How to save Slides in a powerpoint as video
In GUI the same is available within File->Export as->Select type as video
This script doesn’t work saves the presentation as a 0KB file, how to specify the duration of each slides and modify other save as movie settings of presentation
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
set videoName to "/Users/mysys/Documents/Output.mov"
activate
tell active presentation
save in videoName as save as movie
end tell
end tell
Try using the specifier file + hfs path instead of the Posix path. I don’t have PowerPoint to test this.
set videoHFSPath to (path to documents folder as text) & "Output.mov"
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
activate
tell active presentation
save in file videoHFSPath as save as movie
end tell
end tell
No I did tried with multiple paths as well this doesn’t work
My issue is the video size is 0 Bytes. It is just like a dummy file
I know how to do it in KeyNote. There, you first need to tell to presentation the open command. As a result, the front document is created. To this front document (and not to the presentation) is then sent a export command.
on exportPresentationsToMovies(thePresentations)
tell application "Keynote"
activate
if playing is true then tell front document to stop
try
repeat with aPresentation in thePresentations
open aPresentation
set the documentName to name of the front document
set destinationFile to my deriveFileNameForNewFileInFolder(documentName, destinationFolder)
with timeout of 1200 seconds -- 20 minutes
export front document to file destinationFile as QuickTime movie with properties {movie format:native size}
end timeout
close front document saving no
display notification documentName with title "Keynote Movie Export"
end repeat
on error errorMessage
activate
display alert "EXPORT ERROR" message errorMessage
error number -128
end try
end tell
end exportPresentationsToMovies
1 Like
From powerpoint 2011’s dictionary:
save v : Save an object
save specifier : the object to save
[in Macintosh path/Posix path] : the file in which to save the object
[as save as presentation/save as template/save as RTF/save as show/save as default/save as HTML/save as movie/save as package/save as PDF/save as Open XML presentation/save as Open XML presentation macro enabled/save as Open XML show/save as Open XML show macro enabled/save as Open XML template/save as Open XML template macro enabled/save as Open XML theme/save as GIF/save as JPG/save as PNG/save as BMP/save as TIF] : the file type of the document in which to save the data
FWIW, I get the impression that the slide show properties need to be set (and are distinct from the presentation document’s properties).
What is a presentation until it plays? A dead set of slides with specified interval. KeyNote brings this presentation to life with the open command. Only then does a video stream appear in the interface, which KeyNote can export on the fly (as a video).
I only logically assumed that PowerPoint should work in the same way, but it is possible that this is not the case. The dictionary does not specify which PowerPoint objects can be exported as a movie. I’m only guessing that this is the document at the time the presentation is played.
NOTE: I may not have given the correct explanation here. The main idea is to work with the document created by the presentation, and not with the presentation itself.
In powerpoint, the presentation is the document. The open command opens ‘powerpoint presentations’. At least, this is the case in PPT 2011 (and earlier… don’t think it has changed since).
tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
save presentation 1 in "bleep.mov" as save as movie
end tell
The above saves the front presentation in the Documents folder as a Quicktime movie (mov). If you change the extension in the script (I tried avi and mp4) it will still produce a mov file but with the incorrect extension.
If you set all of the slides to only advance by clicking and then save the movie, no file is produced. If the advance slide duration is set to any number (and applied to all slides), then the movie duration will be that number × slide count.
Hi, this is beautiful, but you failed to send your deriveFileNameForNewFileInFolder() script function and that’s exactly the thing I’m missing now… Would be nice if you provided as well.
This script does not work for me – I keep receiving errors about not being able to save the file - and when I look at the details, it seems PowerPoint is prefixing the provided path (Here “/Users/mysys/Documents/Output.mov”) with its Sandbox path, (/Users/mysys/Library/Containers/PowerPooint) so the overall path is broken — I could NOT persuade PowerPoint to save the exported file where I want it to. Can you please shed some light on this? How does this work for you?