Hello Automators,
I’m looking for a way to convert powerpoint files to PDFs. I have a shortcut that converts PDFs to images and allows me to drag and drop slides directly into my notes in GoodNotes, but I’m currently relying on the PowerPoint app to manually convert .ppt files to PDFs. This is not only clunky, it also fails constantly and sometimes leaves me with no way to convert my slides.
Is there any way to do this with JavaScript? I’m a total noob, just looking for a workaround. My current best lead is to send files to my Raspberry Pi and use LibreOffice to convert the files with a bash script (I still haven’t figured this out completely), but something local would be so much easier.
Thank you for your help and your time.
There are online services you could access to do this sort of conversion if, and only if, it is acceptable to upload content to a third party. But JavaScript alone on i*OS I don’t think would get you far on its own.
At the risk of posting an answer that I bet you’ve already tried… are you using the embedded share sheet options? I do this all of the time (PowerPoint to GoodNotes) and have no problems.
Probably you’ve already tried that, but does the Make PDF action in Shortcuts do it?
I’d rather not send files to third parties – my aim is to do everything local if possible.
GoodNotes’ share sheet extension seems to have superpowers; I can share PowerPoints to it and it handles the conversion just fine. I’ll use that next time I need to manually convert the files, but I wish I could use it in a shortcut somehow.
Unfortunately, the make PDF action in Shortcuts doesn’t know how to handle PowerPoints.
Thank you all for the help. I’m going to experiment with sending a file to my Raspberry Pi automatically, and if I can successfully automate the process I’ll make a proper post about it.
