So one of the things I wanted to explore this month was exporting Keynote presentations into alternate formats such as HTML, Flash or even JPEGS. The sleek design of Keynote templates makes the program an attractive choice for the development of my thesis media project – an asynchronous online training on the subject of Technology Accessibility.
What I love about Keynote is the degree of control a user has over the layout and navigation of each presentation. By including hyperlinks and on-screen directional text, a Keynote can very easily function as a computer-based training module. It is a great tool for educators who want to create a training environment that mimics a website, but lack the technical development skills.
Exporting a Keynote presentation to Flash produces better results than exporting the file to HTML or JPEGs. Exporting to Flash retains most and, in some cases, all of the functionality of the original presentation. But here’s the catch (you knew there would be one… this post was sounding too good to be true!) – Exporting a Keynote to Flash severely decreases the accessibility of the information in the presentation.
And as a designer looking to create an online training about technology accessibility for her thesis media project… that’s a deal breaker!
When exporting a Keynote to Flash, the presentation is compressed into an SWF file, which is basically an image or movie. Text that was at one time “selectable” becomes a picture of words and can no longer be read by assistive devices. The accessibility of the presentation also decreases since ALT tags cannot be applied to graphical components.
And to top it all off… Flash files (SWF) are currently inaccessible to most mobile devices, which means I would not be able to access the information with my precious iPhone. While that’s not a HUGE deal right now, mobile devices are the quickly becoming the preferred method for accessing the web due to their relative low cost and high convenience. Just something to think about folks.
Check out this very complex Keynote I exported to Flash and embedded in an HTML page. If you have access to a mobile device, try pulling up the same link… you’ll see what I mean.
http://www.eephotoanddesign.com/emdt/ede/FPP/index.html
Image Credit: Screen shots taken of webpage created and hosted by Emily Wray
Yeah, as with many Apple/iLife/iWork tools, they work beautifully within the environment envisioned by Apple. Step outside the circle and it becomes a lot of pain and gnashing of teeth. You'll be introduced to a tool called Udutu that does the online translation for presenting materials completely online and some students have produced amazing things. This was a course created by Tom Lucas to help teach journalism to high school students:
ReplyDeletehttp://publish.myudutu.com/published/launch/9712/Course17434/Launch.html
HOep that this helps. jbb