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