Jumsoft, a developer of high-quality applications and designs for OS X, has released the first batch of new designs for Toolbox for Pages 1.1 and Toolbox for Keynote 1.1 apps. The two updates feature a total of 74 new templates and 55 sets of illustrations. The versatile designs are perfect for creating and illustrating brochures, newsletters, slide presentations, and various other types of content.

Toolbox for Pages and Toolbox for Keynote are free downloads that offer a new, convenient way to view and purchase Jumsoft’s product sets for Apple’s Pages and Keynote applications. In total, the two collections contain hundreds of document templates for Pages, Keynote themes and business-oriented slides, clipart images, doodles, badges, maps, flags, and many more items. Users can purchase these by piece, by category, or by set. In addition, the first item in each category can be downloaded at no charge.

Algirdas Unguvaitis, the general manager of Jumsoft, said, “We released the two toolboxes a couple of months ago and have received plenty of positive feedback and requests for new designs. This is just the first update, and a lot more are yet to come.”

Once an item has been purchased, users can open it in Pages or Keynote with just one click. Most objects in the templates and themes can be edited without difficulty. All images in Elements for Pages/Keynote and clipart sets include transparent backgrounds that allow the images to be placed on various colors and patterns. The PNG format lets users adjust brightness, tint, and other image parameters.

System Requirements:

• Requires Mac OS X 10.7 or later
• Toolbox for Pages – 77.9 MB
• Toolbox for Keynote – 35.8 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Toolbox for Pages 1.1 and Toolbox for Keynote 1.1 are free and available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Graphics & Design category. For prices of the in-app purchases, visit their respective pages on the Mac App Store.

Jumsoft
Toolbox for Pages 1.1 and Toolbox for Keynote 1.1
Download from Mac App Store (Toolbox for Pages 1.1)
Download from Mac App Store (Toolbox for Keynote 1.1)

Finally. After years of waiting for Keynote for iOS to catch up, Apple releases a solid feature update, combined with updates to the desktop apps to make them compatible with the changes in the new iOS versions.
Among the list of new features is one big standout: Theme support. No longer do you have to use work arounds such as creating .key files with one regular slide for every one master slide just so you can use all the masters in a theme. Most theme makers had to post instructions on how to get usable masters into your iPad and it was clunky and annoying. Good riddance.

Here’s Apple’s complete list of new features:

• Import and export all Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac slide sizes
• Import and export presentation themes, complete with master slides and preset styles
• Play back all Keynote action builds including Move, Rotate, Scale, and Opacity
• Add new slide transitions including Shimmer and Sparkle
• Preserve calculations in tables when importing from and exporting to Keynote for Mac
• Add reflections to shapes
• New print layouts include options to print with presenter notes, with builds, and without backgrounds
• Lock and unlock objects

KeynoteThemePAK introduces the brand new theme “Manhattan”, for Apples presentation software, Keynote, part of iWork ’09. To extend the options available to users, each Manhattan Theme comes in 2 distinct color moods. RED which offers darker and warmer palettes and uses transitional animated elements. And BLUE which uses cooler, lighter shades and remains static. Each template comes with 36 master slides plus supplemental materials.

Also available are specifically formatted iOS versions of Manhattan. Many keynote file features are not supported or have specific settings when opened on the iPad or iPhone. KeynoteThemePak has taken into account all of these issues and optimized these templates for use on the smaller screens of the iPad and iPhone. They can be moved to iCloud or sync’d by way of iTunes easily.

System Requirements:
Users must have iWork ’09 (Keynote 5.1, 5.2) running in Apple’s OSX operating system. For iPad and iPhone require Keynote iOS 1.6 or later.

Pricing and Availability:
Manhattan Standard Definition (SD 800×600 & 1024×768) is priced at $19.00 (USD). High Definition package includes the Standard Definition and High Definition (HD 1920×1080, 1280×720 & 1680×1050) for $29.00, and $39 for HD which includes both SD and HD in addition to special iOS templates for use on the iPhone and iPad. The new Manhattan theme packages can be purchased through the KeynoteThemePAK website.

