Keynote (presentation software)

Keynote is a presentation software application developed as a part of the iWork productivity suite by Apple. Version 14 of Keynote for Mac, the latest major update, was released in April 2024. Keynote is available for a range of Apple devices across macOS, iOS and iPadOS.

Keynote began as a computer program for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to use in creating the presentations for Macworld Conference and Expo and other Apple keynote events. Before using Keynote, Jobs had used Concurrence, from Lighthouse Design, a similar product which ran on the NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP platforms.

The program was first sold publicly as Keynote 1.0 in 2003, competing against existing presentation software, most notably Microsoft PowerPoint.

In 2005, Apple began selling Keynote 2.0 in conjunction with Pages, a new word processing and page layout application, in a software package called iWork. At the Macworld Conference & Expo 2006, Apple released iWork '06 with updated versions of Keynote 3.0 and Pages 2.0. In addition to official HD compatibility, Keynote 3 added new features, including group scaling, 3D charts, multi-column text boxes, auto bullets in any text field, image adjustments, and free-form masking tools. In addition, Keynote features three-dimensional transitions, such as a rotating cube or a simple flip of the slide.

In the fall of 2007, Apple released Keynote 4.0 in iWork '08, along with Pages 3.0 and the new Numbers spreadsheet application.

On October 23, 2013, Apple redesigned Keynote with version 6.0, and made it free for anyone with a new iOS device or a recently purchased Mac.

A version of Keynote for visionOS was released on February 2, 2024, alongside the launch of the Apple Vision Pro. The app is largely based upon the iPadOS version of the program, and is currently the only component of the iWork suite to offer a native visionOS app.

Keynote Remote was an iOS application that controlled Keynote presentations from an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad over a Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth connection and was released through the App Store. With the release of Keynote for iOS, the app was integrated into the new Keynote application and the stand-alone app was withdrawn.