Keynote Theme
I found an old atlas and played with some photos of it.
It will be here for a few days. It is the larger version (1024 by 768)
Please let me know what you think.
<a href="http://members.shaw.ca/nosemonger/atlas1.kth.sit"; target="_blank">http://members.shaw.ca/nosemonger/atlas1.kth.sit</a>;
It will be here for a few days. It is the larger version (1024 by 768)
Please let me know what you think.
<a href="http://members.shaw.ca/nosemonger/atlas1.kth.sit"; target="_blank">http://members.shaw.ca/nosemonger/atlas1.kth.sit</a>;
Comments
now if you'd scanned some of the maps...
vast expanses of terra incognito and estimated coastline, complete with sea monsters in the "edge of the world" ocean bits
that might make for some cool bkgnds
similarly, your urban.kth seems to be one graphic of a wall...
if those are what you intended, cool.
i'm trying to figure if we can modify the chart textures and sub-features of a theme in addition to the images
Guess I was wrong.
I was basing the whole thing on the styles that shipped with Keynote. There isn't much variance from master slide to master slide on most of them except in the placement of the photographs and text. (and Blackboard, with the masking tape, has a tendancy to cut off people's heads. Not a real problem in my sisters case, but I like some of the people who were made headless)
The "Fun Theme" is the only one which really changes from page to page and has the most potential but, with a 'crazy 50's theme' there should be some variance (all the photo holes are the same shape).
Somewhere I read one reviewer who wished Apple had let the design department come up with cool themes (I think he mentioned wanting to see a theme by Jonathan Ives) - for the life of me I can't find the link. Now, a collection of themes by the real geniuses who brought us what the iMac looks like would be a treat! (as long as they didn't use just the blue and white stripes...)
Anyways. I am still trying to figure out what people will be looking for when it comes to these things. Setting up the spaces for the photographs is one of the most time consuming things (copy this... duplicate that... select this... delete. copy... paste... do again for a horizontal space/vertical with bullets/doublevertical/etc and then design the edges for all of them as required) And if you use special borders for the photogaphs, like the tape, the chiseled areas in Sandstone (or rough edges of cinderblock) then each photo-slide becomes more time consuming.
Maybe it would be easier (and smaller) to just come up with backgrounds that fit a central theme, which people can copy and paste/edit to their hearts content.
I dunno... taking the ease of use away by making it the responsibility of the end user to do all the editting kinda makes the whole idea of a theme redundant... why not just buy a cd of stock backgrounds (like power point provides) and hack to your hearts content...?
Sorry... kinda went on a tangent.
Would it be useful to people if when designing themes, one simply provided a blank background, and several slides with appropriate photo holes, and left the generation of every single slide type to the user (for now)?
That way it becomes simpler to just cut and past the graphics into the master slides as needed and the downloads shrink to 2 or 3 Megs instead of 7...
[ 01-15-2003: Message edited by: nosey ]</p>
I think I might be able to help you there. But this is far more complicated than it has any right to be.
1. there is a Chart Colors.key in the Library/Application Support/Keynote/Image Library folder
This library has several collections of colors and textures for the various charts used in the various themes included with keynote.
If you want to change colors/textures of charts in a specific keynote slide show, it would require you to open this file, select the slide you want (they are all labled according to the various themes) select the color/texture you require and then go to format/copy style.
Right then. So now (lets say) you have the blue chalkboard theme selected. in the chart colors key file. It has been copied. Now if you go into the slide show you are making, and have selected the graph you are working on, you can change the color.
But first you have to select that particular element. I do this by double clicking the right mouse button. Try ctrl-double-clicking. Awkward? Yes... If you don't select the elements you want to change, then you change the background for the whole graphic.
Ugly.
So, anyways. there is the story of how to change the graphic styles using the ones provided in Keynote. I am halfway through making one for the Atlas theme, and I want to test to see if including it in the User/Application folder/Keynote as a chart key file will work.
Stay tuned... I am halfway there... BTW Does anyone know of an easy program for creating patterns? Therein lies half my battle (It has been 1.5 hours in photoshop so far.)
If I can figure this out tomorrow. I shall post it here (as an edit, of course.)
Originally by CuriousBurb:
[quote] i'm trying to figure if we can modify the chart textures and sub-features of a theme in addition to the images <hr></blockquote>
I figured it out. Granted the textures may need some work, but now if you insert a graph, it will be using the colors and textures appropriate (kinda) to this theme.
