Hi @ all
I’m trying to write a script to batch-convert all the ppts in a folder to pdf.
I found a script over here which does exactly that bit for pages documents. Unfortunately i cant bring it to work for PP-docs.
Here’s what I have so far:
set F to choose folder
tell application "Finder"
set P to (files of entire contents of F)
repeat with I from 1 to number of items in P
set this_item to item 1 of P
--if kind of this_item as string is "ppt" then
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
activate
open this_item
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Powerpoint"
activate
set frontmost to true
click menu item "Export." of menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1
click button "PDF" of radio group 1 of sheet 1 of window 1
click button "Next..." of sheet 1 of window 1
click button "Export" of sheet 1 of window 1
end tell
end tell
close window 1 without saving
end tell
--end if
end repeat
end tell
The basic problem is that nothing happens.
I alo tried to leave out the if-condition, still no result.
I tried to isolate the error and came to the guess that “set this_item to item 1 of P” returns an error, basically: “cannot read the file…”
Does anyone has an idea how to bring this thingy to work?
All the best
joh
Hi,
I don’t have PP 2008 with the export feature,
but I assume the class to open a file in PP should be an alias
try this
set F to choose folder
tell application "Finder" to set P to (files of entire contents of F whose name extension is "ppt")
repeat with oneFile in P
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
activate
open (oneFile as alias)
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Powerpoint"
click menu item "Export." of menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1
click button "PDF" of radio group 1 of sheet 1 of window 1
click button "Next..." of sheet 1 of window 1
click button "Export" of sheet 1 of window 1
end tell
end tell
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint" to close window 1 without saving
end repeat
Notes: It’s not necessary to activate PP three times in every loop 
The kind of the file is never “PPT” it’s better to filter the extension.
I always try to avoid nested application tell blocks
Hi iprecious,
An alternative to GUI scripting would be to install the free cups-pdf package on your Mac, set it as the default printer and execute code as follows (a slightly modified version of StefanK’s great script, tested on MS Office 2004):
set F to choose folder
tell application "Finder" to set P to (files of entire contents of F whose name extension is "ppt")
repeat with oneFile in P
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
activate
open (oneFile as alias)
print out presentation 1
close presentation 1 without saving
end tell
end repeat
First of all: Thanks so much for the quick reply.
@Stefan:
I somehow tried to edit the script so that i works with the German version of PP. It even triggers the “Drucken…”-Dialog, but when it should hit the pdf-Button, I receive the error message System Events has received an error that sheet 1 of window 1 of process “Microsoft PowerPoint” can’t be read due to an invalid index.
I would try to tackle that problem, but I don’t really have a clue what AS wants to tell me.
@Martin: This one is a pretty good one, too. The only problem is that I still have to press the “Print” button. I tried to use the click button command from Stefans script, but i receive the same error message. And of course I still have no clue what AS wants to tell me.
If you have an idea: THANKS!!!
All the best
joh
Which version of Microsoft Office are you running? I am using MS Office 2004 and I do not have to hit the “Print” button when using the «print out» command.
Unfortuntely the 2008-version.
And I don’t have the 2004-version any more… 
maybe it’s a timing problem, the script should wait until the sheet is visible
.
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Powerpoint"
click menu item "Export." of menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1
tell window 1
repeat until exists sheet 1
delay 0.5
end repeat
tell sheet 1
click button "PDF" of radio group 1
click button "Next..."
click button "Export"
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
.
Hmmmm…
I don’t think that a timing problem is the cause.
I tried to use the click button in various ways. NONE worked. I always get either the error message System Events recieved an Error: žbutton “Drucken” of process “Microsoft PowerPoint” cannot be read or the message I posted before.
Might it be a change in Leopard? Just a guess.
do you refer to the proper UI element?
a button must be an element at least of a window. Button “x” of process “y” is impossible
Ok, but in this case, your Script should do at least the clicking of hte pdf-button, because this one is defined properly, isn’t it?
Ho can I classify such a window?
the PDF button is a menu button, not just as button, this is a significant difference
take a look at Nigel’s Save as PDF “ An attempt at a general-purpose GUI method
GREAT!!!
Thanks for this link. That’s the stuff I need for a good start PLUS it should spare you from further questions.
At least for a day… 
Thanks again!!!
A wonderful good morning!
After another hour reading, trying, fixing I brought the Script to work.
set F to choose folder
tell application "Finder" to set P to (files of entire contents of F whose name extension is "ppt")
repeat with oneFile in P
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
activate
open (oneFile as alias)
tell application "System Events"
set process "Microsoft PowerPoint"'s frontmost to true
tell application process "Microsoft PowerPoint"
keystroke "p" using command down
delay 1
keystroke return
end tell
end tell
close presentation 1 without saving
end tell
delay 5
end repeat
As you see, I choose the cups-pdf-variant and took a shortcut by using the keystroke-commands instead of the clicki-bits, but all the attempts using the latter entirely failed.
I got the idea with the keystrokes from Nigel’s little how-to.
I would have loved to bring the clickies to work, as for future-script that “might” be helpful, but for the moments I had to finish it as there are three exams next week.
Thanks to you two for helping me with this one!!!
All the best
joh
One last question: Does anyone know a comprehensie tutorial/manual for UI-Scripting?
I found an introductory one at the apple-page, but that’s that what I’m looking for.
Thanks and all the best
joh
iPrecious,
The script you wrote July 5th is printing the selected files, not converting them to PDF. For that, did you go with the GUI scripting route?
Yeap, I did:
set F to choose folder
tell application “Finder” to set P to (files of entire contents of F whose name extension is “ppt”)
repeat with oneFile in P
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
activate
open (oneFile as alias)
tell application "System Events"
set process "Microsoft PowerPoint"'s frontmost to true
tell application process "Microsoft PowerPoint"
keystroke "p" using command down
delay 1
keystroke return
end tell
end tell
close presentation 1 without saving
end tell
delay 5
end repeat
All the best
joh
I recently got a large collection of song lyrics in PPT format from church (not PPTX). I wanted to export to TXT. Instead of using PowerPoint to open and close all the 1800 files, I used QuickLook to convert to HTML, and then to TXT.
If you want, I could modify the script to export HTML to PDF instead.
set this_folder_path to "/Users/peter/Desktop/KGCC PPT convert/"
set this_folder to this_folder_path as POSIX file
tell application "Finder"
set these_files to every file of folder this_folder
end tell
repeat with this_file in these_files
set this_file_path to POSIX path of (this_file as alias)
set this_file_name to name of this_file
do shell script "qlmanage -p \"" & this_file_path & "\" -o \"" & this_folder_path & "\""
set this_file_name_no_extension to my replace_chars(this_file_name, ".ppt", "")
set this_subfolder_name to this_file_name & ".qlpreview"
tell application "Finder"
repeat while (name of every folder of folder this_folder) does not contain this_subfolder_name
delay 0.5
end repeat
set export_folder to (folder this_subfolder_name in folder this_folder) as alias
set export_html_file to (file "Preview.html" in folder export_folder) as alias
set export_html_path to POSIX path of export_html_file
--set name of export_html_file to this_file_name_no_extension & ".html"
end tell
do shell script "textutil -convert txt \"" & export_html_path & "\" -output \"" & this_folder_path & this_file_name_no_extension & ".txt" & "\""
tell application "Finder"
delete export_folder
end tell
end repeat
on replace_chars(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string
set the item_list to every text item of this_text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string
set this_text to the item_list as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return this_text
end replace_chars
Model: MacBook Pro Retina
AppleScript: 2.5.1
Browser: Safari 537.78.2
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.9)