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How to Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on iPhone and Mac

Apple Keynote is one of the well-known apps for creating presentations for almost every occasion. You can create an interactive slideshow or storybook using Keynote. The app comes pre-installed on iPhone and iPad so that you can access and manage your presentations on the go.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Besides making a slideshow, if you want to let it play automatically and continuously, Keynote enables you to play your presentation in a loop. This post will show you how to loop a slideshow in Keynote on iPhone and Mac.

Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on iPhone

First, let us show you how to loop a slideshow with the  Keynote app  on your iPhone. This feature is helpful for occasions when you want to play a slideshow continuously at an event. It might be a new product showcase or a new fashion line launch. The looping feature will take care of your stunning presentations.

Before we begin, please ensure that you have updated the Keynote app to its latest version.

Download Keynote for iPhone

Follow these steps, which are also applicable for iPad users .

Step 1:  Open the Keynote app.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 2:  Select the presentation that you want to loop.

Step 3:  Tap on the three dots at the top menu bar.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 4:  Scroll down a bit and select Settings.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 5:  Tap on Presentation Type from the Settings menu.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 6:  Tap the toggle alongside Loop Slideshow.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 7:  Select Self Playing.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

After you select Self Playing, the app will offer an option to set Transition Delay and Build Delay.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

You can choose the duration for both these aspects of your slideshow.

Step 8:  Tap on Done to save changes.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

When you share the slideshow with your iPhone for playback, it will start looping itself. If you use a Mac for the slideshow playback using the same Microsoft account, the changes will get synced automatically.

Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on Mac

Let us move to the Mac and show you how to loop a slideshow in Keynote. This feature can be used by teachers using a keynote presentation to teach their students. They can easily repeat what they have taught to the class using the loop feature to revise the concepts. If you are conducting an online lecture, this feature is useful for that scenario.

Follow these steps.

Step 1:  Press Command + Spacebar to open Spotlight Search, type Keynote, and press Return.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 2:  Open your presentation.

Step 3:  Click on the Document tab in the top-right corner.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 4:  Under Slideshow Settings, select Loop Slideshow.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 5:  Select Self-Playing as the Presentation Type.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 6:  Select the Transition and Build delay as per your choice.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 7:  Press Command + S to save your preferences.

Bonus Tip: How to Loop a Specific Portion of the Slideshow in Keynote

When you want to emphasize on select slides or want to repeat information when new attendees join the meet, you can loop select slides. Meanwhile, you can continue to present and the new attendees can catchup with the slideshow. Follow these steps.

Step 1: Open your presentation in the Keynote app and select the first slide of your presentation on Mac.

Step 2:  Press and hold Shift + Down Arrow key to select a couple of your initial slides that do not reveal your presentation’s major data points.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 3:  Once selected, click on File.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 4:  Select Export To.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 5:  Click on Movie.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 6:  Select the resolution of the video file and click on Next.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 7:  Rename the file, choose the file location and click Export.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

You now have a video clip of your initial slides. Let us integrate this in our presentation.

Step 8:  Right-click the first slide and select New Slide.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 9: Click on the new slide to select it and drag it to the top.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 10:  Select the new slide and click Insert.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 11:  Click on Choose.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 12:  Select the newly created file and click Insert button in the bottom-right corner.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 13: After Keynote inserts the video, click on Format at the top-right corner.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 14:  Select the Movie tab.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 15:  Under Repeat, select Loop from the drop-down menu.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 16:  Press Command + S to save your preferences.

The video will play in a loop until you click on it to stop playback and begin your presentation.

Loop Slideshow in Keynote

Using these steps, you can play the entire Keynote presentation in a loop or a couple of slides. That way, you can captivate the audience so that they don’t feel bored and also helps while taking questions during or after the slideshow.

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Last updated on 14 May, 2022

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Your online information has been incredibly helpful, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us all. Just starting into the world of Apple, so I will definitely hanging out on your website regularly. You’re the best!

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how to loop a presentation on keynote

Paurush Chaudhary

Paurush dabbles around iOS and Mac while his close encounters with Android and Windows. Before becoming a writer, he produced videos for brands like Mr. Phone and Digit and worked briefly as a copywriter. In his free time, he satiates his curiosity about streaming platforms and devices like Apple TV and Google TV. On weekends, he is a full-time cinephile trying to reduce his never-ending watchlist, often bumping it longer.

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How to Automatically Play, Loop, or Restart a Slideshow in Apple Keynote

Apple Keynote is a slideshow creating and rendering program that many Apple users enjoy. Aside from simply playing a slideshow presentation , users can also loop and restart it as many times as they want.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Step 1: Create Content

Step 2: click the three-dot icon, step 3: click settings, step 4: turn on loop slideshow, what apple keynote, what is the purpose of apple keynote, can you access apple keynote using windows, how to set the apple keynote presentation slide duration, how to animate in apple keynote, more in apple.