Rather than go through the entire list of slides for each theme as prepared for by the nice people at Apple, I included the basics. Copy and paste the text as you need. I am trying to keep this smallish but with the various tiles, it still came out to 8M.
You can get it here:
<a href="http://members.shaw.ca/nosemonger/atlas1.kth.sit"; target="_blank">http://members.shaw.ca/nosemonger/atlas1.kth.sit</a>;
I would like to know what people will be looking for when it comes to these themes. Various graphics for backgrounds? Different photo positions? Included appropriate fonts? Image files that are appropriate? The specific slides needed?
Right now I am using the slides to include descriptions, as well as contact information. (Noone reads the readme anyways. Why not incorporate them instead of just 'body text')
Thanks. I am going to work on a few others now and hey... they might even include sea monsters, CuriousBurb...
<strong>Well. the atlas theme has been updated.
Originally by CuriousBurb:
I figured it out. Granted the textures may need some work, but now if you insert a graph, it will be using the colors and textures appropriate (kinda) to this theme.
.</strong><hr></blockquote>
sweet. i've been trying to modify the chart textures and opened the .kth package to discover how its accessing them, but i hadn't been able to write changes into a package or alter the Chart Colors file to accurately offer my custom textures for each new chart.
what exactly did you do to get your map texture into the chart default?
[quote]<strong>
Thanks. I am going to work on a few others now and hey... they might even include sea monsters, CuriousBurb...</strong><hr></blockquote>
i've got a custom knockout (non-square) in my keyhole nebula shot for the hubble theme
... so far we're winning the reverse engineering war
once we get chart textures... then it's the custom bullet feature that cries out for tweaking
<ducks incoming throw... no rest for the wicked>
Well, that is tricky. First let me tell you the easiest way I have of creating your tiles. If you look in the package contents of the different themes, you will find a series of tiles, named tile_parchment_blue.jpg. These are 128 by 128 tiles.
Find a texture you want to use. Make a file (in, say photoshop) Make a copy and turn it into a greyscale. Resize it to the 128 by 128 (Keep the details fairly small because the details may appear too large. This is fine for the Fun theme, but not necessarily for Pushpin. Use your judgement. Mine were way too large at first.) Then Adjust the brightness/contrast, fairly dark because of what comes next...
Now you want at least six colors. Each theme will be different colorwise... In the photoshop document make 6 layers above the greyscale texture (make sure you have a RGB document at this point.) Fill each layer with the color of your choice and select a composition method (I use Screen, because I like lighter colors with my background) Turn on each layer with your chosen colors, one by one, and save the file as a jpeg (As far as I can tell, Apple used a jpeg setting of 4 or so...) Name them tile_(theme name)_(Color).jpg for consistency. (It really does make it easier to adjust things later)
Now, once you have everything saved (including the photoshop file, so you can adjust it later)you get to the most complicated part of this whole thing (Sleeping yet? Have some coffee, and don't forget to ask questions)
In Keynote open a file with your theme. (You should be choosing save theme if you have already started placing graphice and text...)Make a blank master slide, name it graph for now.
The easiest graph style to change at first is the pie chart. When you first open a theme for editting you are automatically assumed to be using that themes texture settings. Now you have to change them to yours. Click on the graph. Click on a separate region of the graph. In the edit menu (the little window that allows you to make all the changes) with that region of the pie chart selected, choose the second tab in the menu. This lets you change the graphics from a simple fill of color or an image. Choose your image, the color that youwant to appear first. Select tile.
You should see the region change to what you have selected. Continue through all the various regions and then in the menu line go to Format>Change Master>Save graph to all masters. (the second choice in the list. I am on a PC right now... I can't remember hwat it says. I really feel like washing my hands, though, coz they feel dirty.)
So. Now you have done one graph, and you have to do the same thing for all of them. It may take forever.
Is there an easier and quickerr way? You bet.
If you are starting your theme based on one of the others, then change your background, save your theme and open the file. It should be in Users>(your user name)>application support>keynote>themes. Select your theme and select "show package contents"
In this folder you will find several tile files. with the middle part being whatever the theme name was that youstarted with... Go back to your saved texture tiles, and change their names accordingly. Copy them all into this folder and replace them.
I think that should work. I think you may be able to change the various other items in this folder, the background, photo hole backgrounds, etc. It really does make things easier...
