloud.” Eddy Cue is back onstage to demo how iTunes works in the cloud– it allows a user to sync all the songs he or she has ever purchased, on any device. Any song now purchased on any device is instantly added to all of a user’s other devices. When Cue shows this feature off it elicits a big “wow” from the crowd. Very nice.

11:50: All 9 apps that comprise iCloud are completely free, Jobs says. “We want people to see what these devices can really do, and what the software can do.”

11:52: When you upgrade your phone or buy a new phone with iOS 5, all you do is type in your user name and password, and iCloud is automatically ready to be set up. iCloud users start with 5 GB of free data, not counting songs, books, or photo streaming. Developer beta of iCloud is open today, he says. iTunes in the cloud is available today for end users for iOS 4.3. iCloud in its entirety will be shipped concurrently with iOS 5 this fall.

11:54: “There’s one more thing,” Jobs says to applause. This is “iTunes Match,” which allows users to automatically find all non-iTunes songs and albums that users have ripped themselves and match them with iTunes songs so that they can be accessed via iCloud. This scan and match service will take minutes, instead of weeks, Jobs says. These songs will be upgraded to 256 kbps AAC DRM-free, and will cost $25.99 per year.

11:57: To demonstrate how serious Apple is about its cloud efforts, Jobs shows photos of the third data center that Apple has constructed to help support its iCloud efforts. He says it’s the “most eco-friendly you can make.”

11:59: Steve Jobs exits the stage to another standing ovation from the audience, and that’s a wrap for the WWDC 2011 keynote.

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Here’s what you need to do to get it working:

1. Open the Keynote app on the iOS device you want to use to display your presentation.
2. From the Tools menu, select Settings.
3. Tap on the Remote setting and turn Enable Remotes on.
4. Open the Keynote Remote app on the iOS device you want to use to control your presentation.
5. Tap on New Keynote Link to display a passcode.
6. From the Keynote app on the other iOS device, choose the device name running your Keynote Remote app under the Remote setting, and enter the passcode.

Since you can connect your iPad 2 or iPhone 4 directly to a projector or monitor via SVGA or HDMI, carrying around a laptop computer in order to conduct presentations is no longer necessary if you have a couple of iOS devices. It’d be nice if Apple built Keynote Remote functionality into the Keynote iOS app itself, but a dollar is a small price to pay to go completely mobile and (mostly) wireless with your presentations.

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Consider the hype machine up and running for WWDC 2011. thanks to an official announcement highlighting Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker on June 7 at 10:00 AM PDT. WWDC 2011 will cover five key technology tracks: Application Frameworks, Internet & Web, Graphics & Media, Developer Tools, and Core OS. However, it’s Steve’s appearance that is the real news.

Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January but remains involved in strategic decisions at Apple, last made a public appearance at the iPad 2 launch event in March. That makes for an interesting comparison of  event importance, especially considering that Jobs has skipped WWDC in the past. Last year, Jobs gave the keynote and launched the iPhone 4, as well as the iOS platform, which was previously named iPhone iOS. However, in 2009 Apple’s Phil Schiller did the keynote, introducing the iPhone 3GS, iPhone OS 3, demoing OS X 10.7, and showing off new MacBooks. Considering that this year’s WWDC will reportedly not have new hardware as the next generation iPhone is widely expected in the fall, what non-hardware announcement could be so important as to bring Steve Jobs to the keynote?

Conventional rumor wisdom suggests the event will feature a relaunch of MobileMe (possibly named iCloud) and that service may be free, or at least include free services. A paid service for online storage and streaming of music is also expected. Of course, OS X Lion will be shown, and almost certainly at least a preview of iOS 5. While these are all important products, do they warrant the presence of Steve Jobs? I’d argue that they don’t, and that could mean some other mysterious product will be announced, or perhaps Jobs is returning to Apple full-time. No matter the outcome, TAB will be reporting the event as it happens.