Visit KeynoteThemePak.com for more information

With the release of Mountain Lion today, Apple has updated the iWork suite to 9.2. Major features are support for the Retina display and a new Dicatation feature.

Apple also added iCloud integration, which requires iWork 1.6.1 for iOS if you wish to keep docs in sync between devices. The new dictation feature allows users to “Speak words, numbers, or sentences, and watch them appear in your presentation, document, or spreadsheet.”

Overall, this update is most useful to users of the new 15″ Retina MacBook Pro, but it’s also a sign that they haven’t abandoned the suite. Hopefully we’ll see a brand new release later this year, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

For more information on the new update visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5248

Keynote Zone, the developer of professionally designed ready-to-use themes for Apple’s Keynote application, is pleased to announce a Spiral Book Keynote theme. This professionally designed theme infuses your presentation with the beauty of modern rationalism and leaves a hint of widely adorable minimalist design. Bright and plastic slides with skillfully designed elements ensure a friendly background for statements, charts or other material you need to expose.

The theme includes 45 layouts, custom designed charts and tables. 8 color schemes for larger inspiration are also included in the “Extras” slide. Spiral Book standard version theme comes in 2 sizes (800×600 & 1024×768) and is available for $16 at Keynote Zone site. Spiral Book HD version theme comes in 5 sizes (800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1680×1050, 1920×1080) and is available for $20.

System Requirements:

• Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later
• iWork ’08 (Keynote 4) or iWork ’09 (Keynote 5)

Pricing and Availability:
The Keynote themes are available for download at Keynote Zone site and are priced $16 (USD) for standard version and $20 (USD) for HD version. The Keynote Zone Collection 11 is available for download for $69.99 (USD).

Keynote Zone
Spiral Book Keynote Theme
Keynote Zone Collection 11

Paul Woods, writer of  ”ESPI at work” has posted a great article on using Keynote as an app or website prototyping app. He highlights 2 great websites that sell collections of Keynote files filled with UI elements you can use to mock up apps.

One great benefit to using Keynote is that you can actually make buttons live as long as they are used for simple things like moving around between screens in your app.

Click here to read the article

Keynote specific prototyping sites:
Click here to visit Keynotopia (affiliate link)
Click here to visit Keynote KungFu

Slidevana has released updates of its acclaimed Keynote templates that are optimized for the new iPad’s Retina display. The new templates are designed to enable mobile professionals to use their iPads to quickly create and present stunning presentations while on the go. Slidevana’s presentation toolkit contains nearly 300 slide templates including layouts for tables, charts, diagrams, timelines, lists, and common business frameworks. Slidevana is the perfect companion to iWork’s newly updated Keynote for iPad app.

The iPad has become an indispensable tool for many busy professionals. However, its use is often limited to viewing, rather than creating, great content. “I created Slidevana for iOS to enable business people to quickly author great presentations directly on their iPad.”, noted Ravi Mehta, Slidevana’s creator and CEO. “With Slidevana, creating a presentation is as easy as copying the perfect slide layout to capture your message and adding your content. Users of the new iPad can even use its Dictation feature to create powerful presentations without typing a single word.”

Slidevana has been revamped to take advantage of the new iPad’s Retina display. The entire set of graphics and diagrams have been updated to render crisply at the new iPad’s 2048×1536 resolution. Slidevana’s high fidelity graphics and stunning design provides an important advantage for professionals that rely on the iPad as a sales and business development tool. Whether presented directly from the iPad or connected to a video projector, Slidevana for iPad enables professionals to create and deliver presentations that impress and inspire their audience.

Product Features:

• Designed for iWork Keynote ’09 for Mac and Keynote for iOS
• Available in two color schemes, Slidevana Dark and Slidevana Light
• Includes nearly 300 different slide layouts
• Cut and paste your way to professional presentations
• Fully customizable with your logos, graphics, and color palette
• 100% money back guarantee and free lifetime updates

Win a Free Copy of Slidevana:
Enter by March 28th at 11:59 PM PST for your chance to win a free copy of Slidevana. Entry details are provided below.

