Convert Keynote to PowerPoint

Learn how to convert Keynote to PowerPoint and other formats in this tutorial so that anyone can work with your presentation. Plus, we’ll share a quickstart video.

This post is part of a series called How to Use Apple Keynote (Ultimate Tutorial Guide).

One of my favorite apps as a macOS user is Keynote. I’ve used PowerPoint in both my professional and personal work, but I love Keynote’s ease-of-use. To bridge the gap to my non-Keynote friends, it helps to know how to convert Keynote to PDF and PowerPoint formats.

Let’s face it: PowerPoint is still the go-to presentation software. PowerPoint doesn’t play nice with other formats. So, when collaborating, you’ll need to convert your Keynote to PowerPoint.

If you’ve ever wished for a Keynote to PowerPoint converter, this tutorial can help. In fact, you won’t need any extra tools to convert Keynote to PPT. Let’s learn how to convert Keynote to PowerPoint so that your Windows-based friends can work with your presentations.

Convert Keynote to PowerPoint (Watch & Learn)

In the screencast below, I’ll show you how to convert your Keynote presentation to a PowerPoint format. You’ll see the step-by-step instructions you need to take a Keynote file and convert it into a PPTX or PPT format file.

Want to learn more? Keep reading the tutorial below to see a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

Why Convert Keynote to PowerPoint?

Because Keynote works so well, you might be wondering why it’s essential to change the file format.

Simply put, there are far more PowerPoint users than Keynote users. Even though I love Keynote’s ease-of-use and interface, much of the corporate world is going to use the Microsoft ecosystem for the foreseeable future.

You’ve got to find a way to ensure that the person on the other end of your email can open the file and work with it. In this tutorial, you’ll see how to convert Keynote to PowerPoint along with other general-purpose file formats that anyone can open. Read on to find out how.

How to Convert Keynote to PowerPoint

In this section, we’ll tackle how to convert your Keynote to PowerPoint. While this process is simple, there are a few essential settings that improve your results.

Throughout this section, we’ll work with a template from Envato Elements. This service gives you thousands of designs you can use, all for one flat rate. You have the best designs that save time and give you top-notch results.

In this tutorial, we’ll work with the Rockefeller Creative Keynote Presentation. Loaded with impressive slides, there’s truly a design for every purpose inside. Download it as you follow along with this tutorial.

This tutorial was written on macOS 12.4 (Monterey) with Keynote 12.2. If you’ve got a different operating system or a different version of Keynote, your steps may be slightly different.

1. Prepare to Export Your Keynote Presentation

Let’s learn how to export Keynote to a PowerPoint format. First of all, start by working in Keynote with your presentation open.

Now, find the File menu, and then choose Export To > PowerPoint. On the pop-up window, there is a key option that warrants consideration before you convert the Keynote file:

• Require password. You might have seen this option in PowerPoint before, but I was impressed that you can add it to a file on conversion. Consider adding a password if your document is sensitive and you don’t want it falling into the wrong hands.

Believe it or not, that’s it! Just finish saving your file by setting a filename and destination. You’ve now converted the presentation to PowerPoint format.

2. Test Your Presentation

Now, let’s jump over to PowerPoint and test out the presentation. Although this conversion generally works very well, it’s important that you preview the PPTX version to make sure it appears the way you expected.

If you don’t have PowerPoint, don’t forget that you can edit the presentation for free in PowerPoint Online. This can serve as an excellent way to test the presentation’s appearance in PowerPoint.

Make sure to play back the presentation in its entirety in PowerPoint so that there are no missing graphics or issues.

While the conversion makes most aspects of the presentation work, there’s no guarantee that everything will translate one for one. Check features like advanced animations and graphics to ensure they’re working.

These details make a difference when you convert a presentation, so check them out before sharing the PPTX. You can always return to Keynote and remove animations or other specifics so that there are no issues converting.

How to Convert Keynote to PDF

Maybe you don’t want the recipient to be able to open and edit the presentation. In this case, I think it makes perfect sense to export the Keynote presentation to a format like a PDF. While the PDF format doesn’t support animations and many of the advanced PowerPoint features, it’s “good enough” for many use cases.

To export your presentation to a PDF format, jump to the File > Export To > PDF.

Notice on this export dialog that there are a few options you can adjust to tweak the finished PDF:

• Include presenter notes. If you’ve added notes that help cue you, add this to the PDF.
• Include each stage of builds. Did you build the slide in many stages using animations? Tick this box if you want each PDF slide to be a single step in the build-up.
• Include skipped slides. If you’ve skipped slides in Keynote, you can tick this box to add them back to the exported PDF.
• Include comments. If you included comments with Keynote’s built-in option, these will be added to the finished PDF.
• Image quality. Do you want to save some space? Set the image quality to a lower level for smaller finished PDF files.
• Require password. Much like the PPTX conversion, you can add a password that protects your presentation from prying eyes.

Now, save your presentation and preview it in your favorite PDF app. Make sure that there are no conversion errors or issues before you attach and share it.

Convert to Other File Formats

These aren’t the only formats that you can export a presentation to. Let’s learn two more file formats that might be useful for a finished presentation.

Convert Keynote to Google Slides

Google’s browser-based presentation app has rapidly risen to popularity for its ease-of-use and cost (free!).

The nice thing about Google Slides is that it supports PPTX as a format. So, you can drag and drop the PPTX file we created earlier in this tutorial to work with it in Slides.

Just drag and drop your presentation to Google Drive, and that’s it! You’ll see the presentation, and make sure that you check it to ensure it appears correctly.

Convert to Flat Images

Have you ever seen a big digital display in a restaurant or shopping mall? Believe it or not, it’s not uncommon that the software that powers these boards requires flat images, like JPEG files for example.

If you need to save your presentation to a simple and flat image format, go to the File > Export To > Images, and choose an image format for your finished slides.

Another Option: iCloud and Keynote

If you can’t convert your presentation to another format, there’s another option: the browser-based version of Keynote. All that the recipient needs is an iCloud account (which is free), and they can edit and work with a presentation in a web browser.

Even if your recipient doesn’t have a Mac, they might have an Apple device and therefore an iCloud account. You can use Keynote inside a web browser to review, edit, and work with a presentation.

To work with your presentation in iCloud Drive, start by uploading it to your iCloud account. You can do this by choosing File > Move to in Keynote, or just copying it to your iCloud account.

Now, click on Collaborate. I recommend choosing Copy Link to create a URL that you can share with others. Choose Who can access to Anyone with the link if you want to make this public. Send that URL to others, and they can then work with the presentation in a browser.

While this isn’t technically converting the presentation to another format, the outcome is the same. You’ve taken a Keynote file and made it available to work with. Regardless of platform, the recipient can now open it in a browser and review the presentation.

Conclusion

You’ve now seen a variety of ways to convert Keynote presentations to PowerPoint, PDF, Google Slides, and even flat images. This knowledge will help you share your presentations with a wider audience, ensuring compatibility and accessibility, regardless of the software being used.

Throughout this tutorial, we worked with one of the templates you’ll unlock when you subscribe to Envato Elements. It gives you an incredible library of Keynote templates and more.

If you’re in search of more suggestions for the best templates to use, consider exploring some of the top options available to elevate your presentation design.