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Apple released a fresh update of its iPad productivity suite iWork yesterday, and what makes it worthwhile is that it finally makes Keynote a useful presentation tool. This update supports core iOS 4.2 features such as AirPrint and multitasking. The update also brings better PDF exporting, and provides some fixes for font issues that arise on export.

As mentioned, the update finally brings the iPad into the arena of truly powerful presentation tools: Keynote for iPad 1.3 now supports a presenter’s view of sorts. However, you’re limited in your choices: you can choose to display current, next, current and next, and current and notes. There’s no option for current and next, and notes, which a setting I use on OS X Keynote all the time.

Since previous versions only showed a black screen with slide advancement buttons, though, even this limited implementation is wondrous news. There’s still no support for any sort of Bluetooth remote, but since that would require an update to the core iOS, we’re not likely to see it introduced anytime soon. Allowing an iPhone or iPod touch with Keynote Remote installed to do the job is technically feasible, however, and something I’d like to see in future iterations.

Numbers, the iWork spreadsheet app, now supports formula entry via keyboard, including predictive function selector. You can also set pagination settings to select how a sheet prints across multiple pages, or choose Auto Fit to let the program choose for you. The best part is, PDF exporting also honors those settings, so you can export them and send them to others without fear of sharing a garbled final product. While I’ve never really needed to print from my iPad, this will make sharing PDFs a whole lot easier. Apple also claims “improved reliability” when exporting Numbers ’09 and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Changes to Pages, iWork’s document editor, are more modest. Support for automatic pagination of tables that cross page breaks has been added, as has the ever-popular “improved reliability,” which probably amounts to a handful of bug fixes.

I’m thrilled with these changes — especially the ones to Keynote. I have a dream of limiting the times I need to drag my MacBook Pro around with me, and these updates go a long way towards achieving this goal. I’m not getting too excited over printing, what with its limitations, but the fast-app switching works great. The updates are available now.

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The iWork 1.2 update for iPad brings about a whole host of welcome improvements, the best one in my opinion being the ability to import and export directly from iDisk, or any WebDAV-supported virtual disk. Dropbox isn’t WebDAV, unfortunately, and I wouldn’t hold my breath for Dropbox support.

Until now, Pages was the only one of the three apps that could export to its MS Office counterpart, but now, all three can export to Office-compatible formats. I’m curious to see how well this will work with Keynote, since most Keynote files I’ve exported to PowerPoint look like they were victims of a vicious assault.

The apps now support grouped objects as well. For Keynote especially, this is a big plus for me, as you can define builds on grouped objects, and the groups remain intact when imported from the desktop version.

A small, but welcome change is support for importing .txt and .csv files for Pages and Numbers, respectively. You can’t export them, but at least you can work with them. These are all supported via the “Open As” command, so any app can inbound the files.

Pages gets another halfway-done feature with support for footnotes, endnotes, and sections on import and export. You can’t create these, but files you copy onto the iPad to work with won’t get mangled as part of the process. I’m hoping 1.3 allows users to create them.

I’ve always believed the feature set of the iWork suite was the best available for the iPad. The sticking issue for me was transfers. With the 1.2 update, I feel Apple has made some serious progress towards creating a fantastic productivity suite. So far, the only thing I can say is missing from Pages is creation of footnotes.

I also think Apple needs to address importing fonts since I use non-standard fonts for all my presentations. Now, with iDisk support I hope Apple also fixes general syncing issues, since it looks like I’ll be storing more mission-critical data up there in the cloud.

Full release notes for Numbers, Pages, and Keynote can be read via the App Store.

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iOS 4.1 includes bug fixes for proximity awareness, Bluetooth, and performance on the iPhone 3G. The iPhone will now be able to take High Dynamic Range photos, upload HD video over Wi-Fi, and rent television shows on the go. Also making its debut is the Game Center, which is all about social gaming on iOS devices.

Using High Dynamic Range (HDR), the iPhone takes three photos: one at normal exposure, one under exposed, and one over exposed. iOS 4 then combines the three photos using “advanced algorithms” to create a single high-definition photograph. Both the normal exposure picture and the HDR picture are kept in the photos app on the iPhone, making it easy to choose one or the other. The demos look amazing; the HDR photos bring out features in the background that you couldn’t see in the normal exposure.