Pricing and Availability:
Slidevana for Keynote optimized for the new iPad’s Retina display is available now. For a limited time, both Slidevana Dark and Slidevana Light will be bundled together for $69.00 (USD), 50% off the base price of $139. Existing customers will receive a complimentary copy of Slidevana’s Retina-optimized templates.

Slidevana Keynote Templates
The Story Behind Slidevana
Win a Free Copy of Slidevana
Slidevana for Keynote Bundle

The details are still a bit sketchy, so this story will be updated when we know more, but Apple today announced the new iPad 3 and with that, they’ve updated the entire iWork suite for the iPad.

Apple has yet to post information on what changes or additions have made it into Keynote or the rest of the iWork suite, but with all that processing power and screen resolution, we expect to see more visual effects and hopefully more features that bring it into line with the desktop version of Keynote. Hopefully, those with iPads 2s (or iPad 1s) can still get the new features, or at least as many as the processor can handle.

Update: Apple has released the update. It requires iOS 5.1 but does not require an iPad 3 (or The New iPad as Apple is calling it).

Here are the changes listed in the App Store:

• Create and view stunning 3D bar, like, area and pie charts
• Animate your 3D charts with Crane, Grow, Radial, Rotate & Grow, and Z Axis builds
• Keynote 1.6 is enhanced to take advantage of the Retina display on the new iPad
• Use new builds and transitions including Iris, Shimmer, Wipe, Flame, Perspective, Swing, Object Push, Object Zoom, and Fade Through Color

That’s the good news. The bad news isn’t all that bad. We’ve upgraded and looked through, and on an iPad 2, not all of those new features are available…but it appears that only two transitions are missing: Shimmer and Flame. We can live with that.

iPresentee has added 10 new themes to their collection: Golden Leaves, Fashion Show, Yellow Arrows, Share Your Story, Snow Summit, Wood Design, Stripes Design, Glorious Day, Hot News and Glossy Paper.

This Keynote themes collection is the largest on the market, enabling Keynote users to choose the perfect theme design for any topic of presentation. Each Theme is available in standard or HD formats with eighteen to twenty three different master slide layouts.

Minimum Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.4.3 Tiger and later
• iWork 08 or iWork 09
• 2 GB Hard Drive space

Pricing and Availability:
The latest 10 themes for Keynote are offered at $9.99. Themes bundle which includes 100 themes for Keynote is priced at $29.99. Free Keynote add-ons are offered free of charge and can be downloaded from iPresentee’s website. Samples and more information about Keynote Themes 8.0 are available immediately at the iPresentee website.

iPresentee
The latest themes for Keynote
Keynote Themes

Apple today showed off their new (FREE!) iBooks Author app, a new way to author ebooks (including text books). Included in that is a feature allowing you to completely embed a Keynote presentation into your ebook.
A new app that looks like Page’s long lost brother, iBooks Author is now available in the Mac App store as a free download. Along with the ability to embed HTML5, 3d models, video, photos galleries, etc Apple made a point in their demo to show off the ability to embed Keynote presentations. This makes sense if you consider that the iBooks Author is basically built on the same engine that Pages, Keynote and iWeb are based on.

One other benefit of using the same engine is that you are able to copy and paste objects (such as charts and shapes) from any of the other apps into iBooks Author. This has major benefits if you want to build a new book based off a presentation but don’t actually want to embed the presentation.

One glaring omission we’ve noticed in Apple’s new iBooks eco system…no support for reading iBooks on a regular Mac. That means students who already own a Mac laptop still have to buy an iPad. We’ll see if that changes, but it seems like a big limitation. It’s almost like Apple’s new mantra is, “Develop only on Mac, View only on an iPad”. I guess time (and students) will tell if this sticks or not.

