Keynote is more limited than Powerpoint; but unless you're a Powerpoint wizard, Keynote has much better defaults and styles. I've yet to see a Keynote deck that cannot be replicated in Powerpoint; but the average user seems to make better ones in Keynote unless they have a designed template that they stick to very carefully.
> I've yet to see a Keynote deck that cannot be replicated in Powerpoint;
Almost every deck I've ever made in Keynote cannot be replicated in PowerPoint. It doesn't have the same support for transitions that Keynote does. Good transitions (not flashy ones) are what make a good presentation great.
Nah mate, I disagree. Good content delivered by a good presenter (or should that be great content and a great presenter) make a great presentation. The slide transitions are eminently forgettable.
Consider perhaps the most famous presentation of them all - the iPhone release - I don't think the slide transitions got too much press, and I don't personally recall what they were.
These days my slide transitions are simple - slide 1 replaced instantly with slide 2. In other words no transition at all.
You may prefer a different transition, but to say it's the transitions that make the presentation great is reaching imo.
The transitions never get press or notice, unless they are bad. Then you get comments about how it looked "unprofessional". Apple keynotes are a great example -- they will never have a slide without a transition of some sort (the instant replace that you mention).
I get paid to make presentations, I've worked with other paid speakers, and I've seen 1000s of presentations. All the people who get paid to make presentations use transitions (and almost all of them use Keynote too), and there is a reason. Because it just looks "unprofessional" when you don't.
This book really upped my presentation game, and using transitions is in it with more explanation, if you're really interested:
I mean of course it does, but if you have a great speaker with great content and a crappy deck, it really takes away from the message. But if you have a good speaker with good content and an amazing deck, it enhances the message so much that that presentation is perceived very highly.
Yes, you need good content and a good speaker as a baseline, but assuming you have that, the deck is what makes the difference.