The Game Center will be a very interesting addition to iOS. There will be both features built into the operating system, and a standalone app. You’ll be able to play interactively with friends, or be auto-matched with other players. You’ll be able to compare scores, and see what your friends have been up to. Game Center brings natively to iOS what several developers have been doing on their own.

iOS 4.2

Also announced to be coming out this November is iOS 4.2. iOS 4.2 will bring all of the features of iOS 4.1, finally, to the iPad, and presumably unify the platform. The biggest addition to the iPad looks like it will be wireless printing. Being able to print directly from Pages or Mail will be a huge benefit to people who still need to be able to show things on paper.

Multitasking looks slick on the iPad as well, smooth animation, and super fast switching between apps. When Steve Jobs demoed opening a link in Mail and switching to Safari, the transition happened so fast it made me wonder about the apps that have built-in browsers. Will apps still need built-in browsers if switching to Safari is that fast?

Overall both updates look solid, and while I’m happy to be getting 4.1 on my iPod touch, I’m really looking forward to 4.2 on the iPad.

Topics covered:

• Image masking and cropping
• Adjustments: Brightness, Contrast, Exposure, Saturation and more
• Instant Alpha
• Power user tips

Below is a sample of the video. The full screencast clocks in at just over 10 minutes.

To learn more about using Keynote and other iWork apps, check out our iWork screencasts on TechUniversity (subscription required).

1. Make sure the iPad is the right tool for the job

That line I just used, about properly and in a place that allows it to play its strengths? Make sure where, and what you’re presenting, is ideal for the iPad. Remember, you won’t be able to use a remote, or have any sort of presenters view. So, if you’re giving a talk in a small conference room where you’ll be sitting at a table with the iPad hooked up to the projector, that’s a perfect use of the tool. Giving a Steve Jobs-style presentation in front of 5,000 people and a large stage? Not so good. I’m giving a talk in a month about e-books on the iPad (self plug: June 9 at the Boston Mac User Group) in a lecture-style room with a table in a convenient place to allow me to walk around and tap the screen, so I might use the iPad there.

2. Do the dirty work on the desktop, but think of the iPad

My presentation tool of choice is Keynote, but PowerPoint will do OK. Keep in mind the screen on the iPad is 1024×768. Make sure your presentation is that size when you design it. Also, don’t resize any graphics in the program. Do all your work in a graphics program and import the image at the size you want. If you want an image to take up the whole slide, resize it in a graphics program.

The iPad handles editing poorly. Any object groupings will be lost when you import it. I’d recommend only light edits on the iPad, like when you realize right before the talk that you misspelled the CEO’s name.

Fall in love with iPhoto. I have an album in iPhoto named “Presentation Images” and all my images for talks go there. That library also syncs to the iPad, so I can add an image if I need to.

3. Keep it simple

Transitions — which you should avoid anyway — can cause some problems on the iPad. Some are supported, some are not. Rather than risk it, use minimal transitions and only when needed. Don’t get fancy with line spacing, either, as that nice, tight, and finely kerned type you have on the desktop will likely be reset to default spacing.

Also, keep in mind if your talk is going to end up on a widescreen projector as pie charts might get distorted. Unfortunately, if you create a widescreen presentation, it’ll come into the iPad full screen and still get distorted on a widescreen monitor.

4. If on a Mac, use the Padlicious services to render custom fonts as images

For informal or fun presentations, I love Comiccraft’s Comic Book Fonts. However, I can’t use them on the iPad. Padlicous’s Text to Render services are a lifesaver. Select the text in Keynote and use the service to create an image of the selected text. Delete the text block and replace it with the image. Now, when you present you’ll be free of the default fonts.

