How do I copy Keynote presentations onto my Apple iPad?

Thanks Dave! This was a lifesaver - really appreciate it.

Hi Dave, your explanation was really helpful, but I'm still having trouble. My iTunes is on a PC and I had someone create a keynote presentation on a Mac and email it to me. Now I'm trying to load it onto my iPad. iTunes says the file is there, but it's not showing up in the Keynote Documents list and its definitely not showing up on my iPad. Is it the PC that messing things up and is there a way to get around it? thanks!

Interesting problem, Michelle. Could the filename be an issue? Try having no spaces, no punctuation and make sure it ends with .PPT or .PPTX. I have successfully loaded the latter onto my iPad, btw.

Nitpick: Typo on "ownwers" in early paragraph.

Great post! I hadn't found the "scroll down" area yet.

I had our designer export the Keynote to .ppt and I was able to load that onto the iPad. Hooray! I wish I could figure out why the original file isn't working, but glad for a quick fix. thanks!!

In keynote there seems to be no auto play on the iPad. ( you need to tap from slide to slide) Nor a way to play an embedded audio file even if it's imported from iTunes. Is this true?

Mary, that does look like the case. Keynote has a lot of power kind of hidden away, but in terms of how the show plays, seems like it's a bit weak, actually... Maybe in v1.0.1 ?

Thanks for your posting here. It certainly is helpful. I keep having problems transferring my keynote files to my iPad via iTunes.. It keeps prompting the error message that the presentation can't be open. Any idea how to resolve this.

Thanks again

Fred, I'd be interested in seeing one of your Keynote presentations that is failing on the iPad. I've had good luck with all of mine...

man, i had almost given up on sharing files with my iPAD because iTUNES just didnt seem to have the necessary options.. you my man, have saved my day!!

Even Apple does not have such lucid info on their support forums.. i want to say a HUGE THANKS to you for rescuing me!!

Great help, thnx!

Researching iPads
If you already purchased the iWork Suite (family pack) on disk, can it be installed on the iPad or do you have to purchase the apps again in the store?

Bryan, nope, sorry, the version of the iWork apps for the iPad are not the same as in the regular Mac distribution, so you will need to buy them in addition (or instead of)...

Sweet! THANKS for writing this great post, Dave. You are right that this is NOT intuitive. Thanks!

hi dave. does ipad keynote presentation mode also allow to have the actual slide (on the beamer/projector) and on the ipad screen there would also be next slide and presenters notes? (and actual time and time elapsed?).
as i have it on macbook pro.
best regards from switzerland,
cary

Dave, you will not believe how many sites I visited until I saw your comments. Most helpful and I am just off to check out how the keynote is working :) Thanks! Ganesh

Also important to note, Keynote for the iPad will only open presentations made in iWorks 9.0 or higher. Almost got burned by that one!

F'In amazing.. saved my life,.. or at least carrying mac macbook on 3 plane journeys !! thanks..

The folder on the top right hand screen DOES NOT appear after I have dropped my keynote presentation into the docu area AND resynced my macbook pro with the my IPAD???? Please help!!!

the folder on the top right is not showing after i did everything and it still does not show that folder.

ok i figured it out how to put the keynote from imac to ipad. You can import from the ipad instead. Now I need to figure out the music. why it is not playing. ??

How do you import images from from keynote into ipad? I have several images I'm using in a presentation that are not coming over in the transfer- is it due to the format of the images (.psd) or something else?

Is there a way to save my keynote file from my desktop that will convert these images to the proper format if that's the case? Thanks

Hi Dave,
I have done exactly what you described in order to get my keynote presentation from my mac to my ipad but and it sits in the folder in the Itunes and behaves as though it has transferred but I can not find a folder in my keynote on the ipad, I have tried this a number of times, rebooting, everything i can think of but no go. Even went to the mac store but they were of no use. Do you have any other suggestions?

Hi, Thank you for your awesome resource. I am having an additional problem. I feel a little slow, but I followed all of the steps on your page, and now after I sync, the little folder that is supposed to appear on the upper right hand corner of the ipad screen is not there. Am I syncing incorrectly? Every step up until that is correctly completed.
Thank you so much for your help!

I was having the same problem, I also didn't see the folder icon on upper right corner, and none helped me until I found out the trick just now. After adding the file to Keynote-App through iTune in Mac, no need to sync since it does it automatically once you add the file/s. Next step: from your iPad-Keynote tap one of the 4 icons at the bottom-2nd from left with a down arrow, then tap "Copy from iTunes" and this will bring up window that shows the file/s you just added to Keynote-App thru iTune-Mac. From the window select the file/s you want to sync into your iPad.
I hope this helps.

Dave, very helpful thanks for posting this.

