Keynote is free on every Mac, iPad and iPhone, and runs in a browser for anyone through iCloud. Apple calls its templates themes: a theme brings slide layouts, fonts, colours and styles for text, tables and charts. Keynote’s own themes are deliberately restrained — lots of white space, large type, full-bleed pictures — which is why decks made in Keynote often look calmer than the average PowerPoint deck.
Keynote’s built-in themes
Start a deck from a themeMac
Open the Theme Chooser
Open Keynote, or choose File → New if it is already open. The Theme Chooser shows the themes grouped by style.
Keynote’s Theme Chooser Pick the size
Choose Standard or Wide at the top of the chooser before you click a theme. Wide (16:9) suits modern screens; Standard is 4:3.
Choose and create
Click a theme and Create. To change the theme later, use File → Change Theme, which keeps your content and applies the new layouts.
File → Change Theme
Each theme’s layouts appear under the Add Slide (+) button: title, title and bullets, photo layouts, quote, big fact, agenda. Use them rather than empty slides, so text styles stay consistent.
Where to find Keynote templates
- Apple’s themes: a good first choice; they are updated with Keynote and use fonts that ship with every Mac.
- Template marketplaces and design sites: many offer Keynote themes, free and paid. Check that a template is a real .kth theme or a .key file with master layouts, not just slides to overwrite.
- PowerPoint templates: Keynote opens .pptx and .potx files, so most PowerPoint templates work too, with some conversion (see below).
- Your company’s template: if your organisation has a PowerPoint template, open it in Keynote and save it as a Keynote theme.
Make your own Keynote theme
Create and save a custom themeMac
Edit the slide layouts
Choose View → Edit Slide Layouts (in older versions Edit Master Slides). Change fonts, colours, backgrounds, placeholders and the logo on each layout; changes apply to every slide using it.
View → Edit Slide Layouts Set text and object styles
Format a text box the way you want a style to look, then in the Format sidebar update the paragraph style with Update. Do the same for shapes and tables, so new objects follow your look.
Save as a theme
Choose File → Save Theme and Add to Theme Chooser. The theme then appears under My Themes in the chooser — on all your devices if Keynote uses iCloud.
File → Save Theme
From Keynote to PowerPoint
Export a Keynote deck as .pptxMac
Export
Choose File → Export To → PowerPoint, pick the format (.pptx) and click Next, then save.
File → Export To → PowerPoint Check on the target computer
Open the .pptx in PowerPoint on the computer it is meant for — ideally Windows if the recipient uses Windows — and go through every slide.
Fix fonts
Mac fonts such as Helvetica Neue or Avenir are not on most Windows computers and are replaced. Either choose fonts both systems have before exporting, or replace them in PowerPoint with Home → Replace → Replace Fonts.
- Animations: Magic Move becomes a Morph transition in recent PowerPoint versions or a simpler transition in older ones; Keynote-only effects become the nearest PowerPoint effect.
- Charts and tables usually stay editable; complex table styles may change.
- Presenter notes travel with the file.
- Image masks become cropped pictures.
From PowerPoint to Keynote
In Keynote choose File → Open and pick the .pptx, or drag it onto the Keynote icon. Keynote lists anything it changed — missing fonts, unsupported effects — in a window you can review. SmartArt arrives as shapes, PowerPoint’s slide master becomes Keynote layouts, and Morph becomes Magic Move where it can. Save the result as a .key file to keep your Keynote edits; exporting back to PowerPoint repeats the conversion, so do the final edits in the format the deck will end in.
Keynote or PowerPoint?
| Keynote | PowerPoint | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on Apple devices | Microsoft 365 subscription or licence; free web version |
| Platforms | Mac, iPad, iPhone; iCloud web for others | Windows, Mac, web, mobile |
| Themes | Few, polished | Many, plus any .potx |
| Animation | Magic Move, smooth builds | Morph, extensive animation options |
| Corporate templates | Possible, less common | The standard |
| Exchange with others | Export to .pptx needed | Native format |
A practical rule: Keynote for talks you design and present yourself, PowerPoint for decks colleagues and clients will edit. If you love Keynote and work with PowerPoint users, settle on fonts available on both systems and test the export early.