We had also hoped that along with iBooks Author, we’d see the release of iWork ’12, but so far nothing new has been announced or released. Knowing that NEW products from Apple are still supporting iWork, it’s a good sign that the suite has NOT been shelved as some have suggested. Hopefully we’ll see a new copy of iWork this year.

Download iBooks Author free from the App store

View the Apple iBooks page

View Apple’s iBooks Author info page

Tom Negrino, author of several books on Keynote (as well as many other wonderful books) has alerted us to a hilarious new video on youtube that exemplifies every bad presentation ever given. If attended any sort of business meeting in the last 5-10 years that included a projected presentation, you been there. Heck, you may have even GIVEN a presentation like this (ED: I know I have, complete with botched Apple software demo and a bad case of the nervous shakes).

Created by the folks from growingleaders.com we present to you:

Every Presentation Ever: Communication FAIL

Apple today released a minor update to Keynote 5, bringing it to version 5.1.1

The official Apple description of what has changed is fairly short and to the point:

“This update addresses issues that occur when working with large Keynote presentations on OS X Lion. It also includes improvements in stability and accessibility for Keynote.”

You can get the update through Software Update, the App store or direct from this link.

Jumsoft, a developer of application templates for Mac OS X, is proud to introduce an addition to its selection of premium-quality design themes for Apple’s Keynote. The five new themes, like the rest of the Pro Themes for Keynote collection, offer up-market quality at a reasonable price.

The Pro Themes for Keynote line offers exceptional and easily customizable designs of top quality at a mass-market price. “Our premium collection for Keynote has been very popular since we introduced it,” says Algirdas Unguvaitis, Jumsoft’s general manager. “Therefore, we are thrilled to launch five more themes, which are suitable for various presentation topics.”

The collection now includes 20 themes for Keynote. The five new ones range from the clear-cut Dusty Blue to the colorful and classy Finesse and the retro-tinged Composure.

The new themes contain up to 34 master slides – a mix of bullet text and photo-oriented layouts. The layouts are polished and modern, with custom bullets, matching tables, and clear charts. All photo slides feature media placeholders that allow a user to crop a placed image neatly into a custom shape. The complimentary Bullets folder includes a set of 15 extra bullet designs, which can be used to further customize any of the themes for a specific case.

Pro Themes for Keynote can be purchased at Jumsoft’s Web site or the Mac App Store. For more information and design samples, readers can visit the company’s Web site.

System Requirements:
iWork 08 or later

Pricing and Availability:
Each theme is $19.99 (USD).

Jumsoft
Pro Themes for Keynote (v2.0)
Purchase and Download
Screenshot
App Icon

We feel terrible that we didn’t get on this bandwagon at the start, but those of you interested still have a day to get involved.

ProfCast Mobile is an app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that will allow you to create, give, and record presentations from your iOS device.

From the Kickstart Project page:

In January 2010, we released a cool little app called SonicPics that lets you create and narrate custom photo slide shows.  It’s great for digital story telling and people really like it too, but it isn’t a full presentation app that you could use for, say a board meeting or a lecture. That’s what we want to build with ProfCast Mobile.

ProfCast Mobile builds on the foundation of SonicPics, but adds full presentation creation and editing capabilities.  This includes the ability to have animated transitions, add text, shapes, photos and change the layout and theme of your slides.  Animated transitions will help dazzle your audience.  Once your presentation is created, you can give it directly from your iPad or iPhone using ProfCast Mobile.  Use the video out capability and the Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately) to connect your iPad to your HDTV or projector. Even better, you can record your presentation as you give it.  Share your narrated presentation on your web site, via email or on YouTube, all from your iOS device!

If you’ve ever used ProfCast to record your Keynote projects, you may want to jump over to the Kickstarter Project page and pledge your support!