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Macintosh How To

How to loop slides within a keynote presentation

Apple Keynote

This is a feature that is sorely missing in Apple keynote. The ability to create a loop within Keynote. For example you may want have a loop of 4-5 slides at the start of a presentation while people are waiting, and then start the presentation without having to exit and open a new presentation.  Or you may want to have a loop in the middle of a presentation, for example some photos that rotate while someone is singing, and then continue on with the presentation when you are ready.  There is no way of doing this within Keynote itself but here is a workaround that will get you out of trouble.

The way to do this is to make 2 keynote presentations. One has the slides that you want to rotate. The other is your main one.  You need to export the rotating presentation as a QuickTime movie and then import it  into your main Keynote file and tell it to loop. Here’s how to do it step by step.

 Create the looping part of the presentation and export it.

Make a  keynote with all the slides  that you want  in the repeating section. Export it as a quicktime movie.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

This will save the keynote presentation as a movie.  Strictly speaking, it is not a movie,  it is a collection of still images that automatically advance when you want to.  It is kind of like a self playing keynote presentation wrapped inside a QuickTime movie file.  You can import this keynote movie into another keynote presentation.

2.  Import this looping part back into your main keynote presentation.

Open a new keynote presentation that is your main keynote presentation and insert the QuickTime movie into the new keynote presentation. (You can simply drag the movie into your keynote presentation,  or you can select ‘Insert’, ‘Choose’  and then choose the movie file.)

Inserting the movie back into keynote.

3.  Tell Keynote to loop the looping part.

Click on the movie in Keynote, then in the Inspector,  in the Movie panel  under repeat select ‘Loop’.

Tell Keynote to loop the movie.

That’s it!

Your main Keynote presentation will play like a normal keynote presentation, but when you come to the movie those slides within the movie will repeat endlessly in a loop until you click.  When you click it will move on to the next slide. This is the way to make a loop of slides within a keynote presentation.

The main downside of this method is that if you want to edit one of the slides in the looped part of the presentation, you need to open the original looped Keynote file, make the changes re-export the file to a movie, and reimport it into the new presentation.

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12 responses to “How to loop slides within a keynote presentation”

Thanks for this – first thing that came up in my search. It is dismaying that I cannot set Keynote to loop back to a prior slide at a certain point.

This solution will not work in the instance where we are creating a deck that needs to be cued live because it is for a background stage element that only changes when a speaker finishes presenting. The entire thing then needs to seamlessly loop back to the start.

I take it there is no way to set up Keynote to do this, but if you learn of any would appreciate tips, thanks!

Wait, I take that back (so go ahead and kill my comment) … I looked this up online before discovering there is a global “loop slideshow” setting under Document tab that will return it to the first slide. I feel dumb for not having checked first.

yes there is – glad you found it!

This Global “loop slideshow” still does not appear to work with mine. I imported a powerpoint presentation into Keynote, Clicked Loop slideshow, still stops at last slide. Help!!!

Great article. 15 minutes to midnight and I’m wanting to enhance a presentation for tomorrow morning. Clear instructions and it worked the first time.

Thank you so much!

Thank you! I was working entirely in PowerPoint and was able to apply parallel instructions to accomplish this in PowerPoint. It worked immediately!!

This was very helpful!

I’m using dissolves, and for some reason my final slide fades to black, and I’d prefer it faded to white. Any tips for how to solve this?

Just put a completely white slide at the end and fade to it, does that work? Make sure the ‘Master Slide’ is white not black.

I tried this, but for some reason my video will play in edit mode but when I hit play it jumps to the next slide without playing the video loop. It is set to play automatically.

This DID NOT work. :(. Going to have to move the presentation to ppt.

Thank you ! It work very well. Clear instructions and it worked the first time.

Thankyou enormously! Your advice might be 5 years old, but it came up among the first googles, and it’s saved my cardio-vascular system and sanity! (Of course, I first had to tell MacOS15 Monterey not to open the movie in TV, but in Quicktime).

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how to loop a presentation on keynote

In this article, we’ll show you how to loop a slideshow in Keynote on both iPhone and Mac.

Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on iPhone

1. Open the Keynote app on your iPhone and select the presentation you want to loop.

2. Tap on the “…” button in the top right corner of the screen.

3. Select “Settings” from the drop-down menu.

4. Tap on “Slideshow Options.”

5. Toggle on “Loop Slideshow.”

6. Tap on “Done” to save your changes.

Now your slideshow will automatically loop once it reaches the end.

Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on Mac

1. Open the Keynote app on your Mac and select the presentation you want to loop.

2. Click on “Play” in the top left corner of the screen.

3. Click on “Play Slideshow from Beginning” or press Command-Return on your keyboard.

4. Once the slideshow has started, move your cursor to the top of the screen to reveal the toolbar.

5. Click on “Slideshow” in the toolbar and select “Loop Slideshow” from the drop-down menu.

6. Your slideshow will now automatically loop once it reaches the end.

Looping a slideshow in Keynote is a simple process that can help keep your presentation running smoothly and continuously. It’s a great way to ensure that your audience stays engaged and attentive throughout the presentation. Whether you’re presenting on your iPhone or Mac, the process is easy to follow and can be done in just a few steps. So, next time you’re preparing a Keynote presentation, don’t forget to add looping to your slideshow options!

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Programmatically Running And Looping Keynote Presentations

These days, you can spend a lot of money buying really nice digital signage tools. And if you’re doing so, then you likely have some pretty dynamic content you’d like to load. Something that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a dynamic content platform, but which is nice for the quick presentation that you whip up and want to use for a form of digital signage is Keynote presentations. These are inexpensive and can be played on monitors through AirPlay or directly through a Mac Mini connected to a television or big monitor. Great for a monitor in the company lobby, the hallway in the school or for subliminal messaging at the DMV to convince you that no, the guy with the forehead tat isn’t really going to shank you (srsly, metal detectors, pls).

There are a few issues there, though. First, for most uses, you need the presentation to either go on forever or need to queue up a bunch of them. Then, you need to set the presentation to automatically start when opened so that you can just open files through a script. Scripts being able to be set as login items for a default user. There are also some logistical issues with the physical hardware if it’s in public, but I’ll assume you’ve got those covered and move on to the technical details of how to do the above tasks.

To prepare a Keynote presentation, first open the Keynote, click on Inspector in the toolbar and then at the inspector click on the document icon (in the far left top corner of the inspector). Then, check the boxes for “Automatically play upon open” and “Loop slideshow”. This will automatically play the presentation and start it again when it’s done.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

open /Users/admin/Desktop/Presentationname.key

Then to close Keynote and run something else:

killall Keynote

To close one presentation and immediately reopen a different presentation, merge the commands into one line:

killall Keynote; open /Users/admin/Desktop/Presentationname.key

Just make sure everything’s automated or the loop won’t run. Now, to automate events within Keynote will require clicking on things from an AppleScript or Automator workflow or using the AppleScript options for Keynote. To automate just clicking to move to another slide can be done with the following AppleScript (and sent via osascript), although it’s usually best done within Keynote:

tell application “System Events” click end tell

The following are all of the Keynote-specific options from Automator:

how to loop a presentation on keynote

To close a single presentation, the following workflow would do the trick:

how to loop a presentation on keynote

One challenge is that when you loop through different Keynote presentations, you would see the desktop of OS X and the Dock while Keynote is re-opening if you kill it off first. It should take a little less than a second. Once keynote re-opens, you see the menu for keynote for about another half second while the keynote document is opening. If I don’t close Keynote and instead just open a 2nd document then I see the Keynote menu bar for a split second while the second presentation is starting and I don’t end up seeing the actual Desktop. That would be done just by opening a second presentation from the command line. The caveat is that as you toggle between them, if you don’t kill off the Keynote application, you’ll end up starting where the other left off rather than at the beginning (which might be fine in a given workflow).

You can, if you need to kill the application, launch the screen saver first:

osascript -e 'tell application id "com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine" to launch'

Or just in bash:

open -a /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework//Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app

This just fires up the screen saver to try and hide what you’re doing in the background. You can layer the three commands we’ve looked at on top of each other as a single command from ARD:

osascript -e 'tell application id "com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine" to launch' ; killall Keynote ; open /Users/admin/Desktop/Presentationname.key

That would effectively kick off the screen saver, kill keynote while it’s hidden and then open the new presentation. The presentation would need to be transferred to the client system first, but that’s usually the easy part. You could also sleep the commands to bring up different presentations and bolt more logic in, although much of that is best left inside of Keynote itself. If you wanted to get extra crafty, in case the desktop did ever appear, you could have a fail safe of having the screen saver appear as the desktop background, which I wrote up awhile ago here . There are also various kiosk applications that do crazy things like replace the Finder or fire up kioskish (is that a word?!?!) browsers and the such, but all will likely require a little testing and massaging to get just right.

