Script for Keynote to export slides as individual MOVs

Keynote's export command (at least OMM) has no 'using settings' parameter:

COMMAND SYNTAX
export document ¬
     to file ¬
     as export format ¬
     with properties export options

where export options are listed as:

So there is no 'image quality' nor 'slide duration' parameter.

Where did you get that script from? If it's old, it's possible that the commands have changed over time.

I took a dive into this, and it might not be so hard...

export includes a 'skipped slides' option. I edited the script to hide all but one slide then run the export, which has the effect of exporting just one slide per movie file.

It won't help if your presentation already has hidden slides (it assumes are slides are valid), but that can be worked out if it's an issue.

tell application "Keynote"
	set theDoc to the front document
	set slideCount to count of slides of theDoc
	
	-- Get the path of the current Keynote presentation
	set presentationPath to theDoc's file as string
	
	-- Get the folder containing the presentation file
	set presentationFolder to (POSIX path of presentationPath)
	
	repeat with i from 1 to slideCount
		
		-- hide all the slides
        set skipped of every slide of theDoc to true
        -- enable just the current slide
		set skipped of slide i of theDoc to false
		-- Set the name of the output file
		set outputName to "Slide " & i & ".m4v"
		
		-- Set the path of the output file
		set outputPath to presentationFolder & outputName
		
		-- Export the slide as a QuickTime movie to the output path
		export theDoc to outputPath as QuickTime movie without skipped slides
	end repeat
end tell

You should end up with a series of .m4v files, one per slide in the presentation.

I'm using the exact same script I posted above, and that you show:

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use scripting additions

tell application "Keynote"
	set theDoc to the front document
	set slideCount to count of slides of theDoc
	
	-- Get the path of the current Keynote presentation
	set presentationPath to theDoc's file as string
	
	-- Get the folder containing the presentation file
	set presentationFolder to (POSIX path of presentationPath) & "."
	
	repeat with i from 1 to slideCount
		
		set skipped of every slide of theDoc to true
		set skipped of slide i of theDoc to false
		-- Set the name of the output file
		set outputName to "Slide " & i & ".m4v"
		
		-- Set the path of the output file
		set outputPath to presentationFolder & outputName
		
		-- Export the slide as a QuickTime movie to the output path
		export theDoc to outputPath as QuickTime movie without skipped slides
	end repeat
end tell

The remaining possibility is that there's some element in the first slide that's breaking the export... two things to try.

1 is simplify, simplify, simplify - I know you say it fails on multiple presentations, but are they simple presentations or complex ones? for example, try with a set of slides that have just text on them (theory being that maybe Keynote can't export slides that contain video or certain other media.

2 would be to edit the script wrap the export in a 'try' statement:

    try
		export theDoc to outputPath as QuickTime movie without skipped slides
    end try

This will catch errors, rather than stop the script at the first error - it might indicate that certain slides are throwing the error, while other slides are fine (notwithstanding point 1 above). If this change manages to export slides 2, 3, 5 and 7, you know there's something particular about the other slides.

More specifically, change the export line to:

		export theDoc to outputPath as QuickTime movie 

and it will export the presentation as-is. I still don't see an easy way to export individual slides. Maybe slicing the movie after the fact is the way to go?

> If I delete that line... do you suppose it will work?

If you remove that line, you won't get anything, since that's what's initiating the export.

You'll need to rework that line to match the properties that Keynote's export command understands.

Off hand I don't know how to export individual slides with specific timers, and I don't see anything obvious in the parameters it does support.

Sorry to hear that. It seems to work on my machine, on a sample presentation.

That leaves three possible scenarios that I can think of off-hand.

1 - some issue with the presentation itself (have you tried a different one?)

2 - you're running an older version of Keynote and the command structure is different (which version are you running?)

3 - some permissions error - is the destination folder local or remote? is it locked?