Franklin N. Tessler

Although it's never been the dominant program in Microsoft's Office suite, PowerPoint for Mac has enjoyed considerable success riding on the coattails of its Windows counterpart. But I was disappointed that PowerPoint 2008 ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ), the last major upgrade, missed opportunities to leapfrog Keynote ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), Apple's homegrown slideshow software.

PowerPoint for Mac 2011 remedies many of my complaints by combining compelling new features with a revamped interface that makes it easier than before to develop dazzling presentations quickly.

The older I get, the more often I find myself awake at 3 a.m., wondering if I finished everything that needed get done the previous day and running through tasks for the day ahead. For the past few months, I've been relying on The Omni Group's OmniFocus ( Macworld rated 3.5 out of 5 mice ) on my Macs as well as OmniFocus for iPhone ( Macworld rated 3.5 out of 5 mice ) to help keep my life in order and sleep a bit more soundly. The newest member of the suite, OmniFocus for iPad, complements the other OmniFocus apps, leveraging the iPad's larger display nicely. If you're willing to learn how OmniFocus works, it's worth the investment in money and time.

OmniFocus lets you categorize and track to-dos like other task managers, but it also incorporates contexts, an essential component of David Allen's Getting Things Done productivity system. Of all the concepts in OmniFocus, contexts are perhaps the most challenging ones for new users to grasp. In GTD-speak, a context is any resource that's required for a task, whether it's a place (the office), a tool (home Mac), or even a person (your supervisor). The idea is that by focusing on the items that are appropriate for the situation you're in, you won't waste time worrying about the stuff that you can't handle at the moment.

I love designing and delivering presentations, but I don't enjoy lugging my MacBook to meetings or perching it precariously on shaky lecterns. So I was thrilled to hear that Keynote was coming to the iPad, hoping that I could use it instead of my laptop when I travel. Unfortunately, Keynote for iPad is too limited to let me ditch my MacBook just yet.

Keynote's interface is similar to the Navigator View found in the desktop version of the software, Keynote '09 ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ). The interface has a column of slide thumbnails on the left and a generous slide display area on the right. But the panes aren't adjustable, so you can't magnify the thumbnails--unless the thumbnails contain easily recognizable graphics or very large text, it's very difficult to tell them apart. And since the navigator displays no more than nine slides at a time, the interface is only acceptable for shuffling a few slides around. Unlike a real slide sorter, you don't get a broad overview of your presentation.

One of my favorite attractions at the 1967 World's Fair was a lattice of plastic cubes that contained samples of the elements, the basic building blocks of all chemical compounds. The Elements: A Visual Exploration is a brilliant app that brings the elements to life on the iPad, and is every bit as compelling.

The home screen displays a periodic table filled with miniature movies. Tapping on an element expands the movie to fill the screen and shows some basic facts about its physical properties. If you have a live Internet connection, you can learn more about the element's crystal structure and other characteristics through the Wolfram Alpha search engine, which runs in a window that overlays the main display.

After six years and thousands of slides, I can't imagine getting along without Keynote. Its rival, Microsoft PowerPoint has made progress on many fronts, but still doesn't equal Keynote's. elegance or ease of use. Despite some disappointing oversights, Keynote '09 is an evolutionary upgrade that raises the bar further.

Magic transitions

As someone who's relied heavily on Keynote since its 2003 debut, I scrutinize each release for fresh ways to jazz up my presentations and get my work done faster. After exploring the newly released Keynote '09 for the past few days, I've discovered several exciting new features as well as a few old shortcomings.

Here's a quick rundown of what's new and what's still missing.

After a year-and-a-half with my iPhone, I can't imagine ever going back to my PDA and cell phone--the iPhone runs my life, telling me where I need to be and letting me stay in touch wirelessly. But for all its wizardry, it can't obey my commands, something even my ancient Motorola phone did admirably. That makes it tough to call someone when I'm on the go and practically impossible to use when I'm driving.

For this round-up, I looked at eight apps that promise to let you make calls by voice command. None of them fill the bill perfectly, but they're a reasonable alternative to dialing using the keypad or your contact list if you're not driving.

The iPhone's virtual keyboard is fine for taking short notes, but it's not practical to transcribe a conversation or preserve a brilliant idea while you're scrambling to catch a plane. Retronyms' Recorder lets you make sound recordings on the fly and transfer them by Wi-Fi or e-mail.

A large red button at the bottom of the main screen triggers audio capture. While you're recording, meters help you monitor the sound level, although you can't adjust the input sensitivity if the volume isn't right. Recorder saves sounds in the popular Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF), so they're compatible with all Macs and Windows PCs. The default lower quality setting is fine for most applications. Since it uses only 1MB a minute, there's plenty of room, even on an 8GB iPhone. (Recorder's high-quality setting uses five times as much memory, but you won't notice the difference with the built-in mic.)

A longstanding tradition in medicine rewards people by naming diseases, procedures, and other noteworthy discoveries after them. Alas, remembering them all is a huge headache for anyone who's studying medicine or any related field. Pascal Pfiffner's Eponyms for the iPhone and iPod touch makes the job easier by providing a searchable catalog of more than 1,600 medical eponyms.

Dr. Andrew Yee maintains and periodically revises the database, which is stored locally--that means that you don't need an active Internet connection to access it, although updates are transmitted to the iPhone wirelessly.