Thanks for the help Dave.
Alas I am doing everything as described but every single time Keynote on the iPad crashes about 1/10th of the way through transfer.
Anyone else have that occur and find a solution?

super helful! thanks man

THNX Great help :-)

Wow amazing....It has taken half of my day to search on the internet to know how i can copy my presentation on my Iphone until i found it in your guide...
thanks man it's really useful for me, i appreciate for it.

click on the apps tab? the apps tab on what? my Ipad2 my Macbookproe, itunes and if itunes which one? , settings, if settings general or ???????? I have spent the last 45 min trying to find the apps tab that looks like your screenshot!

it only takes a few more words to be precise
helps those of us whom miss the obvious ALL THE TIME! uggh

Okay, okay, Ric. It's all okay. Deep breath. :-)

In iTunes, on the left side, click on the name of your iPad so that you're looking at it's specific setup and configuration. Now along the top center of the iTunes window are a bunch of tabs (as shown in fig 1 above). Click on "Apps" there.

Got it! THANX!! ;-)

Manifold blessing on you!

If my ipad was plug other computer to transfer document to my Ipad. So, My app on the Ipad was lost ?If i tap caccel when Itune ask me sync

You just saved my life dave, big work presentation and i literally had no idea how to get the dang presentation on to the ipad. I really hate that Apple make you use itunes for basically everything, i wish it was just drag and drop like most windows devices. Thanks for the help :)

I've been emailing my keynote presentation to myself, then retrieving it on my iPad by opening the email with the keynote presentation attached.

I seldom use iTunes and find it a bit klutzy. Just emailing the presentation to myself is quick and easy, at least for me:)

Dave, trying to add videos into my keynote presentation on my ipad2. When I moved the presentation from my mac to my ipad as you described, the videos transfered but lost the play function...essentially i could play the videos in edit mode, but not in presentation mode.

how do i add videos from keynote app? what format? I've tried to add them into my iphoto as an album but they don't appear in my media tab on the app. HELP!

Lifesaver. I was ready to forego everything Apple because of this issue. Thanks a bunch. Apple should thank you too.

You can also email them to yourself, open email in ipad, hold your finger on the keynote attachment, then click "open in keynote"....
Much easier in my opinion.

THANKS! I am a long time Mac user but couldn't understand how to get my new iPad sync'd up with documents to Keynote and Pages. This explanation made it SO easy!

Great tip - worked like a charm for me. Thanks!

Okay, I was having the same problem. Not seeing the PPT's in Keynote once I synced them from Mac. Drove me nuts. Finally went back in and hit the + sign in upper left hand corner of Keynote. Box comes up that says "Create Presentation" with three options, Copy form: iTunes, iDisk, or WebDAV. I hit iTunes and there they were! I just hit each presentation and they loaded. GEEEZe.

Still don't see a presentation folder, but that's minor!

Thanks for your site!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!! For weeks I have been tying to figure this out!

Thank you Dave. It was really helpful.
Andrej

Dave! Great info! THANK YOU! BUT.... it will not copy my file from iTunes.....it starts and gets 3/4 way downloaded and stops, closes app and returns o my iPad home screen!! UGH! Why is it doing this? I have kept it awake, and re-tried 5 times...it keeps doing same thing...now what? Any ideas?
You are amazingly helpful!!
Erin

Thanks Dave. I did as you described, but I am not able to synch my iPad because my iTunes library on my iMac is too big to fit on my iPad. Any suggestions to get around this? Thanks!

Thanks Dave, You made my day. This was a lifesaver - really appreciate it

what a wonderful man you are :)) i spent a lot of time to find this stupid functionality.

Is iCloud going to make this any easier? Have a bunch of salesmen that don't tether their iPads and don't want to go to iTunes. I have to get keynote presentations on all their iPads (and they are large files, too big to download from an email). I can't take their iPads and tether to my Mac because more than one iPad can screw up accounts, Apple IDs all messed up (learned that the hard way). Salesmen are fedexing their iPads to me to upload these presentations but I need their computers too, and they are all PC's. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

The macbook with which i synced my ipad has conked off and our service team in india is unable to fix it.
And i am hard pressed for downloading keynote to my ipad,(so that i can proceed with my presentations at work, next week) but iam unable to do so, since it needs ios5, which is not there on my ipad 2.0.
Need a suggestion as to how i could update my ipad to ios5 and have keynote installed, without the macbook, with which it is synced to.

Gun, I think you're stuck. If you have iOS 5 on your iPad, you could update the operating system without a computer involved, but you don't. I would suggest that you find a new computer and resync the iPad with that until your MacBook is fixed. You'll lose all your music, photos, and apps, but you can reinstall them and at least reinstall Keynote and have that part working. Good luck!

Thanks Dave for the suggestion, that's what i am gonna do.
Have a nice day

Dave: How do i remove keynote files i have loaded on the itunes, i am not able to delete them. The delete option in itunes is inactive.

Good work Dave! You made my life much easier than downloading my 250mg Keynote preso from Dropbox.