5. Do several test runs before presenting

I know, you’re rehearsing the talk constantly, but make sure you’re rehearsing it on the iPad and in a similar situation. Just in case you ignored tip #1, now is when you find out any issues with the import, or if having to tap the iPad screen to advance to advance the slides really is a hassle. You’re going to want to have your rehearsal environment be as close to your venue as possible. If it’s a new enviroment, plan for the worst case scenario you can.

Honorable Mention Tip

Bring a backup of the talk on a USB drive in all possible formats — if you’re a Keynote user, have an exported (and checked) file in PowerPoint and PDF. This way, if for some reason the iPad doesn’t play nice with the projector, you’ve got a fall back plan.

Related TechUniversity Screencasts: Keynote Transitions & Effects

1. Run Through Your Presentation Before Presenting

PowerPoint and Keynote will play together, but they don’t always play well together. If you’re moving presentations between applications or even just between computers, give your presentation a good run through before showtime.

2. Test Out the Hardware

If you’ll be presenting with an external display, using external speakers or something similar, test all of this before your presentation. Your Mac’s screen will flicker as it adjusts screen resolution to match what it’s connected to (if you’re mirroring displays). Test all of this beforehand so you’re prepared and not dealing with unexpected complications.

3. Simplify Your Slides

This one is purely a stylistic suggestion, but you’ll be doing your audience a favor if you simplify the text on your slides as much as possible. Do you enjoy reading a lot of text when it’s displayed on your television? Neither do your viewers.

4. Use a Soothing Color Palette

Make you presentation stand out with a color palette that works well together. If you need some inspiration, visit Adobe’s Kuler website to see a variety of color palettes submitted by users. Search for one that fits your needs or upload and share your own.

5. Turn Everything Else Off

When you are presenting, make sure any unnecessary applications are closed. Growl notifications, incoming iChat messages and bouncing dock icons are not appropriate for a presentation. If you’re the type of presenter who uses a few slides but speaks at great lengths on each one, make sure your screensaver and sleep settings (if using a laptop) are disabled to prevent your Mac from accidentally going dark. You can adjust these settings in the Desktop & Screen Saver and Energy Saver panes of System Preferences (subscription required). Remember that portable Macs store energy saver settings differently when you use your battery and when you use your power adapter!

6. Presenting a Website? Load it Beforehand

If you’ll be presenting websites alongside your presentation, go ahead and load those beforehand. This will save you from wasting time while the pages load and will still be able to serve its purpose in your presentation even if you are unable to connect to the Internet when you are presenting. Better yet, you could even include screenshots of the website you want to show. That way, if for some reason the pre-loaded version in your browser doesn’t work, you’ll still have something to show. While you’re at it, if you’ll be displaying any other application while presenting, go ahead and have it loaded too. There’s nothing more frustrating than staring at a splash screen for 30 seconds while you and your audience wait for Photoshop to load.

7. Got an iPhone? Use the Keynote Remote App

Apple’s 99 cent Keynote Remote app will let you use your iPhone or iPod touch to remotely control your presentation. It can advance slides and return to previous slides and can even show you your presenter notes. The only catch is that you must have a Wi-Fi network to use it. If you do not, you can set up a computer-to-computer network with your Mac.

8. Don’t Have an iPhone? Use the Presenter Display for Keynote or PowerPoint

With this mode (accessible under the preferences of each application), you can customize a view to display your current and upcoming slide, show your presenter notes, view a clock and a timer. With Keynote, you’ll need to make sure that your primary display is set to the projector or whatever device you connect to your Mac. Since Keynote uses the “alternate display,” you will need to make this change so that the Presenter Display will show up on your Mac and not your external display.

9. Bring Handouts

So many people overlook this tip, but it’s just about as important as backing up your computer (and we’ve all been guilty of not paying attention to that tip too). If technical difficulties get the best of you, you’ll still have physical copies of your presentation to fall back on. Plus, handouts make a great way to give your audience a leave behind, should you wish to give them out at the end, or they give your audience something to follow along with and add their own notes if you hand them out beforehand.

