I recentl had to create a slide-deck with StarOffice Impress, after having worked almost the whole 2009 just with Apple Keynote out of the iWork suite. Here are some comparing thoughts and experiences…
The company I work for has OpenOffice, respectively its twin-brother StarOffice as standard suite for office work. OpenOffice has many advantages over other well known office-suites; it simply offers best bang-for-the-buck. Also, the default file format is the open OpenDocument standard, everyone can download tools to see and work with ODT respectively ODP (OpenDocumentPresentation) files. There are even plugins for the marketleading office suite (see here). There is also a very useful presentation console available, see here.
StarOffice Impress is a mighty tool. It can do a lot of tricks and is well integrated into the other members of the StarOffice suite. Nevertheless I had to realize that I really missed Keynote. I like to work with pictures, sometimes a picture is the only content of a slide. There are simply no decent tools in Impress to ease handling and editing of pictures. Also, copy/paste did not work all the time. Traisitions and animations available are OK, as are all other integrated tools. StarOffice Impress is basiclly OK, it goes far beyond in capabilities what the average corporate presenter ever will use (which is a sad fact in itself).
…and now for something completely different: Keynote!
Sadly, Keynote has no export Filter for ODP or any other OpenDocument format, but zillion export possibilities for long extinct applications. So working in Keynote for my latest work was out of the question. Keynote is a very great presentation application. It has not the features in a deepness of the latest and greatest powerpoint, but it sure is efficient. Keynote is streamlined to ease the tasks that are most likely done when working out a presentation, and leaves the hard-core graphical stuff to the heavyweights in that area. I did not yet miss a thing in keynote tough. Especially the way transparency can be added to pictures is a huge timesaver. Immediate access to a picture library is a huge timesaver. The whole experience in itself is motivating to really bring out the best.
I would say that working with keynote saves half of the actual slide preparation work compared with Impress and Powerpoint. And it sure is far more fun to use.