Overall, Apple products can make for pretty good signage options given how well they typically handle various graphics and connectivity, without buying 3rd party tools. You do get what you pay for, so it might be worth looking at some of those tools. Also, it’s worth noting that Rich Trouton wrote up a nice article on using AppleTV for this type of stuff here on his site . I’ve also scripted digital content delivery to Macs using Final Cut Server, CatDV and various scripting tools such as python. We’ve even gone so far as to programatically create the actual Keynote files, but that’s probably best saved for a github gist rather than a https://krypted.com/ post…

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Gollum1

Keynote looping

I have created a narrated slide presentation in Keynote. I want it to repeat after a few minutes and restart. I have hit the "Loop" button, "play automatically" and restart if idle after five minutes. It will NOT loop. It returns to the creation page.

Posted on Sep 14, 2018 6:52 PM

Gary Scotland

Posted on Sep 16, 2018 5:36 AM

Sorry the page timed out before I could send, my full reply was:

Looping does not work with Recorded Slideshows, there are three workarounds I use depending on the situation:

Do not use recorded slideshow, (clear the recording in Play > Clear Recording ) and set the slides to transition at the required time using Delay:

Select the first slide in the Navigator, go to Inspector > Animate , select a transition effect if needed,

in the Start Transition dropdown box; select Automatically

  • in the delay entry box enter a value in seconds for the amount of time the slide should display
  • repeat for the other slides
  • set the presentation to loop in Inspector > Document > Document and select Loop Slideshow in the option box

In Keynote, select Loop ( Inspector > Document > Document > Loop Slideshow ) and record the slideshow advancing through the slides until the last slide when it will loop back to the start, you can continue advancing through the slides again for a second pass, you can do this as many times as needed to obtain the required duration.

Create a Recorded Slideshow then export to Movie ( File > Export > Movie )

Open the movie file in Quicktime Player and set it to loop ( View > Loop ) it will loop continuously until closed.

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  • Timing Issues w/ Keynote Video and Slideshow I have a Keynote that contains a video on one slide, followed by a number of static slides. I want the video to play in its entirety, then have the slides each appear -- and loop so the whole thing starts again automatically. How do I set this up? I've been looking through help documents and videos to try to figure this out, but I still can't get it to work. The video is about 4:30 and I multiplied that to get 270 seconds and put that on the first slide, but it doesn't play all the way through and immediately goes to the second slide. Then those slides were playing/switching too fast. How do I set up something like this to work correctly? Thank you! 731 3

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Sep 16, 2018 5:36 AM in response to Gollum1

Sep 17, 2018 5:44 AM in response to Gollum1

Before making the recorded slideshow, use the following settings:

  • Inspector > Document > Document; in the Presentation Type dropdown menu, select: Normal
  • select all the slides then go to; Inspector > Animation > Transitions; in the Start Transition dropdown menu, select: On Click

Sep 16, 2018 3:38 AM in response to Gollum1

Looping does not work with Recorded Slideshows, there are two workarounds I use:

Sep 16, 2018 5:36 AM in response to Gary Scotland

Thanks for the suggestions!! Will give them a try. I appreciate it!!

I am finding Apple's apps to be increasingly LESS useful. Not allowing looping with recorded slideshows is yet another example. "Workarounds" for everything might be a good signal for Apple to spend a little more time with their programs.

Sep 17, 2018 6:14 AM in response to Gary Scotland

Will try that. Thanks again!! Currently have a friend with a PC with Powerpoint willing to let me re-record directly into a PP file with my slides transferred. Both options mean more time and effort than should have been necessary, had the designers of Keynote considered someone might want a looping slideshow with sound.

Sep 16, 2018 7:33 AM in response to Gary Scotland

Maybe I'm missing something. I followed directions for "3". There is no sound, despite the original Keynote being a recorded one.

Pitching | Presentation | Public Speaking | Resources | Storytelling

15 pro tips to ace your keynote presentation.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Written by Shavinyaa Vijay

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Keynote presentations can be terrifying for some of us. We fear messing up, looking bad on camera, forgetting our notes… The list of nightmares just doesn’t end.

While it’s not possible to have an entirely foolproof plan, we can minimize the number of ways where things can go wrong. So if you have an important keynote presentation coming up, here are some of our tips to help you out.

How to Ace Your Keynote Presentation

We’ll give you a concise guide on what you should be doing, from the time you start planning to the time you conclude your speech. Take these 15 quick tips and master them so you can deliver a stunning keynote presentation in no time!

1. Know Your Purpose

Before you start creating the layout of your slides or typing out the content of your speech, take some time to ask yourself — what is the purpose of your keynote presentation? What is the takeaway that you want the audience to have after your presentation? Essentially, you need to ask yourself, “What is my message?”. While it feels like time is ticking away, rushing into your slides will backfire in the long run. You need to ensure that the intention behind this presentation is clear and focused, as that would help you in creating a keynote presentation with clarity and confidence.