10. Make A Good Impression

Saving the best for last, a snazzy PowerPoint or Keynote is nothing if the presenter stumbles their way through. Take the time to be familiar with your slides and be able to speak to them with comfort. You don’t have to be the next Steve Jobs, but take your time and be able to present your actual topic.

Do you present with your Mac? Found any great tips that work for you? Give us and your fellow readers your thoughts in the comments below.

Related TechUniversity Screencast: Keynote Transitions & Effects (subscription required)

In this TechUniversity Keynote Transitions & Effects screencast (subscription required), we’ll walk you through creating transitions and effects in Keynote.

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Screencast Sample

Like other iPad applications, Pages is fast. Loading almost instantly, the first thing you’ll see is a Welcome document, ironically created in Pages itself. The My Documents is area where you’ll see all of your synced documents, accessible by flicking left or right. It seems like managing a large number of documents in this area could be cumbersome, so it will be interesting to see how Apple addresses this UI concern with future versions. There’s also options here for exporting documents to iWork.com or email, deleting documents and importing new documents.

Creating a new document is simple as well, though you are limited to 15 templates besides a blank document. I’m honestly surprised Apple hasn’t brought over the full arsenal of templates.

Navigating around Pages is quite simple. In portrait mode, you’ll have a menu bar across the top with quick access to My Documents, an Undo button as well as an Inspector, Media, Settings and a Full Screen option.

Cool Pages Tip: Tap and hold the Undo button to initiate a Redo.

Tapping the lighter colored bar beneath the toolbar will present you with a traditional ruler, justification options and options to make your type bold, italicized or underlined. Landscape mode is primarily used for creating content in your document, so the toolbar remains hidden.

The Inspector

The Inspector provides an additional method for adjusting alignment, support for columns (limited to 4) and line spacing (limited to quarter line increments). In this view there are also options for formatting lists and applying (but not redefining) the default styles for titles, headings and subheadings. This particular view also changes, depending on what content you are editing. For example, if you’ve tapped a table and then open the Inspector, you’ll see related options here.

Media Browser

The Media Browser functions similar to the desktop version, showing photos and videos that have been synced to the iPad via iTunes. Unfortunately, none of my TV shows or movies were accessible through here, even the ones that aren’t restricted with iTunes DRM.

Options for tables, charts and shapes are included as well, allowing a user to select from a wide variety of default looks, then allowing them to use the Inspector to further fine tune them. Manipulating objects is very user friendly by just tapping and interacting as you would be naturally inclined to do. Tap two fingers on an object, pause and rotate your fingers to rotate an object. It’s simple.

Fine Tuning

Document Setup mode allows you to format your document with custom dimensions simply by tapping a margin and dragging it. You can also set watermark images as well as format the header or footer of your document. Unfortunately, documents are limited to a size of either US Letter (8.5 x 11) or A4 (8.27 x 11.69). There were no apparent options for adjusting the orientation to landscape.

Selecting text works the same as it does on Pages for the desktop, except you’re using finger taps instead of mouse clicks. Double tapping a word will select it while triple tapping will select the entire paragraph. In the pop-up menu, you have your usual options for copying the content as well as the option to copy the style if you wish to copy and paste formatting styles between areas. There is also an option to define the word you’ve selected.

Other options include a traditional spell checker which functions just like the desktop counterpart by underlining the misspelled word, allowing a user to tap and see a suggested replacement.

Syncing Files with Pages

Contrary to original rumors that suggested the iPad would mount a folder and allow for easy syncing of documents, you have to sync specific documents to the iPad through iTunes. Undoubtedly Apple realizes that this process is quite cumbersome and hopefully future iterations of iTunes or iPad software will make this process easier.

Pages documents that you receive through Mail on the iPad or browsed via iWork.com can be opened, saved and edited within Pages. Conversely, documents created in Pages can be exported and sent via Mail or uploaded to iWork.com in addition to being synced back through iTunes.

