Maybe the conversation didn’t go EXACTLY like this, but my sources say it was probably a lot like this. It took place in one of the more expansive and dramatically lit conference rooms.

Phil:  Hey, Steve. You busy?

Steve:  Hey, Phil. Yeah, a little, whadya need?

Phil:  Nothing important, just had some questions about the Keynote but they can wait. What are you working on?

Steve:  I was working on the presentation for the Keynote, but I got sidetracked. Look, have you ever seen this?

Phil:  Yeah, I’ve seen that, it’s-a Mario!

Steve:  Not the picture, the website.

Phil:  What, www.mak...

Steve:  I can see the URL Phil. Remember, it’s on my screen? Just read the article, ok?

Phil:  “I like to search the iTunes Music Store for–”

Steve:  To yourself Phil.

Phil:  Mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm, oh.

Steve:  OH is right.

Phil:  But, I’ve never heard of C24C.

Steve:  That’s not the part... Here, read from here.

Phil:  Snap to Grid?

Steve:  Right, now look at this Keynote file. I move Mario, and he snaps. I move, wait, what’s this one again?

Phil:  A Goomba?

Steve:  Yeah, yeah, a Goomba. I move the Goomba and it snaps, too!

Phil:  That is nice! How come you always get the Keynote dev builds before me!?

Steve:  This isn’t a dev build. Look at what this guy did on the master slide.

Phil:  That’s a looooot of alignment guides.  He would have had to place each one individually.

Steve:  But they get the job done. Put a network of these on there and, boom, there’s your Snap to Grid.

Phil:  What if you change the size of the presentation?

Steve:  Well, you’d have to manually add a ton more alignment guides.

Phil:  That’s no fun.

Steve:  Indeed.

Phil:  Can you send me that URL? I want to check that out later.

Steve:  Actually, it’s already in your inbox. Because you are going to take care of this.

Phil:  Take care of what?

Steve: You’re going to make sure Snap to Grid makes it into the next version of Keynote. You know Keynote is my baby and I won’t have someone saying it’s “a semi-bad idea” to use it.

Phil:  Ohhh kaaay, I’ll get right on it.

Steve:  And who knows, once we release it, y’know, make it easier for him to do these shapes, maybe he’ll... I don’t know... make some more?

Phil:  (smiling) Like Bullet Bill?

Steve:  Ok, ok, you got me!

And thus was the problem with my old file. I concentrated mostly on the lil’ Mario and the other guys that fit nicely into an 8 by 8 grid. Once I started working on slightly larger shapes (like the hill, Koopa’s, pipe, etc.) I realized that some of these shapes would run off the slide and I wouldn’t be able to control the Snap unless I put in enough alignment guilds to cover for them. That turned a “fun” exercise into a “not quite so fun at all” one fairly quickly. I went on to do other things and this was placed on the to-do list.

It was quite the surprise and delight to find that such a Snap to Grid existed in the next released version of Keynote! I hadn’t even sent feedback for it because I figured the feedback go-er over-er’s would look at it, frown, remark that “Keynote’s not a drawing app, buddy, no matter how much you want it!”, then file it under N for Niamy.

I’ve finally gotten around to updating my mario file including just about everything you need to create an overworld map. Most of the underground maps just require a color switch and the Bowser maps (and indeed Bowser himself!) will have to wait for later. I’ve got another idea I’ve been playing with that makes me happyglad and, if you’re lucky (ie, if I remember) come back in a few days to see a lovely lady grace these pages!

By the way, to make the best use of these shapes in Keynote, go into the Preferences, set the Master Gridlines to 5 px and set the Object Alignment to Show guides at object edges.