2. Be Confident

rawpixel 974558 unsplash

Ever heard of the phrase, ‘fake it till you make it’? Now’s a great time to take that advice! A significant factor in determining the success of your keynote presentation is your audience’s trust in you, and to gain their trust, you need to be confident in yourself first. Confidence in presentations comes from two sources: your posture, and your mastery of the content you are presenting. For posture, remember not to fidget and stand in a relaxed position. Stretch for a couple of minutes before presenting to loosen yourself up. As for your content, be sure to know the subject of your presentation like the back of your hand; read up as much as possible and do not start on it last minute.

3. Give Your Credentials

When introducing yourself, simply sharing your organization and position is not enough; if your audience wants to know where you’re from, all they need is a quick search online. What they do want to know however, is why you are the best person to deliver this presentation, and what you have to offer them. By sharing this, your audience will know that you’re knowledgeable in the field you’re presenting on, and that you have the solution to their needs or problems. Doing this will not only make your audience lean a little closer, but will also give you a great segue to move them into the next part of your presentation.

4. Deliver Your Hook

Research shows that the audience will stop listening to a presentation within 10 minutes if they are not persuaded that there is something in it for them. It is therefore important that you “hook” your audience by convincing them that they can benefit from your keynote presentation. You can do this by showing your audience that the key idea behind your presentation has the ability to make them feel happy or successful.

5. Introduce Your Agenda

At the start of your speech, be sure to let your audience know what the takeaway of your message is. Dedicate a slide to show your audience the agenda, and when presenting, remember not to read from the slides! Instead, offer a brief and general summary of your presentation. Give your audience the direction of your presentation, as this will allow them to follow your content better.

6. Ensure Smooth Transitions

Transitions are like sign posts that guide your audience throughout your speech, so they must be easy to follow, the last thing you need is a confused audience! Unclear transitions can be a nightmare as it may potentially distort the content of your presentation. In the end, the audience grasps only bits and pieces of your message, or worse, gives up on following your presentation. This applies not just to the visual effects that PowerPoint has, but also to the words you use. When transitioning from point to point, use words such as ‘next’, ‘then’, and ‘after’, and number your points using words like ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’, and ‘thirdly’. This will help the audience understand when you’re moving on to another idea or part of your presentation.

7. Give a Credible Statement

If you wish to gain your audience’s trust and establish a professional relationship with them, you need to get them to buy into your presentation. One way would be through giving credible statements that support your message. This can come in the form of data, or in the form of professional advice from experts in the field of your presentation. For example, make use of graphs and statistics to show the importance of a certain situation, and share quotes from someone with authority in a similar (if not the same) industry to backup your statements.

8. Use Images for Maximum Impact

The beauty of well-selected images lies in their ability to communicate a message without throwing dozens of words at an audience, so use them to your advantage! Select photos that encapsulate the message of your keynote presentation, or to highlight a specific idea that you’re sharing. Images that look simple can deliver the most powerful messages, and do what words sometimes cannot achieve — stir emotions in an audience. However, while images are a great tool, moderation is key. Stay away from photos that have been used too often (icebergs, anyone?), and use them sparingly throughout the presentation, as too many may reduce their impact.

9. Present data simply

Data is important in any credible presentation, and like we mentioned earlier, can help to establish your audience’s trust. However, it is crucial that the data be presented in a simple and uncomplicated manner. Too many numbers or graphs can be distracting for the audience, and may obscure the real intention of presenting the data. If you have large chunks of statistics, ask yourself: What is the key idea of the message you’re sharing? Which figures will back your statements up? From there, choose the appropriate data and highlight them accordingly.

10. One slide – one theme

Like transitions, each slide can be used as markers of the various points you aim to cover. Not only does this make your presentation easy for the audience to follow, it also makes it easy for you to remember your points as they are neatly categorised in each slide. It may seem tempting to squeeze all your information into few slides, but remember, moderation is key!

11. Be minimalistic

For a keynote presentation, simplicity is important when designing and organising your deck. You do not want the pattern or design to distract your audience from the real content and message. Again, it is also important that you do not overload the slides with words, so keep the sentences and points in your slides short. Let your speech expand on the ideas that you want the audience to take with them. Your communication and connection with them is more impactful in sending your message across than words on the slides.

12. Be consistent

Consistency is essential, especially when it comes to your presentation. Avoid using different backgrounds in every slide, and ensure that the design is reasonably similar throughout, unless you wish to use differences to distinguish individual points in your message. This makes the transitions in your presentation smooth, and thus it makes the story that you are telling easy for the audience to follow.

13. Practice, Practice, Practice

Rome was not build in a day, and similarly, a perfect presentation will not happen instantaneously! Rehearse your presentation a couple of times before the actual one, as this will help you in two ways. Firstly, you will gain familiarity with the content, which will definitely increase your confidence in delivering the presentation. Secondly, going through the deck aloud will allow you to listen to your speech from the audience’s perspective. This will aid you in tweaking and adjusting the content and structure of your presentation, to best fit the needs of the audience.