The Downside

Pages on the iPad is a great application, but it’s not without its share of missing features and limitations. Unfortunately, Pages is limited to a rather small collection of typefaces. While there’s still enough to create content that is unique, the lack of support for adding your own typefaces means Pages won’t let you easily move any document from your Mac and see the exact same thing on your iPad. In fact, you’ll get document warnings if you try and open a file that includes a typeface that your iPad is missing. This is an issue that Apple needs to address before people really begin to consider the iPad as “the laptop replacement.”

Additionally, more advanced features of Pages are missing. Here’s a quick list of some of the features that aren’t present.

• Inserting Table of Contents & Footnotes
• Inserting Section or Layout Breaks
• Inserting Merge Fields
• Tracking Changes
• Saving as Templates
• Adjusting Styles
• Adjusting Type (Tracking, Ligatures, Baseline, Capitalization)
• Printing
• Document Statistics (Word Count, Number of Pages, Page Location)

Pages is a very functional app but for those who really wanted it to replace the desktop version, you’ll be desiring a more featured packed update from Apple. Originally I’d planned to use the mobile version to put the finishing touches on documents (if I’m on the go) but it looks like the best workflow is to create your documents on the iPad and apply finishing touches when you are back on a Mac.

One last little bit to note about this application, and everyone is mixed on this, but typing on the iPad keyboard, even in landscape mode is still awkward. Personally, I’m comfortable with the full size keyboard layout on my Mac and so I find myself aiming for certain keys that just aren’t there. I strongly recommend investing in the bluetooth keyboard if you’re planning to use Pages or any of the other iWork apps on the iPad.

Check out our gallery of Pages below. Have you used Pages for the iPad? What are your thoughts?

Related TechUniversity Screencasts: Pages 101 and Word to Pages

Keynote for the iPad is a decent companion program if you need to give light presentations or make light edits while on the road. As a sole means of creating presentations, I found it lacking.

The Art of the Transfer

Currently, getting files to and from your iPad is needlessly difficult. To get an already-created presentation from your computer to your iPad, you need to either sync it via iTunes, or send it to yourself via e-mail; there’s no mountable file-system or iDisk support. Also, if you make changes to the presentation, you’ll need to export and re-download it via iTunes; it will not auto-update your local copy. Also, you can only export in Keynote and PDF; you cannot export your slides as a PPT file.

I had decent luck with transferring Keynote and PowerPoint presentations. Only one (a Keynote presentation, oddly) had any sort of problems; the others came in just fine.

The problematic Keynote presentation I expected to have problems with. I use a lot of third-party fonts in my presentations, and since you are limited to what Apple provided, custom fonts will be substituted. Below is what the title page looks like in OS X Keynote and iPad Keynote.

Title Slide From iPad

Title Slide From OS X

Those weren’t the only issues I had. About 20 of my slides were charts, and the slides were designed to transition so the pie chart was the same size and in the same place on every side. To ensure this, when I created the presentation, I just duplicated the first slide with the chart and changed the numbers. When I gave the presentation on my MacBook, it worked perfectly. Unfortunately, on the iPad that was not the case and on some slides the chart size changed ruining the effect — the other common elements displayed correctly. The iPad’s resolution is 4:3 and I built the presentation for a 16:9 widescreen display.

I also had some odd issues with graphics. I tend to have a lot of full-frame images (where the image takes up the entire slide). On the presentation I had problems with, on some slides the graphic was pushed-up, requiring me to reposition them. Other presentations with full-frame graphics worked OK, so I might just have one Cursed Presentation.

Bottom line, the simpler the better when transferring presentations to the iPad. If you have a graphic-intensive talk, be prepared to spend some time double-checking it. In fact, if you’re going to be using your iPad to give a talk, you are going to want to take its limitations into account when you design it.

The Art of Giving

With the optional VGA cable you can hook your iPad up to a projector or a display. In my limited testing (comprised of hooking it up to an LCD display) it worked very well. The iPad seemed to auto-detect the resolution and the slides displayed as well as they did on the iPad screen. However, while the auto-detection looks OK, I did notice some distortion of pie charts on the display; they were stretched horizontally (this could be due to the conversion from widescreen to 4:3, and back to widescreen again.

