Applescript - bulk convert PPT to HTML - html

Question

My knowledge of coding is limited. I am trying to automate a process of converting PPTs to HTML using applescript and Keynote. In this page I found the following non working apple script:
-- THE DESTINATION FOLDER
-- (see the "path" to command in the Standard Additions dictionary for other locations, such as pictures folder, movies folder, sites folder, desktop folder)
set the defaultDestinationFolder to (path to documents folder)
tell application "Keynote"
activate
try
if playing is true then tell the front document to stop
if not (exists document 1) then error number -128
-- DERIVE NAME FOR NEW FOLDER FROM NAME OF THE FRONT DOCUMENT
set documentName to the name of the front document
if documentName ends with ".key" then ¬
set documentName to text 1 thru -5 of documentName
-- CREATE AN EXPORT DESTINATION FOLDER
-- IMPORTANT: IT’S ADVISED TO ALWAYS CREATE A NEW DESTINATION FOLDER, AS THE CONTENTS OF ANY TARGETED FOLDER WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
tell application "Finder"
set newFolderName to documentName
set incrementIndex to 1
repeat until not (exists folder newFolderName of defaultDestinationFolder)
set newFolderName to documentName & "-" & (incrementIndex as string)
set incrementIndex to incrementIndex + 1
end repeat
set the targetFolder to ¬
make new folder at defaultDestinationFolder with properties ¬
{name:newFolderName}
set the targetFolderHFSPath to targetFolder as string
end tell
-- EXPORT THE DOCUMENT
with timeout of 1200 seconds
export front document as HTML to file targetFolderHFSPath
end timeout
on error errorMessage number errorNumber
display alert "EXPORT PROBLEM" message errorMessage
error number -128
end try
end tell
-- OPEN THE DESTINATION FOLDER
tell application "Finder"
open the targetFolder
end tell
-- VIEW THE PRESENTATION
tell application "Safari"
activate
open file (targetFolderHFSPath & "index.html")
end tell
I am looking for a way to fix this. Currently I am getting the following result:
error "Keynote got an error: No user interaction allowed." number -1713

Answer 1

You've broken one of the basic rules of applescript. Avoid putting tell blocks inside tell blocks. In your case you put a Finder tell block of code inside the Keynote tell block of code. This could cause conflicts and thus errors. I think that's your problem.
Try this with the tell blocks separated...
-- THE DESTINATION FOLDER
-- (see the "path" to command in the Standard Additions dictionary for other locations, such as pictures folder, movies folder, sites folder, desktop folder)
set the defaultDestinationFolder to (path to documents folder)
try
tell application "Keynote"
activate
if playing is true then tell the front document to stop
if not (exists document 1) then error number -128
-- DERIVE NAME FOR NEW FOLDER FROM NAME OF THE FRONT DOCUMENT
set documentName to the name of the front document
if documentName ends with ".key" then ¬
set documentName to text 1 thru -5 of documentName
-- CREATE AN EXPORT DESTINATION FOLDER
-- IMPORTANT: IT’S ADVISED TO ALWAYS CREATE A NEW DESTINATION FOLDER, AS THE CONTENTS OF ANY TARGETED FOLDER WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
end tell
tell application "Finder"
set newFolderName to documentName
set incrementIndex to 1
repeat until not (exists folder newFolderName of defaultDestinationFolder)
set newFolderName to documentName & "-" & (incrementIndex as string)
set incrementIndex to incrementIndex + 1
end repeat
set the targetFolder to ¬
make new folder at defaultDestinationFolder with properties ¬
{name:newFolderName}
set the targetFolderHFSPath to targetFolder as string
end tell
-- EXPORT THE DOCUMENT
with timeout of 1200 seconds
tell application "Keynote"
export front document as HTML to file targetFolderHFSPath
end tell
end timeout
on error errorMessage number errorNumber
display alert "EXPORT PROBLEM" message errorMessage
error number -128
end try
-- OPEN THE DESTINATION FOLDER
tell application "Finder"
open the targetFolder
end tell
-- VIEW THE PRESENTATION
tell application "Safari"
activate
open file (targetFolderHFSPath & "index.html")
end tell