14. Analyse your audience

On the day of your presentation, analyse the audience. Get a general feel of the crowd. Are they excited? Are they bored? Are they tired? By doing this, you will be able to tweak the content of your presentation to fit the needs of your audience. If they are bored, you may wish to start with an interesting story related to your message. If they are tired, you could give them some time to get refreshed, either through a 5 minutes break or a quick activity to keep them alert. This way, you can ensure that you have a receptive audience ready to listen to what you have to say.

15. Q&A session

It is absolutely important that you leave some time at the end of your keynote presentation for a short “question and answer” session. Since the presentation was done from your perspective, the audience may have missed some important links and connections in your ideas. Therefore, a Q&A session is great in resolving any potential confusion that the audience may have.

There you have it, 15 simple tips to ace your keynote presentation! Just remember:

  • Know Your Purpose
  • Be Confident
  • Give Your Credentials
  • Deliver Your Hook
  • Introduce Your Agenda
  • Ensure Smooth Transitions
  • Give a Credible Statement
  • Use Images for Maximum Impact
  • Present data simply
  • One slide – one theme
  • Be minimalistic
  • Be consistent
  • Practice, Practice, Practice
  • Analyse your audience
  • Q&A session

Now you’re good to go, all the best for your keynote presentation!

Article Written By: Shavinyaa Vijay

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How to play a video or audio across slides in Keynote on Mac, iPhone, and iPad

Learn how to insert a video or audio file in your Keynote presentation and set it to play across various adjacent slides.

Keynote iPhone Play Movie Across Slides

You can get really creative when you’re building a slideshow in Keynote . And depending on whether your presentation is for business or pleasure, you can add a movie or audio file that plays across your slides.

What’s nice about this feature is that you can set the volume differently on each slide and continue to use your object animations and slide transitions . If you’re ready to spruce up your slideshow with a movie or audio, here’s how to play those files across your slides in Keynote on both macOS and iOS.

Before you begin, make sure that the movie or audio file you plan to use is in a supported format for QuickTime on Mac. This includes M4A (MPEG-4) files for audio and MOV files for movies. If the file you have is not in a supported format, you can use iMovie, QuickTime Player, Compressor, or another tool to convert the file . Then, follow these steps to add the file to your slides.

1) Select the first slide where you want the file and add it. You can do this easily with the Media button in the toolbar. For a file in your library, pick Movies or Music and drag the file from the window where you want it on the slide. For a file in a different location, like a Finder folder, select Choose , locate the file, and click Insert .

2) Follow the same instructions in Step 1 to add the file to each slide. Keep in mind that although you don’t have to add the file to every slide in your presentation, the slides you do add it to must be consecutive.

3) Click the Format button to open the right-hand sidebar and make sure the Movie or Audio tab is selected at the top

4) Go through each slide, select the file on the slide, and check the box for Play movie/audio across slides in the sidebar.

5) On the last slide where you want the file to play, uncheck Play movie/audio across slides. This will play the file on that slide but not the upcoming slides .

Keynote Mac Insert File and Play Across Slides

Adjust the volume on each slide

If you would like to set the volume differently on each slide playing the movie or audio file, this is easy to do.

1) Select the file on the slide where you want to change the volume.

2) Click the Format button to open the right-hand sidebar and select the Movie or Audio tab.

3) Use the slider to adjust the Volume .

Keynote Mac Adjust Volume Audio

Follow these same steps if you would like to change the volume for the movie or audio file on the other slides. This allows you to have the volume set to your preferred level on each slide that plays the movie or audio file.

On iPhone or iPad

To add a movie or audio file to play across your Keynote slides on iPhone or iPad, you’ll follow the same basic process.

1) Select the first slide where you want the file and add it. You can do this by tapping the plus sign and then the Media icon at the top. For a file in your library, pick Photo or Video , select the file, and tap Choose . For a file in a different location, like the Files app, select Insert from , locate the file, and tap it.

2) Follow the same instructions in Step 1 to add the file to each slide. Like in Keynote on Mac, the slides you add the file to must be consecutive.

3) Go through each slide, tap the file on the slide, and tap the Format button (brush icon) at the top.

4) Make sure the Movie or Audio tab is selected and enable the toggle for Play Across Slides .

5) On the last slide where you want the file to play, disable the toggle for Play across slides. Again, this will play the file on that slide but not the upcoming slides .

Keynote iPhone Insert File and Play Across Slides

You can set the volume differently on each slide playing an audio file in Keynote on iOS. But note that you may not find this option in the most recent versions of Keynote on your iPhone or iPad.

