I'm trying to automate the creation and inspection of master slides in Keynote using JavaScript for automation.
Creating master slides
It's easy to create a new document with a given theme and add slides with particular master slides to it.
// Create a new document using the "White" theme.
var Keynote = Application('Keynote');
var doc = Keynote.Document({
documentTheme: Keynote.themes['White']
});
Keynote.documents.push(doc);
// Create and append a new "Title & Bullets" slide.
var slide = Keynote.Slide({
baseSlide: doc.masterSlides['Title & Bullets']
});
doc.slides.push(slide);
This creates a new document with the "White" theme and appends a new "Title & Bullets" slide.
A similar approach does not work for master slides.
// Create a new document using the "White" theme.
var Keynote = Application('Keynote');
var doc = Keynote.Document({
documentTheme: Keynote.themes['White']
});
Keynote.documents.push(doc);
// Create and append a new master slide.
var slide = Keynote.MasterSlide({
name: "Testing"
});
doc.masterSlides.push(slide);
This creates a new document but no new master slide is created. Looking at the Script Editor Replies window, the push returns null in contrast to pushing a new Slide onto doc.slides which returns 2 (the number of slides in the array).
It is possible to duplicate a master slide, but only when Keynote is in "Edit Master Slide" mode. If the "Edit Master Slide" button has been clicked, then it's possible to duplicate a master slide.
var Keynote = Application('Keynote');
var doc = Keynote.documents[0];
var ms = doc.masterSlides['Title & Bullets'];
ms.duplicate();
This creates a new master slide named "Title & Bullets copy".
Inspecting master slides' properties
Inspecting master slides has similar, but slightly different issues. The following code should log the position, width, and height of the title item on the "Title & Bullets" master slide of the open document.
var Keynote = Application('Keynote');
var doc = Keynote.documents[0];
var ms = doc.masterSlides['Title & Bullets'];
var title = ms.defaultTitleItem();
var pos = title.position();
console.log("(x,y) = (" + pos.x + "," + pos.y + ")");
console.log("width x height = " + title.width() + " x " + title.height());
When run either outside of "Edit Master Slide" mode or in "Edit Master Slide" mode but with a different master slide selected, this code writes
/* (x,y) = (0,0) */
/* width x height = 0 x 0 */
to the log. In contrast, when run with the "Title & Bullets" master slide selected in "Edit Master Slide" mode, the correct values are logged.
/* (x,y) = (75,35) */
/* width x height = 874 x 170 */
Question
What is the appropriate way to create master slides, inspect their properties, and ultimately change them?
