Can't open Keynote 09 file

What a headache! Not only can I not open my presentation, but I cannot view the content through QuickLook either! What happened to "open package contents" - even that is not an option. I've left feedback for Apple but that obviously isn't going to help me salvage the presentation that I need to use tomorrow. After discovering here in the forums that so many other people are also having the same problem. . . wow. . . this is ridiculous.

This is no help to you with a file that will not open in Keynote, however to set file saving as a Package file like KN08 did by default, open KN09 preferences and select "Save new documents as packages".

This bug is indeed ridiculous: The evening before a thesis disputation it killed the presentation file; backups were corrupt back to three days back. We (apple apologists since 1990, keynote users since 2003) have to warn everyone using keynote for critical presentations!

We were able to rescue the quicklook-preview pdf by unzipping the .key file, which yields a folder with the same contents as the "open package" command. Note that animations and speaker notes are not part of this pdf..

I could not open some of the files either... and then tried to open them from an external drive. That opened some of the files. However I have a hard time saving some of the documents. I sent several notes to APPLE about these problems. Very annoying... I appreciate some of the new features that '09 offers but the drawbacks of this version is ridiculous! I desperately wait for an update...

I am so glad I found this thread coz I thought (and everyone around me) that I was going crazy! I also have been a Keynote user from the start and since upgrading to '09 it has it in for me. So bad my boss has offered to buy me a macBokk Pro coz he thinks that my MacBook must be the problem. I'll take the new laptop 🙂 but we know that is not the problem. I have been like some of you and have it refuse to open the nite before a major conference presso and had to painstakingly rebuild from the Quicklook through the night.
One other thing no-one has mentioned is when saving.... I have 15 GB free space and my Keynote is about 3.5GB .If I make several slides then save, it takes AGES then tells me my Hard disk is full. If I make one slide at a time then save it seems to work. But because it takes so long to save each time somtimes I get impatient and make a few slides.
When I restart the laptop I get my HD space back and can slowly start saving again.

Good luck with the pres

In one way I am glad that I see other people in the same situation as me, but on the other hand I wish none of us were having this pain.

If anyone has any suggestions - I would appreciate any help for my final presentation for work. I have saved it as a powerpoint file, but when I open it it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that I had on the Keynote version.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do about the powerpoint file and why it's not saving all the transitions that I spent lots of time inputting?

Brit Chick wrote:
Anyone have any suggestions on what to do about the powerpoint file and why it's not saving all the transitions that I spent lots of time inputting?

A) Powerpoint is different software and doesn't have the same choice of transitions (not to mention builds) so Keynote cannot port to PPT one-to-one as it were. It's a downgrade, pure and simple.

B) Powerpoint has to run on Windoze so it will never be able to support Keynotes "cinema quality" transitions and builds without having the underlining OS frameworks that are in Quartz on OSX. These are optimised to get the GPU doing the grunt work of visuals where they can to speed it all up enabling more fancy effects.

Ok. Well here's my 5 cents. Well I've been working on a portfolio for about 2 weeks in Keynote. I do an incremental save about every 15 minutes. For some reason I have to do 1 hour of work, just to get 30 minutes of a work done.

If I try to open my most recent save or two back I usually get only an error of "can't open file" then it crashes Keynote reporting it may have something to do with "SFWordProcessing plug-in".

Regarding the Powerpoint export. You may want to try exporting to QuickTime, under the Share option.

The Genius bar told me that Quicktime should support all your transitions. Good Luck

I REALLY hope Apple finds a solution to what's going on Soon.

Just wanted to say that I'm having this problem too.

12 hours of work, regular saves and I can't even quicklook the file.

Come on Apple, this isn't good enough.

I also have experienced all of the above problems. I use a fair amount of video in my keynotes, and the saved file of around 1GB was requiring over 5GB of disk space simply to edit. And do not talk about saving - 5 minutes thank you. I have lost hours of work preparing for a conference presentation - which means I have missed out on several promising talks while I fight with Keynote 09.

I have now Saved As to iWork 08, and am working in Keynote 08. It is bliss! Fast productivity. In short ... it works. Keynote 09 doesn't. In the bin it goes.

It is astonishing that something that worked can be improved so it doesn't. Why why why ...

Went for broke - bought 09 - trashed 08 built and saved presentation 120 frames saved after every edit and now can't open it or the backup copy. Repaired permissions. still no joy. Now thank goodness I find I'm not alone!
Hello people - sorry to find you in the same boat.
Has anyone tried the Applecare phone service? I can't - its after hours - If so what help if any did you get?
How can I restore 08 please? I have never tried to restore a single application before - scary!
Can I get my money back?

Install iWork08 just as you would any software. If you chucked out the disk, you might have to look on line as the Apple demo will be iWork09. I'm guessing they'd remove 08. Once iWork08 is installed you'll have an iWork08 and an iWork09 folder in Applications folder. Trash Numbers08 and Pages08 if you desire. I have a dock icon for each Keynote version, 08 and 09.

You cannot open a native Keynote'09 file using KN08 though.

Thanks = have recovered KN08 - as you say it cannot recover the stick file.
Dock item for each is excellet scheme - thanks again!
Working with KN08 I was having problems with the app crashing when saving work - tried Applecare but they could not resolve it. That was why I went to KN09!
I wonder if Apple ever looks at this string?
Thanks again!

Yes, so am I - how can we alert Apple to this?
I've put in a bug report but no response.
I hope everyone here has done that?
The report form 'Provide Keynote Feedback' under the Keynote meu is out of date - can't signal which version is the problem except in text.