Rehearse a Keynote presentation on your Mac
If you plan to use an external display to show your presentation, you can use rehearse slideshow mode to set up the presenter display in advance, and to practise your presentation, without having the external display connected.
Go to the Keynote app
on your Mac.Open your presentation, then click the slide in the slide navigator you want to begin with.
Select Play > Rehearse Slide show (from the Play menu at the top of your screen).
The presenter display appears. To switch between the presenter display and the current slide, press X on the keyboard.
Tip: If you have an external display connected to your Mac, press Option-X on the keyboard to choose which display to rehearse on.
To rehearse the presentation, do any of the following:
Go to the next slide or build: Press the Right Arrow key or Space bar.
Go back a slide or reset the builds on the slide: Press the Left Arrow key.
Jump to a different slide: Press any number to make the slide navigator appear, enter the slide number, then press Return.
Open or close a list of keyboard shortcuts: Press the Question Mark (?) key on your keyboard. You can use the shortcuts to control your presentation.
Add or edit presenter notes: While viewing the presenter display, double click in the Presenter Notes field, then start typing. Click Done when you’ve finished.
To customise the presenter display, move the pointer to the top-right corner of the screen, click
, do any of the following, then click OK (or press Escape on your keyboard):Move an item on the presenter display: Drag it.
When you drag a slide, its label always moves with it. To position a label independently of the slide, drag only the label. To drag multiple items simultaneously, Command-click or Shift-click to select them, then drag.
Resize an item on the presenter display: Click the item, then drag any selection handle.
The clock, timer and labels are always resized proportionally from their centres.
To maintain the proportions as you resize a slide, the Presenter Notes field or the Ready to Advance Indicator, hold down Shift as you drag. To resize from the centre, hold down Option as you drag. To proportionally resize from the centre, hold down Shift and Option as you drag.
Automatically position the items on the presenter display: Click the Use Auto Layout button. Keynote positions the items to make optimal use of the presenter display.
Change the appearance of presenter notes: With presenter notes showing, move the pointer over the Presenter Notes field, then click a font button in the top-left corner to make the font smaller or larger. Click the Invert Colours button to show white text on a black background or vice versa (other text colours aren’t affected).
To stop rehearsing, press Esc.