Magic Move: Keynote’s signature transition
Magic Move animates objects that appear on two consecutive slides — they glide, grow and fade from one state to the next, the same idea as PowerPoint’s Morph. Templates built for Keynote often rely on it.
Create a Magic MoveMac
Duplicate the slide
Select the slide in the navigator and press Cmd+D.
A slide duplicated in the navigator Change the copy
On the second slide move, resize or rotate the objects, or change their colour and opacity.
Apply Magic Move
Select the first slide, open the Animate sidebar, click Add an Effect and choose Magic Move. Set the duration and whether text matches by object, word or character.
Animate → Add an Effect → Magic Move
Note the difference from PowerPoint: in Keynote the transition is set on the slide the movement starts from; in PowerPoint, Morph is set on the slide it arrives at. Exports between the two handle that for you.
Presenting with Keynote
- Presenter display: with a second screen connected, Keynote shows notes, the next slide and a timer on yours. Customise it under Play → Customise Presenter Display.
- Rehearse: Play → Rehearse Slideshow shows the presenter display on your own screen to practise.
- iPhone as remote: the Keynote app on an iPhone or iPad controls a slideshow on the Mac over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, with notes on the phone.
- Collaboration: share a presentation through iCloud so others edit it with you; people on Windows can open it in a browser at icloud.com.
- Export for others: besides PowerPoint, Keynote exports to PDF, a movie, animated GIF and images under File → Export To.
If the deck plays on someone else’s computer, export it as PDF and PowerPoint as backups; a Keynote file needs a Mac, an iPad or iCloud to open.
How to judge a Keynote template before you use it
- Layouts, not slides. Add a new slide with +: a good template offers named layouts with placeholders; a weak one only has finished sample slides to overwrite.
- Fonts that travel. If the deck may go to PowerPoint, look for fonts that exist on Windows too, or that you can install there.
- Room for real content. Paste your longest title and a real chart. Templates designed around three-word headlines break quickly.
- Wide format. For screens and video calls choose a 16:9 theme; converting a 4:3 template later shifts every slide.
- Licence. Paid and free templates come with terms; check whether client work and commercial use are allowed.
Designs for this kind of deck
Every design brings its own colours, fonts and layouts to the whole deck.
ExpertSlides with Keynote
ExpertSlides works in the browser on any Mac and draws its look from designs much like Keynote’s themes: each design has its own layouts, grounds, two fonts and colour styles, many of them as calm as Apple’s own. Describe the talk or attach your notes, choose a design in Design Templates, and the AI writes the deck in it.
For Keynote, use the PowerPoint export (Pro and Business) and open the .pptx in Keynote with File → Open: texts, shapes, tables and charts arrive as editable objects, and transitions including Morph as PowerPoint’s own, which Keynote converts as described above. Every plan exports PDF; on Free the PDF carries the ExpertSlides mark. Or skip files altogether and present from the browser with Present.
Related: how to convert files to PowerPoint, making your own PowerPoint template and fonts in PowerPoint. Compare plans on Pricing, or see our page of presentation templates. Keynote and PowerPoint are trademarks of their owners.
Questions, answered
Where can I find Keynote templates?
Start with Keynote’s own themes in the Theme Chooser. Template marketplaces offer more, free and paid, and Keynote also opens PowerPoint templates.
How do I save a custom theme in Keynote?
Edit the layouts with View, Edit Slide Layouts, then choose File, Save Theme and Add to Theme Chooser. It appears under My Themes.
Can Keynote open PowerPoint files?
Yes. Choose File, Open and pick the .pptx. Keynote lists anything it changed, such as missing fonts or unsupported effects.
How do I convert Keynote to PowerPoint?
Choose File, Export To, PowerPoint and save the .pptx. Check fonts on the target computer, as Mac fonts are often missing on Windows.
Does ExpertSlides work with Keynote?
Yes, through its PowerPoint export on the plans that include it: Keynote opens the .pptx with editable texts, shapes, tables and charts. Decks can also be presented straight from the browser.
