Global color replace in Keynote '09

Welcome to the discussions, anthonysan.

There isn't a way within the program to do it, however it IS possible I think. I'll give you some tips to start down that path, and, if you have any questions, just post back here.

First, go to Keynote preferences and, under General Preferences, choose "Save new documents as packages". Next, create a new document (white theme), change the Master to blank, and place three rectangles on the first slide, each with an EASY to define color. (By "easy to define" I mean pick colors that you would be able to discern numerically, for example 100% red, 100% black, 100% green, etc.) Finally, double click inside each shape and add some unique text. I'm using "firstone", "secondone", "thirdone".

Now, save that document, then right-click (two-finger-click, control-click) on it's icon in the Finder. You should see an option to Show Package Contents. Select that and you should then see a few folders and some files. You're looking for index.apxl.zip. Double click that one to unzip it, then put the .zipped version in the trash (Keynote can read either just as well). Now, you should have an index.apxl file.

When you double-click the index.apxl file, you'll have to choose to open it with TextEdit, then search for your unique text "firstone".

Things get more detailed from this point, but it does lead to a potential solution. Let me know if you're following so far, and we can look at the mysteries within they Keynote file 🙂

Yup! If you've got a handle on that, then all you have to do is.

1) Perform a search of your text. A few lines above that line will be the SFDGraphicStyle that represents how that shape was created.
2) Do a search for that SFDGraphicStyle. You should find it twice in the document. One uses it on the slide (sfa:IDREF=), and the other defines it (sfa:ID=). You're looking for the sfa:ID
3) Look a few lines below the sfa:ID. You should see a section like this:
sf:color xsi:type="sfa:calibrated-rgb-color-type" sfa:r="0" sfa:g="0" sfa:b="0" sfa:a="1"

This line defines the fill color. Remember, you turned the stroke off to make finding this easer, but if you see a couple lines with this info, look for the one between the sf:fill tags, but BEFORE the next defined sfa:ID. In my case, this defines a BLACK object as r g and b are all set to zero. Changing any of these between 0 and 1 will alter the color of your object. 1, 1, 1 would be white.

So, you could have a sample slide that has the colors you use in your presentation, change them in Keynote, save the file, open up the apxl file, grab the numerical data for the colors, and feed those into your target presentation. It's a bit of work ahead of you, but, for the color control you'll have, it'll be worth it.