I am trying to re-create an old talk from ~4 years ago I found in my archives and I simultaneously love past-me (she did such a great job developing a talk structure, much better than the one I had in mind when asked to give a talk on this topic a month ago!) and hate her (she somehow managed to deleted the keynote of the talk so that I am now stuck with a PDF and trying to find all figures & re-type the text ...).
@vicgrinberg Has been my secret tool to extract figures from documents, it has saved me a lot of time in the past 10+ years or so.
Depending on the way you generated the PDF it may save you some time. #fileJuicer
@chris thanks! It's less about the images (I have most originals from other talks) and more about the overlays and dynamic of the presentation which was adapted to a particular audience ☺️
Then happy "creating". I was amazed which level of detail is actually preserved in a PDF unless the exported resolution was substantially reduced. Full pictures even underneath masks, etc.
But if you have most of the original pix then it's definitely easier.
@vicgrinberg@knud If you’re having to remake it, make sure it’s in at least 4K (3840 x 2160 pixel) format with images at the appropriate resolution to match. Trust me; future you will thank present you again.
@markmccaughrean@knud I wish, but the place I am talking at does not allow such a high resolution 😭 also required power point (speaking to a bunch of medical doctors tomorrow...)
@vicgrinberg@knud The resolution isn't an issue, inasmuch as a Mac will gracefully downscale to whatever projector you're plugging into. And why does it matter whether you use Keynote or PowerPig – you just need to insist on plugging your machine directly into their projection system.
For me, this is an absolute rule – I never agree to use PowerPig and/or transfer my talk to anyone else's laptop. It will end in tears.
@markmccaughrean@knud I really wish it would work to just use my laptop (would also allow me to have a few extra hours to polish the talk) but I've been clearly told there is no way :( luckily X-ray astro has less exciting high res images 😂
@vicgrinberg@knud Probably too late for you at this point, but I would have refused to give the talk.
I've been there a million times & in 99.9% of cases, this whole "oh, you must use PowerPig; it's impossible any other way" is bullshit from a technical perspective & simply to make their lives easier, not yours.
You're the invited speaker with the content they want to hear, so you should be setting the terms on which you're willing to turn up.
@vicgrinberg@knud I've given talks at events where the organisers have insisted I send my presentation over days or weeks in advance. Nope, not happening either: my time is more precious to me than yours.
Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to agree to do a tech check the evening or morning before, but that doesn't have to be the final version of your talk.
Anyone who insists that your talk be delivered in a certain programme / format / timescale is doing it for their convenience, not yours.
@markmccaughrean@vicgrinberg@knud I generally agree. The one exception I had was WWDC where Apple requires the presentations IIRC a week in advance but that’s because their designers adjusted everything consistent with their corporate style guide, which was both expected given the company and something where they were doing real work & I could sympathize with the designers having to go through a thousand presentations.
@acdha@vicgrinberg@knud Even there I'd have problems. I've sometimes been asked to format my talk using the conference / company template, usually loaded with logos, & I always refuse – I'm there to talk about what my organisation / institute has done, not to burnish their company image / sell their products.
Admittedly, as someone who has exclusively owned Macs for the past 25 years & is an Apple shareholder, I applaud the company's control freakery, but still ...
@markmccaughrean@vicgrinberg@knud yeah, it was a bit much but also completely in character, and since we were talking about open source software used to manage Macs it didn’t really feel like a conflict.
@markmccaughrean@acdha@knud yeah, that (formatting the talk onto their template) would have been a definite no go for me! Not even if I had to do the talk from scratch anyway. Not even in pre-Esa times if they would have paid me for it.
@markmccaughrean
I got totally burned last year with borked formatting. (Slides in advance, no control). I strongly recommend having a pdf backup and check the formatting on the presentation machine in advance. My experience was very stressful! @vicgrinberg@knud
@mikerspencer@vicgrinberg@knud Since a Mac + Keynote uses HDMI as its output, there's no excuse for organisers insisting on a PC / PowerPoint / in advance if it doesn't suit you. You should only have to worry that it works on the laptop you create it on – everything else is their responsibility.
Often I find that the technical people at the sharp end are absolutely fine with this & will make sure it works. It's often the admin organisers in between who are clueless.
@mikerspencer@vicgrinberg@knud That said, the place where it took the longest for the technicians to find a solution was Google HQ in Mountain View 🙂
I gave a lunchtime talk there & while there were a hundred people in the room, most watched via streaming across the campus.
