Convert Keynote Presentation to Powerpoint?

Questions & Suggestions
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1

Hey guys,

Just getting started with KM and was encouraged to ask questions early and often.

I need a lot of Keynote Presentations converted into Powerpoint Presentations. I’m looking for a way to automate this.

My hunch is that I will need to incorporate some type of Script or Automator flow, in which case, I would love some help there as well.

Thanks in advance!

2

There are two possible approaches:

  • Do it the same way you would do it manually.
  • Use some sort of scripting facility in the applications.

How would you do it manually?

I would guess a process like:

  • Open the Keynote with Powerpoint
  • Save as/Export as
  • Save the file back.

That is fairly straight forward as far as processes go.

You need to figure out how you are going to iterate over the existing Keynotes - are they all in the same directory? Or perhaps use mdfind shell command to find them all.

Once you have the paths to all the files you want to use, you use a For Each action to iterate over them (add a Exit From Loop action at the end while testing so you only process the first file).

Open the file in Powerpoint using the Open a File Folder or Application action.

Pause for it to open.

Use the Select or Show a Menu Item action to select Save As

Use Command-Shift-G to select the destination location to be the same as the existing file if necessary (search around on the forum for info on this).

Save the file, close the window, and repeat.

Use lots of long pauses as necessary - you can leave the process running over lunch or over night as necessary so you really shouldn’t care how long it takes for each file.

A good idea is to test for the existence of the powerpoint document at the output location first and skip doing anything if it exists, that way you don’t overwrite anything and you can re-start the process whenever you like and any that are done already will be skipped.

3

Hey Justin,

This can be scripted, but there seems to be a bug in Sierra. (I'm investigating.)

-Chris

4

Hi, sorry, I don’t know how to automate the process. But from my experiences, it is easy to use iCloud or other online service to convert Keynote to PowerPoint.