ProfCast Mobile Kickstarter Project

Also, here’s a link to a Youtube Video describing the project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpDtspiMp8Q

Graphic Node, a graphic design company that specializes in creating themes, templates, and illustrations for Mac OS X, has announced another addition to its assortment of themes for Apple’s Keynote. Ten new themes have been added to the 10 designs from the previous version of Still Themes, which allows Keynote users to explore different ways of transforming their presentations into standout productions.

Graphic Node’s Still Themes equips users with an extensive collection of design options for composing their Keynote presentations or movies. All 20 themes were developed by a team of skilled designers with a knack for novelty and sophistication. Among the highlights of the newly added themes are the spry and summery Natural, fervently stylish Edgy Carmine, and delicate Airy Fairy.

“Still Themes is a great tool for those who deliver presentations on a regular basis,” said Jolita Unguvaitiene, general manager of Graphic Node. “It adds a touch of professionalism and provides users with an opportunity to make their slideshows more appealing.”

The themes include up to 21 master slides in a mix of bullet text and photo-oriented layouts. The layouts are polished and modern, with custom bullets, matching tables, and easily readable charts. Users can type or paste in their own text, add and remove text boxes, change fonts, and drag their photos or pictures onto presentation slides to supplant the placeholders. The themes are available in the five standard slide sizes supported by Keynote.

Users can view samples of the themes and purchase Still Themes on the Graphic Node website. After the product is downloaded and installed on a computer, the new themes will automatically appear in Themes Chooser of Keynote.

System Requirements:

• Apple iWork 08 or later

Pricing and Availability:
Still Themes is only $19.00 (USD) and available for purchase and download from the Graphic Node website.

Graphic Node
Stills Themes
Purchase and Download

The Unofficial Apple Weblog today posted an article on how to use Keynote in place of Apple Motion in a pinch. We’ve been doing this for several years and have heard of other video editors who also use Keynote for doing titles or quick animation sequences. This brings up a good point…will Apple ever release a title and animation program as easy to use as Keynote? We hope so.

Click here to view Mac 101: Using Keynote as Motion in a bind

This brings up a tip that wasn’t posted in the TUAW article…exporting Keynote animations with an alpha channel (transparency).

The basic steps are:

1. Set all your slides to a background of NONE on the Slide Inspector-Appearance tab. The slides will look white, but Keynote knows they’ve been set to NONE.
2. Choose Export from the File Menu
3. Click the Quicktime icon in the export panel
4. Check the User Transparency option
5. In the format drop-menu choose Custom
6. Set your desired video size and click the Settings… button
7. For Compression type, choose either Animation or PNG (these are the only codecs that support transparency at the moment)
8. Set the frame rate high (like 30 or 60 fps), or set it to match your video editing frame rate (you may want to try it both ways to see which works best)
9. Set the Key frames to All – this will make sure none of the animations get mangled during export (this is a good trick even if you’re not using transparency)
10. IMPORTANT! Set the Depth to Millions of Colors+. It’s that + that makes sure the transparency gets exported. If you miss this step you won’t get a transparent video.
11. Slide the Quality to Best
12. Click Okay
13. Choose your Audio settings
14. Click Next
15. Name and save your movie

You should now have a movie with an embedded alpha channel that works in most video apps (such as Motion or Final Cut Pro). This trick has all kinds of great uses, and we thought it would be good to add to the TUAW post since it’s likely someone is going to ask about it (since Motion can export transparency easily).

have fun!

Basset Software has released Slide Runner for Keynote. Slide Runner is a little app that adds flipbook style animations to keynote presentations, to graphically give the audience an idea of how long a presentation is.

Instead of manually numbering your slides (and, of course, including the total number so you know how far through the presentation you are), you can use Slide Runner to add on simple little animations to each slide. The audience is then treated to a man running across the screen, or a balloon floating to the top and then popping. You can also use it to generate simple numbering.

Once you’re finished with your presentation, you simply save it, close it, run it through Slide Runner and let it to its thing. Your numbering or animation will be added to each slide accordingly.

Only $0.99 in the Mac App Store.