For security reasons, I couldn't plug my laptop into their network & for well-known competition reasons, Google didn't allow their staff to have Macs with Keynote.
@vicgrinberg@mikerspencer@knud To be honest, I can't remember exactly anymore, but have a vague feeling that it involved someone bringing in a "research Mac" & reinstalling the deleted Keynote on it.
Not quite as bad as the school in India where their projector just failed & I had to give the whole talk without visuals 🤷♂️
@mikerspencer@markmccaughrean@knud believe me, I very much will be going into this with a PDF as a backup 😉 And my own laptop on case theirs does not work.
It would be different if I had to re-do the talk format for them. I don't, I am redoing it because past me managed to delete the keynote...
@markmccaughrean@vicgrinberg@knud I send an old draft a week in advance and then have a friendly chat with the local technician - they always find a way to make it work
@hfalcke@vicgrinberg@knud Similarly, if they insist on a some slides in advance as a check, I send a five slide template talk that has a movie, some sound, some non-standard typefaces, & so on. So not my talk at all, but a tech check.
Almost completely pointless, as there's nothing non-standard about a Mac pushing out pixels & sound down an HDMI cable, but it tends to placate nervous organisers.
And as you say, in the end, talking nicely to the local tech folk is always the answer.
@markmccaughrean@vicgrinberg@knud Well, I still need an adapter to HDMI and for big venues it often doesn’t work for some reason (I have three different ones!). Then you need to transfer to Windows after all and then some movies don’t play. It is not that simple actually (and I am using PPT on Mac) - even if you send slides ahead of time. 🙄
@hfalcke@vicgrinberg@knud Hmm – my 2024 MacBook Pro has a direct HDMI port, as did my previous models, so maybe an upgrade is in order 🙂
It's because of non-playing movies & incompatible typefaces that I refuse to compromise – HDMI should be standard across Macs & PCs.
One area that can be tricky, but also resolvable if working with a good tech team, is working in dual monitor mode, where the projector shows your talk, but your laptop or a separate monitor shows the presenter mode.
@hfalcke@vicgrinberg@knud My ESA M1 MacBook Pro from several years ago had direct HDMI, as does my new personal M3 model, so it sounds like you’re still on an Intel machine perhaps. If so, I can throughly recommend the upgrade 🙂
@markmccaughrean@hfalcke@knud I am but my ESA laptop is a glorified typing machine, it's not like I really need the upgrade ... As for the personal one, 💶 (and also kinda environment since I'm not really pushing it at the moment).
@markmccaughrean@vicgrinberg@knud Nope. I have the 13inch M2 MacBook - still fairly recent. Just two USB-C ports … 🙄 (it is longstanding Apple dogma to make you carry the weight of your device in adapters)
@hfalcke@markmccaughrean@knud ah, I would have had the 13 too - I hate the larger one, my poor back really does not like the extra weight and they don't fit that well when I work with them on trains.
Have also just seen that the new ones are all 14 inch, not smaller 😭
@vicgrinberg@hfalcke@knud I cycled with mine to ESTEC every day & it wasn’t really an issue: sometimes I carried both the 16” & my esa365 14” as well 🤷♂️ Now, this may become more of a challenge if I start cycling up the Königstuhl, of course 🤪
@vicgrinberg@hfalcke@markmccaughrean@knud Good news is that the 14" Pros are not much bigger than the 13" Pros were — same height, a fraction of a cm along width and depth, and only 100g or so difference in weight. It's not nothing, but it's not as much as the jump from 13" to 14" might suggest.
@hfalcke@vicgrinberg@knud Which is why I have always had the 15/16 inch models, I guess: three USB-C ports, HDMI, & an SD card slot for photography, all frequently used.
Mine mainly serves as my desktop machine, connected to a dock, with an external display, external keyboard, several hard drives, Ethernet, & so on.
Yes, a bit heavier to carry when commuting & travelling, but a bigger display is always helpful to me anyway. I carry a USB-C mini dock when travelling: weighs almost nothing.
@markmccaughrean@knud I'll also definitely have the "here is my presentation format and I expect to be able to keep it or else I can provide you with a PDF" as one of the things I'll be negotiating for in the future when asked to give talks 😊 it's a good point about my time investment.
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