Design Controllers and Presenters

[champton_tfs]

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.

[kkm10]

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.

[ministrybymouse]

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)

[interesteduser]

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/

[Macpresenter]

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!

[csurette]

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-...

Cheers!

[ministrybymouse]

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.

[Akhorahil]

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.

[aimeric]

Hello,

your experience is very interesting to me.

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

Thanks.

[ministrybymouse]

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