The presentation tools when connected to an external source are limited. There is no presenters view or notes view. All you see is a black screen with a slide count. There is a pop-up display that will let you chose a starting point, but there’s no way to see what the next slide is. The Apple Remote also doesn’t work with it, so you’re pretty much chained to the podium and can’t move around. Could you see Steve Jobs being restricted to giving an iPad-presentation without free range of the stage?

The lack of a presenter’s view and notes is a deal-breaker for me. Unless you have an excellent memory, use note cards, or just read your slides aloud Keynote for the iPad is of limited value for giving presentations. Also, since the only way to see your slides is on the projector, you’re going to be spending more time facing the screen than your audience.

The Art of Making

Again, the simpler the presentation, the easier time you will have creating presentations. The good news is, Apple provided a decent set of templates that closely mimic the templates you get in the desktop version of Keynote. The bad news is, there’s no way for the iPad to recognize your corporate templates as real templates; the closest you can come is importing the template and copying it every time you want to create new talk.

One nice touch is when you use an Apple-supplied template and add a slide, you’ll get a pop-up of slide types to use that match your template — for example, a slide with bullet lists, or a slide with just a text box.

I found Keynote to have a steeper-learning curve than I’m used to for Apple — I needed to read the help to learn how to add a text box. I found myself going, “OK, how the heck do you do this?” frequently. Some tasks seemed needlessly complicated. There does not appear to be an easy way to customize a wedge color; I had to use the column with the color I wanted. Also, apparently no one at Apple is color blind, because I couldn’t view color names.

The Art of Closing

Is it possible to use your iPad to create and give presentations? Yes.

Is it possible to create and give amazing, TED-quality presentations on your iPad? Not, really.

If you’re willing to trade some features and inconveniences to save carrying around a laptop, you might get a lot of use. There was a point in my testing when I “got” the potential of this tool. I was scouring the halls at work trying to find a free conference room to test out the projector. I’ve done a version of this trip before, juggling a laptop, power cables, etc.. Now I just had a computer the size of a pad of paper. Future versions of Keynote, or a competing product that address the issues I encountered could turn the iPad into a killer presentation tool.

As it stands, Keynote for the iPad will let you give an adequate presentation. It will not let you give an amazing performance.

The timing fits perfectly with Apple’s traditional schedule for the event, which always falls somewhere in late June/early July. In addition, Apple has in the past used the bland “Corporate Event” as the stand-in title for the WWDC. Taken together, this amounts to more than just a rumor, but it remains speculation on the technicality that Apple hasn’t officially commented.

The WWDC keynote speech, which will in all likelihood take place Tuesday, June 29, if history is any indication, has seen the introduction of a new iPhone for the past three years. Most, if not all, industry watchers expect this time around to be no different in that regard. What people don’t agree on is what the new iPhone will have in store for consumers.

TUAW points out one interesting possibility: The keynote would mark the debut of a new iPhone exactly three years later than the release of the first, which many suspect is when Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T ends. If true, the timing seems remarkably suited for the announcement of a new partnership with another provider, be it Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint.

The international trend has been toward more iPhones on more providers, and Apple would be able to benefit from opening up the sale of its device in terms of both subscriber count and improved service quality, so I’d say a new partnership announcement is likely to be in the offing.

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iLife X

Probability: Guaranteed
When the last version of iLife launched, it adopted the moniker “iLife ’09.” Recently however, Apple has modified most of its website to drop the date from the title. Now simply called “iLife,” I wonder if Apple will be quick to release a new “yearly” iteration at the outset of 2010.

Based on previous versions, the next iteration of iLife will require Mac OS X 10.6. By requiring Snow Leopard, this does make iLife an Intel-only release. Though some users will be left behind, significant performance gains should be recognized by taking advantage of 64-bit technology included in Snow Leopard.