For more info, and a watermarked demo visit http://www.bassetsoftware.com/sliderunner/

Apple® today announced that its groundbreaking iWork® productivity apps, Keynote®, Pages® and Numbers®, are now available for iPhone® and iPod touch®, as well as iPad®. Created for the Mac® and then completely redesigned for iOS and Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface, Keynote, Pages and Numbers allow you to create and share stunning presentations, beautifully formatted documents and powerful spreadsheets on the go. iWork apps are available on the App Store™ for $9.99 each to new users and as a free update for existing iWork for iPad customers.

Instead of posting the entire press release, we’ll just make a few comments and post the link to it. First comment…WOOOHOOOO! Second comment…hmmm, how practical will this really turn out to be? One big thing we can see it being used for is to present Keynote files from your iPhone or iPod Touch. In fact, we’re going to test it tonight with the HDMI adapter to see just how well it works.

Oh, and a big Thank You! to Apple for making the apps universal, now we don’t have to buy another copy (Pages and Keynote are already on the iPad).

Click here to read the press release

Since I’ve grossly neglected posting over the last month or two, I thought I’d highlight our Resources page. On it you can find useful links to a large number of Keynote theme sites. Yes, we’d love for you to buy our commercial themes (see the ad in the right side bar) but honestly, people’s needs and tastes vary greatly, and we only offer a few themes. There are literally hundreds of themes out there from the various companies, and if you’re looking for something specific, you’ll likely find it on one of those sites.

We’ve broken the page into sections, so you can easily find Themes, Wireframing toolkits, support, tutorials, and other odds and ends. We’d suggest visiting each site and viewing all the demo movies and samples they post. The prices vary, but even the most expensive themes are a great deal (especially compared to some PowerPoint template prices!). Some themes (like ours for instance) come with extras and sample files which you can use to spice up your own files.

Also, don’t be afraid of buying a theme that doesn’t quite fit the bill and modifying it to your needs. Our themes are built with flexibility in mind, and most of the other companies do the same. You can also contact the theme maker and ask for help. Usually they will give you tips or even modify a template (within reason) for you. Some of them also offer full custom services (at custom prices of course). This can be anything from adding your logo to a commercial theme, to a full, one of a kind, custom design.

So, support these small businesses (and the Keynote community on the whole) buy visiting the theme makers and resources on our Resources page, and tell them you heard about them from Keynote.com.

Click here to visit our Resources page.

Oh, if you know of a site that we haven’t listed, feel free to use our contact form and send us a link. We’ll try to post it right away.

Graphic Node, a graphic design company that specializes in creating themes, templates, and illustrations for Mac OS X, is pleased to announce an addition to its range of themes for Apple’s Keynote. The selection of 10 smartly structured, elegant Still Themes offers its users a broad scope of possibilities to turn their presentations into standout productions.

“The Still Themes collection presents a great choice of unique and easily customizable designs for Apple’s Keynote at a reasonable price,” said Jolita Unguvaitiene, general manager of Graphic Node. “It is a nice addition to our trio of older products for Keynote: Animations, Backgrounds, and Motion Themes.”

The Still Themes pack includes 10 themes, including the romantic and creative Cherry Blossom, the elegantly understated Purple Hint, and the ultra-simple Clean Space. It is intended for Keynote users looking for diverse ways to save time on a presentation layout and be able to focus on the content instead.

The themes include up to 21 master slides – a mix of bullet text and photo-oriented layouts. The layouts are polished and modern, with custom bullets, matching tables, and easily readable charts. Users can type or paste in their own text, add and remove text boxes, change fonts, and drag their photos or pictures onto presentation slides to supplant the placeholders. The themes are available in the five standard slide sizes supported by Keynote.

Users can view samples of the themes and purchase Still Themes on the Graphic Node website. After the product is downloaded and installed on a computer, the new themes will automatically appear in Themes Chooser of Keynote.

System Requirements:
* Apple iWork 08 or later

Pricing and Availability:
Still Themes is only $19 (USD).

Grahic Node
Still Themes
Samples