2) Tap the Format button at the top and select the Audio tab.

Keynote iPhone Adjust Volume Audio

Being able to play a movie or audio file throughout your presentation can be quite useful. You might use a video with sign language that explains your slides or an audio file with music for a neat effect. Are you going to give it a try? Let us know!

Other Keynote tips:

  • How to add background music or a soundtrack in your Keynote presentations
  • How to record narration in your Keynote presentation
  • How to automatically play, loop, or restart a slideshow in Keynote

Use Keynote Remote to control your Keynote presentation

You can control your Keynote presentation from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using Keynote Remote.

Check your requirements

Link keynote remote to your mac, link keynote remote to another iphone or ipad, use keynote remote.

Keynote Remote is included with Keynote for iPhone and iPad. To use Keynote Remote to control your presentation, here's what you need:

An iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with Keynote 2.1 or later for iPhone or iPad

A Mac with Keynote for Mac 6.1 or later

A remote device linked to your Mac or another iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

You can play your presentation on your Mac and remotely control it with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Turn on Wi-Fi on your iPhone or iPad and turn on Wi-Fi on your Mac .

On your Mac, open Keynote.

From the menu bar, choose Keynote > Settings (or Preferences), click Remotes, then select the "Enable" checkbox.

No alt supplied for Image

On your iPhone or iPad, tap Continue.

On your Mac, next to the name of your iPhone or iPad, click Link.

Make sure that the four-digit passcode that appears matches on both devices, then click Confirm on your Mac.

After you link your devices, learn how to use Keynote Remote .

You can play your presentation on iPhone or iPad and remotely control it with another.

Turn on Wi-Fi on both devices .

Open your Keynote presentation on the device with the presentation.

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On the device that you want to use as a remote, open the Keynote app.

On the presentation device, tap Link next to the remote device.

Make sure that the four-digit passcode that appears matches on your devices, then click Confirm.

After you link Keynote Remote to your Mac, iPhone or iPad, follow these steps to control your slideshow.

Back button

Tap Play, then choose what you want to do:

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To move to the next or previous slide, swipe in either direction.

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To end the presentation, tap the Close button or swipe down with two fingers.

If your devices can't stay connected, connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network on your Mac and on your iPhone or iPad .

Before playing your slideshow, you might want to turn on Do Not Disturb on your Mac and on your iPhone or iPad .

Use Keynote with Apple Watch

Learn how to use AirPlay to play your presentation from Keynote to an Apple TV.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Explore Apple Support Community

Find what’s been asked and answered by Apple customers.

how to loop a presentation on keynote

Contact Apple Support

Need more help? Save time by starting your support request online and we'll connect you to an expert.

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  1. How to automatically play, loop, or restart a slideshow in Keynote

    On iPhone and iPad. Open your presentation in Keynote on your iPhone or iPad and then access the settings by tapping the three dots at the top. Select Presentation Options > Presentation Type. Enable the toggles for Loop Slideshow and/or Restart Show if idle [time period]. To automatically play the show, tap Self-Playing to mark a check for ...

  2. How to Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on iPhone and Mac

    Step 1: Open the Keynote app. Step 2: Select the presentation that you want to loop. Step 3: Tap on the three dots at the top menu bar. Step 4: Scroll down a bit and select Settings. Step 5: Tap ...

  3. Make a presentation advance automatically in Keynote on Mac

    You can set your presentation to advance automatically, like a movie, with no interaction needed. You can also set it to play immediately when it's opened, or to play continuously in a loop. In the Document sidebar, click the Document tab. Click the Presentation Type pop-up menu, choose Self-Playing. You can adjust the controls next to Delay ...

  4. Creating Loop Animations in Keynote

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  5. Edit video and audio in Keynote on Mac

    To work with multiple videos or audio objects at the same time, hold down the Shift key while you click the objects. You can set Keynote to optimize the format and quality of movies and images that you add to presentations. In Keynote on Mac, set video or audio to loop, trim it, change a video's poster frame, and adjust the playback volume.

  6. How to Automatically Play, Loop, or Restart a Slideshow in Apple Keynote

    Click on it to see another menu that shows other options that you can adjust. When the settings section is open, you can see the presentation type button. Click on it to go to another section. Step 4: Turn on Loop Slideshow. After clicking the presentation type button, you will see a popup menu that presents choices including the loop slideshow ...

  7. How to Autoplay and Loop Your Presentations

    You can use Keynote to have a presentation auto play and loop back to the beginning. This is very helpful for station instructions or other resources for yo...

