In Keynote, we cannot type text straight into an open document, like we do in the Word Processing mode of Pages and other word processing applications. We need to create Text Boxes or type our text into predesigned boxes in master slides. In blank slides, we place textboxes on an empty space called canvas. The technique is similar to the Page Layout mode in Pages and the canvas in Numbers.
If you are comfortable with writing your text in Keynote documents, that's fine. But, there's a good chance that you will be preparing a presentation based on a longer text that you or someone else has prepared in a word processing application.
In this recipe, we will look at techniques that make it easier to import chunks of text into a Keynote project.
Open a Keynote document and select the Blackboard theme. Choose "title" and "subtitle" from the Masters menu—it has two predesigned Text Boxes. Have a chunk of text ready to follow the steps in this recipe. It could be a modified extract from Cicero's Lorem ipsum that is often used for demonstration purposes.
Here are the steps to follow to add text to a Keynote document:
- To type in a Keynote Text Box, click on it and start typing. The default text in the box says Double-click to edit, but you don't have to double-click when you first type in your text. Double-click when the box is not selected and you want to go back to it and change what you've typed.
As you type, your text will be in the font that is preset for the present theme. In our example, it is Regular Chalkboard, 36 points. The text also follows the preset formatting. Here, it is centered and aligned to the bottom of the box.
If you want to change the font or formatting, highlight your text and use the drop-down menus in the Format bar. This is shown under the main document toolbar when you are working with text. Some additional features are available in Text Inspector, for example, space between paragraphs and inset margin (the space between the text and the edge of the box).
- To paste text into a Text Box in Keynote, press Command and type V. This keyboard shortcut is the same as in other iWork applications. However, pasted text will retain the formatting it had in its original document.
- To paste text into a Text Box in Keynote and immediately change its format to the one set for the Keynote theme, use the Paste and Match Style option from the Edit menu or use the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + Shift + V. This may look like a lot of keys to press at the same time, but in fact, it's quite easy with the thumb, the ring finger, and the little finger.
- To create a new Text Box and paste text into it in one go, click anywhere in the slide, away from any existing Text Boxes, and copy and paste (Command + V) the text. This will create a new box filled with copied text.
Text Boxes in Keynote behave differently from Text Boxes in Pages. They automatically grow to accommodate more text as you type, whereas in Pages they don't—they only show that there is an overflow of text with a plus sign on the bottom handle.
When you delete text in a Keynote Text Box, the box becomes smaller.
This is handy when you write original text in Keynote Text Boxes. If you want to use your own formatting, especially if there is a lot of text to put into the slideshow, consider preparing text in Pages and then pasting in Keynote. If there is too much text, break it to spread over several slides.
- Chapter 2, Working with Text