topic Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 + in Design Controllers and Presenters

R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

champton_tfs — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:54:11 GMT

Hi, I'm looking to find a good wireless presenter for use in the facility i work in, which needs to work on both Mac and PC, full functionality for both platforms would be great, but Mac is more important.

Both the R400 and R800 only list Windows as system requirements, anyone using them with Mac?

I'd rather use Logitech but if I found another brand that spec'd both platforms my preference would probably change.

Thanks,

Chris.

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

kkm10 — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 23:50:20 GMT

Unfortunately all of our available wireless presenters will only work on a PC as they are meant to be used specifically just with Power Point. So in otherwords they are not available to work on Mac OSX.

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

ministrybymouse — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:03:42 GMT

Hi,

I just bought an R400 Wireless Presenter today, and on a whim connected it to my Apple MacBook Pro which runs the newest version of MacOSX (10.7.1 Lion) and Microsoft PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Despite the fact that it has been said many times in many different places that the unit isn't compatible with Mac, I was surprised to discover that every single button on the remote -- from the blackout button to the advance and reverse buttons, and even the launch slideshow button -- works just as if I were using it on a PC!

And there's something else that I discovered just now while I am writing this entry. The R400 will also work with Keynote: however, you cannot use the launch slideshow or blackout buttons. Once you press play on Keynote, however, the forward and reverse buttons DO work.

Logitech, if you'd like to check this out please do: I did the tests for this reply on my 13" MacBook Pro equipped with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor running MacOSX Lion ver. 10.7.1 with Microsoft PowerPoint 2011 for Mac (ver. 14.1.2) and Keynote '09 (ver. 5.1). I hope that my experimentation helps others to discover that, regardless of what OS you are running, that Logitech Wireless Presenters are an excellent choice.

Bill W.

(edit out personal information)

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

interesteduser — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:59:26 GMT

I can concur with ministrybymouse. I just purchased a new MacBook Pro running Lion, with Windows XP (SP3) running under VMware Fusion. After loading Office 2007 and launching PowerPoint, the R400 was immediately recognized and functioned perfectly. Yay! I would also like to point out to the Logitech Support Representative that Microsoft Office, including PowerPoint, IS available for the Macintosh environment. In fact, Excel made its debut on the Macintosh back in the 'eighties, when most PC's were still confined to character-based interfaces (i.e., DOS).

Link to Microsoft's Office for Mac website: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

Macpresenter — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:24:42 GMT

Come on Christine, there are tons of mac presenters out there! Why the foot dragging? Yes the Mac does work but not for the start and black out buttons. How hard would it be to fix this? Sheeesh!

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

csurette — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:42:11 GMT

Hello All;

Related Post, this may help a few on the thread.

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Design-Controllers-and/Logitech-Remote-R800-Doesn-t-Work-w-OSX-Lion/m-p/668592/highlight/false#M705

Cheers!

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

ministrybymouse — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:05:38 GMT

Am I the only one who thinks that there's something seriously wrong with Logitech's stance on this matter? Or that the company just doesn't seem to care that there are people -- REAL people who are their CUSTOMERS, for crying out loud! -- that are trying to tell them that they're wrong about their own product?

Okay -- so maybe Logitech itself doesn't offer any support for the R400 and R800 presenters for the MacOS operating system. All well and good -- Mac users as a class are generally able to support themselves for the better majority of issues that come along the pike with their machines. But to say that your product doesn't support the operating system is a fallacy -- because it's not the operating system itself that causes your product to work or not to work! Based on my own tests and experience, it is instead the PROGRAM that the device is being used with that determines whether or not it will work (or how it will work).

To the person who wrote the post to which the Logitech Support Specialist makes reference, I would only ask what software package they are using with their Macs that their presenter(s) is not working with, and if they had tried it with other programs before declaring that it does not work with MacOS X Lion.

Now, so that there is no confusion I will state my case once again, just to make myself perfectly clear. I am using an Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch notebook from mid-2010, running Apple MacOS X Lion version 10.7.1. (While the machine has the ability to run Windows, I do not have any version of that operating system installed on this machine. It is exclusively running MacOS X.)

My machine has a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB of memory. I am using the Logitech R400 Wireless Presenter, attached to one of my machine's two USB ports, to control Microsoft Powerpoint for Mac 2011, version 14.1.3. Every single feature of the R400 presenter -- from the Launch Slide Show button to the Blackout Button to the Forward and Reverse controls -- works FLAWLESSLY! I have also used the R400 successfully in Apple Keynote 2009, version 5.1, but with the following exceptions:

1. The Launch Slide Show button does not work. To start a slide show, the user must click on "Play" or press Cmd-Option-P.

2. The Blackout Button ends the slide show and returns the user to what I will refer to as the "edit screen" instead of simply darkening the screen.

