afongen
Sam Buchanan's weblog.

Keynote XML Schema

February 13, 2003

Tempting though it's been, I have not gone out and bought Apple's Keynote presentation software. It looks slick, easier to use than PowerPoint, and I like how the presentations look. I've held out, though, because

1. I can think of better ways to spend a hundred bucks.
2. I don't make that many presentations.
3. As much as I love my iBook, the few presentations that I do make need to be made available to people who don't use Macs. Yes, I could export and import PowerPoint presentations or PDFs, but I'd have to see the interoperability at work before I shelled out.
4. I'm holding out for a decent OpenOffice port. Alright, the most recent release is pretty good, but still not comfortably workable on my iBook.

Yesterday Apple released Keynote's XML schema, for those of us who might want to access or create Keynote presentations programatically. This makes Keynote a teensy bit more tempting. The schema is certainly easier to grok than OpenOffice's XML file format, although that's not entirely fair since OpenOffice is a suite of applications while Keynote is a stand-alone app. Too, there may be more to come: Apple mentions a "four-part Technical Note 'Deconstructing a Keynote Document'" that is apparently a work in progress.

So am I planning to buy Keynote? Not unless I start doing enough presentations to merit the price. I don't think a hundred dollars is extravagant, but still more than I should be tossing around right now. I do have to say that I applaud Apple for making this move. They have been doing such a good job of working with open standards, balancing openness with proprietary needs.

Oh yes. If you're using Safari, don't miss the new beta.