Keynote tutorial: How to make an Apple-style presentation

When it comes to creating incredible presentations with Keynote, nobody does it better than Apple. It has released almost every major product backed by animated text, images and video played out by its flagship presentation software, so it comes as no surprise that it knows a thing or two about creating beautiful slides that really help to get your messages across. Fortunately for us, hours and hours of Apple’s special events have left us with more than a few clues as to how we can make great slideshows in Keynote and we’ve shared some of those tricks and tips for amazing presentations. If there’s one thing that’s obvious from watching any of Apple’s Keynote presentations, it’s that it keeps things simple. Just a few lines of text and one or two images are all that’s needed on any one slide. So grab your content, keep it simple and let’s get started.

Step 1: Variations on a theme

Fire up Keynote and, from the Theme Chooser, select the Gradient theme. It’s a stock option and the theme of choice for Apple’s own presentations.

Step 2: Just my type

Font choice is important and choosing something simple and legible is key. Apple use Myriad Pro, but it’s not available by default on the Mac. Instead, try using Helvetica Neue, the font Apple uses for iOS 7, in Regular and Light.

Step 3: KISS

KISS stands for ‘keep it simple, stupid’ – a phrase that sums up Apple’s approach to keynotes. Keep your slides down to a few words and maybe an image.

Step 4: Add effects

To add an effect to any slide, click on it once, bring up the Inspector window then click on the Build tab. Here you’ll be able to choose an effect.

Step 5: Moving on up

In this situation, we want the iPhone 5 title to move upwards on click. To do this, select the Move effect then drag the red movement path upwards.

Step 6: All at once

At the same time the title is moving up, we want the description to fade in. Set the description’s effect, find it in Build Order and select Automatically with Build 1.

Step 7: The big reveal

When Apple reveals huge figures or facts, it does it with a striking effect. Fortunately, it’s a stock option named Anvil, so use this for anything exciting.

Step 8: Let the dust settle

As the dust settles on the Anvil effect, we want to fade in some text underneath. Repeat the process in step 6 and then adjust the Delay setting to perfect things.

Step 9: Dropping off

Another effect that’s often used by Apple is Fall Apart. This drops each character in the text off the bottom of the slide – it’s a great way to show price reductions.

(Click on the image below and zoom in to view the annotations)