Is there anything about the aforementioned information that would give anyone any reason to believe that Logitech's product does not support the MacOS operating system (or vice versa)? I would think not. Logitech, please listen to your customers -- your product works with both platforms whether you choose to believe it or not! If you would like to see for yourself I would be glad to demonstrate if a representative of your company would like to contact me and arrange for me to come to California. (I won't hold my breath on that, however.)

All I ask is that you reconsider your stance on your own product's compatibilty. Thank you for your consideration.

Bill W.

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

Akhorahil — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:51:08 GMT

Hi,

I use Ukelele for changing the Mac keyboard layout. This does not help with the "play" button, but the "blank/black" button can be change easily (powerpoint uses a . (dot), the presenter is hardwired to send this key).

In Ukelele I created a new layout and change the dot to a W (white) or B (black).

I completely agree it is wierd that this support is missing, it is a simple remapping of the key being send... Realy a big shame for such great and simple tool.

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

aimeric — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:37:13 GMT

Hello,

your experience is very interesting to me.

Do you have any experience with openoffice with your presenter 400?

Thanks.

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

ministrybymouse — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:21:07 GMT

Hello,

Sorry but I have not had the opportunity to use the R400 Presenter with OpenOffice. From what I understand, however, the program works in much the same way as Microsoft PowerPoint does. Therefore, while I can't guarantee it in any way, shape, or form -- if the R400 works with PowerPoint it SHOULD work well with OpenOffice.

Bill W.

ministrybymouse

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

Helvecio — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:17:35 GMT

Hey, ministrybymouse, just a quick question then: can you please confirm the forward and backward buttons do not skip any animations, bullet points etc, i.e., those buttons do not jump from one slide to the next skipping everything in between? I've read that in other not-fully-Mac-compatible pointers the forward and backward buttons work as shift+up arrow and shift+down arrow, thus skipping all the animated content in a slide.

Also, have you ever tried the R400 with flash presentations on a Mac?

Thanks,

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

Akhorahil — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:26:43 GMT

Yeah, it works out of the box with openoffice. The keys are more or less the same. The behaviour of "blacking" the screen is a little different if I am corrent. On PowerPoint it is a toggle, so black/unblack. In OpenOffice it is a black until moving to the next slide.

Hth.

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

ministrybymouse — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:47:02 GMT

Haven't had any problems as yet with animations, bullet points, and the like. Anything that requires a simple mouse click to activate has worked smoothly for us. Sorry but I don't usually work with Flash presentations so I cannot report on whether or not those work with this remote.

MBM

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

donok — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:52:24 GMT

Hello,

I just baught a new MabBook Pro Retina, which has no IR port, so no Apple Remote compatibility.

After reading ministrybymouse comments, I thought I'd give a try with the R400.

It works perfectly with PowerPoint (v14.1, Office Mac 2011). The R400 is actually just a Keyboard with 4 preseted key that replicate the keyboard shortcut you would use with MPP. Left and right buttons act as "Page Up" and "Page Down", which are the same shortcut for goin through slides with Keynote. When pressing the "play" button, it acts alternatively as "F5" (play slideshow) and "ESC" (quit slideshow). Black screen button acts as "." key.

By remapping the keyboard layout of the R400 you can actually control Keynote very easily.

For this, I used a keyremap4macbook (free: http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/). This plugin allows you to remap keyboard, selectively for application and devices. You can create your own costumized remapping in the so called "private.xml" file.

Here is a copy of mine. It allows full presenter controle for both PowerPoint and Keynote. (It also controle my music play when not in neither of the before-said applications).

I hope it'll help some of you.

Cheers

For Logitech: If your gear works on Mac OS X, why don't you say it ? ;)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <devicevendordef>
    <vendorname>LOGITECH</vendorname>
    <vendorid>0x046d</vendorid>
  </devicevendordef>

  <deviceproductdef>
    <productname>LOGITECH_R400</productname>
    <productid>0xc52d</productid>
  </deviceproductdef>

  <appdef>
    <appname>IWORK_KEYNOTE</appname>
    <equal>com.apple.iWork.Keynote</equal>
  </appdef>

  <appdef>
    <appname>POWERPOINT</appname>
    <equal>com.microsoft.Powerpoint</equal>
  </appdef>
  
  <item>
  <name>Costum making for Logitech R400</name>
  
    <item>
      <name>R400 For Keynote</name>
      <identifier>private.R400_for_keynote</identifier>
      <only>IWORK_KEYNOTE</only>
      <device_only>DeviceVendor::LOGITECH, DeviceProduct::LOGITECH_R400</device_only> 
      <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::DOT, KeyCode::B</autogen>
      <autogen>
	--KeyToKey-- 
	KeyCode::F5, 
	KeyCode::P, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L | ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L 
      </autogen>
    </item>