Good luck. Sorry it is so long winded, but I want to see some other themes... Let the theming begin!
(sound of trumpets, large groups of people moving mice and more than one person glancing around the apartment for things to scan and abuse... several smaller pets wisely hiding until all is safe.)
Hmmm... maybe now is the time to consider sea monsters and little 'here there be dragons' quotes...
I shall work on this tomorrow. I have some neat etchings from the 17th century I was planning on turning into rubber stamps. I shall see what I can come upo with.
On a different note... has anyone seen any sites which host icons or desktop patterns which have announced hosting themes as well? I have a few other textures I want to try, some for the petroleum industry, and a more complete Urban one with spray painted bullets and backgrounds/textures...
Oh yeah, and for my Mom who is into scrapbooking... a theme with victorian flowers and stamps. Gotta keep my Mommy happy... she makes the best cookies!
[ 01-17-2003: Message edited by: curiousuburb ]</p>
<strong>
You should see the region change to what you have selected. Continue through all the various regions and then in the menu line go to Format>Change Master>Save graph to all masters. (the second choice in the list. I am on a PC right now... I can't remember hwat it says. I really feel like washing my hands, though, coz they feel dirty.)
So. Now you have done one graph, and you have to do the same thing for all of them. It may take forever.
Is there an easier and quickerr way? You bet.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
i was missing the "Save chart type to master (or all masters)" command before. now my textures stay if you create a new chart of the same type... other types require repeat of this process <which leads me to believe we're still not changing the default texture, just its instances.
[quote]<strong>
If you are starting your theme based on one of the others, then change your background, save your theme and open the file. It should be in Users>(your user name)>application support>keynote>themes. Select your theme and select "show package contents"
In this folder you will find several tile files. with the middle part being whatever the theme name was that youstarted with... Go back to your saved texture tiles, and change their names accordingly. Copy them all into this folder and replace them.
I think that should work. I think you may be able to change the various other items in this folder, the background, photo hole backgrounds, etc. It really does make things easier...
</strong><hr></blockquote>
i have not been able to write into the .kth package... i can show the contents and inspect the files (including the ThemeMetaData which references the texture files) but cannot drag and drop my revised textures into it.
once i had successfully Saved Chart Type, the revised .kth package now shows some of my chart textures along with a few of the original tile_themename_colour.jpg, but a few of the original textures are still present and if i open the theme and change chart type to one i haven't pasted my own textures to, it reverts to the old textures.
not quite there. incremental progress.
[quote]<strong>
Good luck. Sorry it is so long winded, but I want to see some other themes... Let the theming begin!
(sound of trumpets, large groups of people moving mice and more than one person glancing around the apartment for things to scan and abuse... several smaller pets wisely hiding until all is safe.)</strong><hr></blockquote>
i also noticed that some of the textures seem to be 400x400 size, not 128x128. ymmv
a tool that would write into the .kth might help, or a clearer method of modifying the master textures (not in Chart Colors.kth) that sticks across chart types would help.
and custom bullets. (including animated state change from off to on as you build)
not too much to ask for, is it?
i'll aim to post my theme once a few more issues are resolved
Neither was I. I was speculating, which translates to making assumed guesses because I was writing at work (on a pc... that is 'twice as fast' in Mhz as my old machine, only two years old, and yet three times as slow as my five year old machine. Ah the progress of windows)
But I digest...
I finally managed to copy the various items into a package by using an ancient, almost long forgotten item still used today in dark, gloomy corners of the world.
Mac OS 9 That's right... but don't boot into it, because you should never look back at what was... just remember it fondly as something you grew out of. Like the 60's, or if you prefer, something you are embarassed for living through... like the 80's.
Anyways, see if you can find a program called Greg's Browser (fat). This little gem of a program mimics todays column-view finder. I would almost say it predates it, but who knows. In this program you can treat a package like it was a folder. Nice!
So... save whatever theme you have started, with all your glossy space shots of nubile young, um... space stations... and glorious constellations with big, um... nebulla. Then display the package contents to find out the naming structure of the tiles used for graphs... Then go to the tiles you have made (remember... I told you to name them all this way for a reason.) make a new folder called "My tiles old" just in case some windows-related bug crops up halfway through, and move a copy of the six tiles into there. (remember to always work on copies...)