Within the apps themselves, I believe we’ll continue to see significant updates. Here’s the roundup.

iPhoto

Probability: Possible
The addition of Faces and Places to iPhoto ’09 was just the beginning. The next version of iPhoto will support more accurate facial recognition and integration with Twitter. Those who enjoy the photo slideshow themes that were added to the last version will enjoy a larger selection of new themes that will be added in the new version. I also predict that the next version will bring support for bulk renaming of files (similar to how Aperture can do this upon import) and better performance when dealing with larger libraries. I also predict revised or better photo editing controls with additional effects.

iMovie

Probability: Possible
I believe the next version of iMovie will boast support for posting videos directly to more Internet services, such as Facebook and Flickr. An expanded set of new themes as well as more advanced title options will be present as well. The user experience of the application will be refined, for those who are still frustrated by the intense switch from iMovie HD to the last two versions.

iDVD

Probability: Guaranteed
iDVD will likely see one of the most significant updates that it has ever seen in quite a while. 2010 will mark the beginning of new ways of enjoying media. From the possibility of the first out-of-the-box Blu-ray drives on the Mac to iTunes Extras & LPs to the elusive Apple Tablet, the presentation of digital content remains a key focus for Apple.

The next version of iDVD will help push this agenda forward, allowing users to create Blu-ray discs or optimize their video content into formats like iTunes Extras. Such a dramatic update would likely warrant changing the name of the application, but that’s also within the realm of possibility. iDVD has definitely been late to the party for the past two years, seeing only small maintenance updates. While many speculate that Apple plans to axe DVD creation altogether (foreseeing the death of the digital disc in favor of digital distribution), I believe Apple has been working on a successor application to take advantage of new forms of distribution (a la Blu-ray or iTunes Extras-styled media).

iWeb

Probability: Possible
iWeb is one of those apps that is difficult to pack full of compelling new features every year. I predict the next version of iWeb will support more themes and a few more widgets, including a widget that provides a live feed of your Twitter stream on your website.

GarageBand

Probability: Possible
GarageBand will likely see an expanded music lesson store with more artist lessons and lessons for drums and bass. I also predict Apple will make it easier to share GarageBand creations beyond iTunes and iWeb. Similar to the other apps, I believe we will see support for exporting to other web services such as Facebook or YouTube.

iWork X

Probability: Possible
I predict the biggest improvement to the iWork suite will be a tighter integration with the iPhone and iPod touch. On the short side, I see iWork.com coming to the iPhone as an app to allow quick browsing of documents. In an ideal world, Apple will eventually build lightweight mobile versions of its iWork apps to allow users to create and edit Pages, Keynote and Numbers files on the go.

I believe we’ll see an update to the “beta” of iWork.com, including a paid plan if Apple deems the project a huge success, or inclusion with MobileMe if Apple feels the product isn’t strong enough to stand on its own footing.

All three applications will see new templates and a refined Inspector palette. It seems very un-Apple like to mandate users bring up a palette for colors, a separate one for fonts, another for media and yet another master Inspector to control everything else. Additionally, I predict the Media Browser will be updated across all apps to support Faces and Places from iPhoto.

I also predict Pages will provide support for (or perhaps work directly with) third-party applications like bibliographic software such as Endnote or Refworks for academic publications.

iTunes

Probability: Guaranteed
iTunes is an interesting application as every version seems to bring about a large number of extra features that many people don’t expect, or at first glance, really need.

I predict the next major version of iTunes, iTunes 10, will bring support for syncing with the mythical iTablet, as well as better syncing support (including over the air syncing of content if on a Wi-Fi network). Furthermore, iTunes 10 should feature better support for managing larger libraries of content and the need to split those libraries across multiple hard drives in a simple but effective manner.

Conclusion

Finally, I’d like to see iWork and iLife dropping in price back to the familiar $49 from years past. In light of economic conditions and Apple’s vocal attempts of providing quality products to more and more users, a price drop seems wise as it would also help generate better market penetration.

Again, many of these predictions are pure speculation and hopes and dreams on my part. What do you think we’ll see in these areas over the coming year?

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