Keynote Formatting Tips for Live Broadcasts

If you’re creating a slideshow for your broadcast, then you’ll want to consider your slideshow’s shape—by which we mean the aspect ratio — compared with your broadcast’s shape.

Shape Options

Ecamm Live’s options for stream shape are in the Options menu. Under Options ➝ Stream Aspect you’ll see these choices:

  • 16:9 - “Widescreen” HDTV
  • 4:3 - the classic nearly-square shape of standard definition TVs
  • Square (1:1 if you want to get technical)
  • 9:16 - “tall” HD on its side

Matching Your Broadcast Shape to a Slideshow

Slideshows are usually either 4:3 or 16:9. Choose to change the shape of your broadcast to match your slides.

Screen Share Settings for Slideshows

In Ecamm Live, select Screen Share from the Source menu or Source Bar atop the Main Window, then, select Show: Entire Screen from the control bar in the Main Window. (If you have more than one display, select Primary Display—Keynote will show slideshows on the Primary display, and presenter notes on a secondary display, by default.)

  • Do not select Keynote in the Show menu.
  • Select Crop to Fit below the Show menu. This will prevent any letterboxing during the broadcast when presenting in full screen mode.

The screen sharing controls

Making a Slideshow for Your Broadcast

If you’re creating a slideshow from scratch, for most broadcasts, build your slideshow with Keynote’s Widescreen setting (1920x1080—16:9), set Ecamm Live’s Options ➝ Stream Size ➝ 1080p, and then Options ➝ Stream Aspect ➝ 16:9 Widescreen.

Changing Slide Dimensions

You may wish to convert a 4:3 slideshow to 16:9. To change the slide shape of an existing presentation, select Document from the Inspector in Keynote. If the Inspector—a right hand column—is not visible in Keynote, open it in the View menu ➝ Inspector ➝ Document.

In the Document tab of the inspector, you’ll see a popup menu for Slide Size.

Note: If you change the Slide Size after having laid out your slides, you’ll need to manually adjust all content on every slide.

Integrating a Slideshow into a Scripted Broadcast

If your broadcast is more than a slideshow, using Scenes is the best way to prepare for each section of your broadcast. You can save presets of Ecamm Live features so you don’t have to change all the settings in front of your audience, and trigger them all to change instantly by selecting the scene.

  1. Create a new scene—give it an obvious name so it’s easy to know what to select while broadcasting
  2. Enable screen share mode from the source bar at the top of the Main Window.
  3. Set any other features you want to appear during the slideshow. These could include overlays or a Picture-in-Picture Window, for instance. If you plan to narrate the slideshow, make sure your microphone is not muted.

You’re ready to use the scene.

Note: A scene cannot launch nor put Keynote into the full screen presentation mode automatically.