  8. How to automatically play a presentation and time slides in Keynote

    On iPhone or iPad. Open your presentation in Keynote on your iPhone or iPad and then do the following: Tap the More (three-dot icon) button on the top right. Scroll down and select Settings. Tap Presentation Type and select Self-Playing. In the Delay boxes on the bottom, use the sliders to change the times in seconds for Transitions and Builds.

  9. How to loop slides within a keynote presentation

    3. Tell Keynote to loop the looping part. Click on the movie in Keynote, then in the Inspector, in the Movie panel under repeat select 'Loop'. Tell Keynote to loop the movie. That's it! Your main Keynote presentation will play like a normal keynote presentation, but when you come to the movie those slides within the movie will repeat ...

  10. How to Loop Keynote Presentation (How to Loop a Slideshow in ...

    How to Loop Keynote Presentation (How to Loop a Slideshow in Keynote).In this tutorial, you will learn how to loop Keynote presentation. Disclaimer This vid...

  11. Make a presentation advance automatically in Keynote on iPad

    Tap in the toolbar, tap Presentation Options, then tap Presentation Type.. Tap Self-Playing, then adjust the sliders to change the timing of transitions or build effects. Set any of the playback options: Loop Slideshow: Turn on to have the presentation return to the first slide at the end of the slideshow. Restart Show if Idle: Turn on, then drag the slider to set the amount of idle time with ...

  12. How to automatically play, loop, or restart a slideshow in Keynote

    Open own presentation in Keynote on your iPhone or iPad plus then accessible the settings in tapping the three marks at the top. Select Presentation Options > Presentation Type. Enable the toggles forward Loop Slideshow and/or Restart Show if idle [time period]. To automatically play the show, draw Self-Playing to mark a check for that option ...

  13. How to Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on iPhone and Mac

    Now your slideshow will automatically loop once it reaches the end. Loop a Slideshow in Keynote on Mac. 1. Open the Keynote app on your Mac and select the presentation you want to loop. 2. Click on "Play" in the top left corner of the screen. 3. Click on "Play Slideshow from Beginning" or press Command-Return on your keyboard. 4.

  14. Programmatically Running And Looping Keynote Presentations

    To prepare a Keynote presentation, first open the Keynote, click on Inspector in the toolbar and then at the inspector click on the document icon (in the far left top corner of the inspector). Then, check the boxes for "Automatically play upon open" and "Loop slideshow". This will automatically play the presentation and start it again ...

  15. Keynote looping

    set the presentation to loop in Inspector > Document > Document and select Loop Slideshow in the option box; 2. In Keynote, select Loop (Inspector > Document > Document > Loop Slideshow) and record the slideshow advancing through the slides until the last slide when it will loop back to the start, you can continue advancing through the slides ...

  16. Edit video and audio in Keynote on iPad

    Tap the video or audio on the slide to select it. Tap , then tap Movie or Audio.. To set when the video or audio starts playing on the slide, choose one of the following: When you tap the slide: Turn on Start on Tap. Automatically when the slide appears: Turn off Start on Tap. Continuously through multiple slide transitions: Turn on Play Across Slides.. Video and audio now play continuously ...

  17. How to Loop a Keynote Slideshow on iPhone and iPad

    Here is how you can loop a slideshow in Keynote on iPhone and iPad. Let's learn how it's done!#ios17, #iphone, #iPad

  18. 15 Pro Tips To Ace Your Keynote Presentation

    When transitioning from point to point, use words such as 'next', 'then', and 'after', and number your points using words like 'firstly', 'secondly', and 'thirdly'. This will help the audience understand when you're moving on to another idea or part of your presentation. 7. Give a Credible Statement.

  19. How to do an loop animation in Keynote?

    1. The best thing you can do is take a screen-shoot from the arrow, crop it with instant alpha in preview. Then you animate the picture in your favorite gif animation application. After that you can insert the animation into keynote and voilà, you got your looping arrow animation! NOTE: It's a big hassle but I don't seem to find any other ...

  20. How to play a video or audio across slides in Keynote on Mac, iPhone

    1) Select the file on the slide where you want to change the volume. 2) Click the Format button to open the right-hand sidebar and select the Movie or Audio tab. 3) Use the slider to adjust the Volume. Follow these same steps if you would like to change the volume for the movie or audio file on the other slides.

  21. Looping a Presentation in Keynote and Open Office

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    In this video I talk about how you can create incredible animations in your Keynote Presentations using Keynote's 'Magic Move' features.Let me know what else...

  23. Use Keynote Remote to control your Keynote presentation

    From the menu bar, choose Keynote > Settings (or Preferences), click Remotes, then select the "Enable" checkbox. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Keynote app, then tap the Keynote Remote button in the toolbar. If you don't see the Keynote Remote button, tap the Back button, then tap the Keynote Remote button. On your iPhone or iPad, tap Continue.