iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Emailing Slideshows

Sending your Keynote documents via email is probably the most common way that you share your slideshows—possibly even more than presenting them to crowds of adoring fans. Keynote makes emailing an easy process, letting you export the file and open an email message with the file already attached, with just one click.

Choose a file format—Keynote, PowerPoint, or PDF—from the Share → Send via Mail submenu, and Keynote opens Mail, your Mac’s email program. A new message window appears with your file already attached, ready to be addressed and mailed.

Note

This command is tuned to use Mail. If you use another email program, you’ll have to go the long way ‘round: Export the file (to send in a non-Keynote format), create a new mail message in your favorite email program, and attach the file manually.

The caveats mentioned earlier about exporting your slideshow as PowerPoint or PDF apply here, too: The result may not exactly match your original Keynote slideshow. Also, emailing a PDF with this method doesn’t give you all of the options that you have when you create a PDF from the Share → Export dialog box. Instead, Keynote makes its formatting decisions for you in order to create the smallest file size—the same results you’d get by exporting the file with build stages excluded and the image-quality option set to “Good.” For finer control over the export process, use Share → Export instead, and then create your email message manually.

Note

If you added a password to your Keynote ...