Change the names of the ones outside this folder to match the names of the ones in the package. Go into Greg's Browser (fat) to find user/'your name'/library/application support/keynote/themes. Copy these files into the themes directory. open the themes and find the theme you have been working so diligently on (You should have saved it long ago...)
Drag the tiles which are in your new themes package to the images folder (just to get them out of the way. I haven't figured out how to move them directly to the desktop yet from within Greg's Browser) Then drag your renamed tiles from the themes directory to the theme package folder you are modifying.
Now, since multitasking is so cool... open Keynote, choose your theme and place a graph.
Unless you have screwed up and moved your new tiles (which is easy to do since everything has the same friggin name) you should now have your new tiles as the default graph graphics.
And you should find out who Greg is and send him fifty bucks, because this has made your life so much easier, it is almost guaranteed you will sell lots of new themes for years to come.
Now... I haven't worked out all the bugs yet. I have no idea if there will be repercussions for replacing a 400pixel wide tile with one which is smaller but hey... that is the price of experimentation.
Anything that goes wrong with your program, your machine, or your laundry basket full of mismatched socks is the sole fault of Billy Gates (esquire) and his minions of doom.
Whew... Oh yeah... delete the tiles ersiding in the images folder, because you should never leave things lying around... It looks tacky.
[ 01-17-2003: Message edited by: nosey Twice actually, because I spell bad, and grammar bad too ]
[ 01-17-2003: Message edited by: nosey ]</p>
<strong>
Anyways, see if you can find a program called Greg's Browser (fat). This little gem of a program mimics todays column-view finder. I would almost say it predates it, but who knows. In this program you can treat a package like it was a folder. Nice!
Drag the tiles which are in your new themes package to the images folder (just to get them out of the way. I haven't figured out how to move them directly to the desktop yet from within Greg's Browser) Then drag your renamed tiles from the themes directory to the theme package folder you are modifying.
And you should find out who Greg is and send him fifty bucks, because this has made your life so much easier, it is almost guaranteed you will sell lots of new themes for years to come.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
greg's browser 2.7 does the trick... although it reports "the operation could not be completed" for every drag and drop, it actually does write to the package
and although you can't drag to your jaguar desktop, you can drag to the desktop (first pane) inside greg's browser
sweet! although it looks like some of my textures are blown up... maybe 128x128 is set elsewhere
- edit -
adding custom bullets to a master page and saving the theme allows your custom images to be available in the bullets pull down!
- edit -
as for selling themes... wonder what the market is and what people would pay for "theme packs"?
anybody care to comment? would you buy a theme bundle?
[ 01-17-2003: Message edited by: curiousuburb ]</p>
Oops... I forgot to mention I adjusted the permissions so it was easier to do...
And theme packs? Well... if you included a variety of backgrounds, some home-made stock photos, specialized photo holes, animated bullets and managed to get permission from font producers to include some theme-specific fonts in the package, not to mention instructions on how to use the entire thing properly...
Well.. how much do you think a person/presenter would pay?
[quote] I was working on some of the existing themes and found out some interesting information. Especially how to create themes that are not 800x600 or 1024x768.
I have re-created the "linen" theme in NTSC video resolution: 720x540. It wasn't that difficult once you know where all the screen resolution settngs are hidden.
Make a copy of the theme and work on the copy.
To make a new resolution, you need to edit the file "themeMetaData" and "presentation.apxl". Replace the values for key 'height' and 'width' in themeMetadata with your desired resolution.
In presentation.apxl you can search for the string "800 600" or "1024 768" to find the image sizes for the pages. you can replace these with your desired resolution "720 540" in my case.
You can then open up the tif files of the pages in Photoshop and resize them to the same resolution.
When you find the theme in Keynote, select it and in the box where it asks the size, you will find your new resolution is available. Select it and start working.
The only problem I have not found a solution for yet is the default fields for titles and such are not resized as well. I suppose you can use keynote to edit the master slides to fix these.
My purpose was to get a slide resolution that would be easy to export into FCP, iMovie or iDVD. For some reason, the quicktime export still looks like heck... still working on that one.
<hr></blockquote>
Now, I wonder if this means you could incorporate a slideshow of different proportions (complete with transitions) as an imported element on a normal sized slideshow.
Hmmmm...
<editted to include comments about European screen sizes, but realized those concerns were for iDVD>
[ 01-17-2003: Message edited by: nosey ]</p>