    <item>
      <name>R400 For music control</name>
      <identifier>private.R400_for_music</identifier>
      <not>IWORK_KEYNOTE</not>
      <not> POWERPOINT</not>
      <device_only>DeviceVendor::LOGITECH, DeviceProduct::LOGITECH_R400</device_only> 
      <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::PAGEUP, KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_MUSIC_PREV</autogen>
      <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::PAGEDOWN, KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_MUSIC_NEXT</autogen>
      <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::ESCAPE, KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_MUSIC_PLAY</autogen>
      <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::F5, KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_MUSIC_PLAY</autogen>
      <autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::DOT, KeyCode::F4, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L </autogen>
    </item>
  </item>
</root>

Re:R800 with Mac OS 10.8

rp40 — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:47:52 GMT

It's absolutely outrageous that in this day and age, you don't offer Mac support. I purchased your remote and, despite numerous attempts at remapping keyboard (as you don't "support Macs"), I'm not able to black the screen during presentations, making the R800 totally useless to my needs in presenting at numerous large conferences for associations and corporate clients. Until resolved, I have an extremely unfavorable slant about Logitech overall.

10.8.2 Macbook pro late 2012

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

FLHR — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:38:07 GMT

Bill,

well written.

Just bought the R800 myself also knowing that it might not work on a MAC. Actually a great product itself indeed, reading these forums here, everyone just refers to MAC and PC. Actually as a MAC user I rather would expect it to work with Keynote and not PPT for MAC. And that is not quite clear when all talk about compatibilty, they all expect MS Office only (over all platforms).

I agree as well as with regards to the response from support team, in fact all what you get is a standard answer that one can read from the package itself - great support indeed.

Cheers

Rene

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

Athickal — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:20:31 GMT

A small eureka!

I have been browsing for long looking for a solution to get my Logitec 800 presenter working on Macbook Pro in vain until I chanced upon the following piece of information. The website included.

And friends, the solution worked perfectly well for me and my logitec presenter is working seamlessly with Macbook Pro using OS X 10.7.5

The author of the write up said, "However out of the box, the "play" button works on neither. With some configuration in the system preference, I was able to get the play buttons to work on both powerpoint and keynote. To configure Powerpoint for the play button, go to the Keyboard system preference and pick Keyboard Shortcuts. Then scroll to Application Then hit the + key to add a shortcut. Pick Microsoft Powerpoint for the application (you may need to hit Other... to find it, since it's in a subdirectory in Applications). For Menu Title type in, exactly, "Slide Show" (without the quotes).

Then in the Keyboard Shortcut, simply press the play button on the remote. That sets the shortcut to F5, which is what the remote sends when you press play. Now the play button works for Powerpoint.

You can do the same for Keynote, with the menu title "Play Slideshow". you may have type in keynote in the search to find it. However after you do this Both will work fine. Also this works for the Logitech R400 as well which I would rate as a 5 star as well"

(http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/logitech-r800-professional-presenter-reviews)

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

Athickal — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:23:16 GMT

I have posted earlier the solution I saw to get the logitech presenter to work on Macbook Pro. It worked perfectly for me. Just to quote the one I saw in http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/logitech-r800-professional-presenter-reviews

"However out of the box, the "play" button works on neither. With some configuration in the system preference, I was able to get the play buttons to work on both powerpoint and keynote. To configure Powerpoint for the play button, go to the Keyboard system preference and pick Keyboard Shortcuts. Then scroll to Application Then hit the + key to add a shortcut. Pick Microsoft Powerpoint for the application (you may need to hit Other... to find it, since it's in a subdirectory in Applications). For Menu Title type in, exactly, "Slide Show" (without the quotes).

Then in the Keyboard Shortcut, simply press the play button on the remote. That sets the shortcut to F5, which is what the remote sends when you press play. Now the play button works for Powerpoint.

Re: R400 or R800 with Mac OS 10.5 & 10.6 +

Athickal — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:26:34 GMT

I replied a few people with similar problems with a quote from the website below. The solution worked well for me and the Logitec 800 is fully operational so far in macbook pro os x 10.7.5

"(http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/logitech-r800-professional-presenter-reviews)

However out of the box, the "play" button works on neither. With some configuration in the system preference, I was able to get the play buttons to work on both powerpoint and keynote. To configure Powerpoint for the play button, go to the Keyboard system preference and pick Keyboard Shortcuts. Then scroll to Application Then hit the + key to add a shortcut. Pick Microsoft Powerpoint for the application (you may need to hit Other... to find it, since it's in a subdirectory in Applications). For Menu Title type in, exactly, "Slide Show" (without the quotes).

Then in the Keyboard Shortcut, simply press the play button on the remote. That sets the shortcut to F5, which is what the remote sends when you press play. Now the play button works for Powerpoint.