iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Building Tables and Charts

When you need to present complex information or large amounts of data clearly, tables and charts can help you organize and present that information in an attractive and understandable way. Get started by clicking the toolbar’s Table button or choosing a chart from the Chart pop-up button to add the object to your slide and then stroll back to Chapter 8 for a review. Creating tables and charts in Keynote works exactly the same as it does in Pages, although there are a few Keynote-specific niggles worth pointing out.

When you add a table or chart, Keynote normally tumbles it out into the center of the slide—unless the slide has an object placeholder on it. Object placeholders are like media placeholders, except that they’re tuned to catch tables and charts when you add them to the page. Add a table or chart to a slide with an object placeholder, and the new object automatically appears in the placeholder at the specified position and size. Object placeholders are normally part of a master slide, but you can add or remove them from individual slides by turning on the Object Placeholder checkbox in the Slide Inspector → Appearance pane. For details on creating master slides and including object placeholders, see Naming placeholders with tags.

When designing tables and charts for Keynote, be careful to keep them relatively simple and uncluttered so that they come through clearly on the screen. If you have a detailed table or chart where it’s important that you ...