Your email address belongs to a school and you are eligible for a free educational premium account.
Learn more

KEY - Keynote Presentation

What is a KEY file

The KEY file extension stands, most commonly, for Keynote Presentation. This is the software that was developed by Apple to allow you to create and playback presentations. The presentation is stored in the format of the Mac OS X package. The file contains all of the data necessary to play the presentation. This data consists of things like the slides for the presentation, as well as the images, transition information and the text that goes along with the presentation. The XML data that is used for the presentation is also stored within the KEY file. This software was first sold in 2003 as a competitor to PowerPoint that was developed by MicroSoft.

There have been multiple upgrades to Keynote since the original release date back in 2003. In 2005, it was upgraded to the 2.0 version and sold in a package called iWork, along with a word processing system. It was upgraded again in 2006 to Keynote 3.0. This version became compatible with HD functionality and also added auto bulleting, 3D charts and free form masking tools. Keynote 4.0 was released in 2007 and the program was most recently updated in 2013. This included a complete redesign for version 6.0. During 2013, they also made the Keynote program available for free for all new iOS device or Mac computer.

Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open KEY documents:

  • File Viewer Lite (Windows)
  • Apple Keynote 6.2 (Mac)
  • Apple Keynote (iOS)