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Peter Corke creates fix for PowerPoint export
Posted by | Posted in Tips | Posted on 02-04-2008
Keynote as a presentation app has visual effects and an ease of use that makes creating a presentation fun! Unfortunately, most of the population is still stuck with having to use PowerPoint, so we get a LOT of use out of Keynote’s PowerPoint export. Even so, there are still some maddening results from what appears to be a simple process.
For example, while .pict files aren’t as prevalent under OSX, there are some cases where copying from certain apps (like Firefox) will insert a .pict file into your presentation when you paste. Since everything’s still under OSX, there’s no problem. If you need to export to PowerPoint, you may see a message which says that QuickTime and a certain decompressor are needed to see this picture. There are several sites that describe the solution as converting all of the images to .gif or .jpeg. If you’ve got a LOT of images in your presentation, though, that’s quite a task just to get a good export for PowerPoint.
The command-line tools that Peter has created will manipulate the images AND Keynote’s XML for you. While typing information into OS X’s terminal isn’t for everyone, it’s good to know that a solution exists for those who need to use it. The commands are simple and effective.
These commands alter the format of your images and the information in the Keynote file’s critical XML. ALWAYS backup your file before using them.
knmedia.py keynotefile.key
Lists the media items used in a presentation.knfix.py keynotefile.key
Converts all PICT format files to JPEG.klinkmovies.py keynotefile.key
Looks for movies in the presentation and will create a symbolic link to move them out of the presentation.
You can find out more and download the Python scripts from his website.
As written, the scripts look in ~/Documents/Presentations for the Keynote file, regardless of the actual location of the file. Any reason for this?
The non-serious answer is that’s where I keep presentations, and since it’s a script that’s really easy to change. Could use an environment variable or a .plist but that’s more complex. If you use an absolute path then no default folder is assumed.
So how do I use these files? I have the scripts,however, I’m clueless how to apply them to the file. Any help would be appreciated.
Update: I downloaded and used Python launcher (both 2.7 and 3.1) When I run the Module it gives me a series of Syntax errors. Any recommendations, or am I going about this the wrong way?