Why it is easier to switch to a Mac than from one.

May 6, 2010 10:23 AM

I have a large number of iWork Pages files that I would like to convert to MS Word format. Is there a way to do this that is easier/more expedient than opening each one individually in Pages and saving it as a Word file?

I have a feeling that there is a way to create a script of some sort to do this, but I've never gotten anything to work well in Automator.

Thanks for your help.

posted by 4ster to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: This scriptlet may help you.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:51 AM on May 6, 2010

Response by poster: Blazecock Pileon: Thanks for that link. It works amazingly well, but everything is converted to .rtf instead of .doc.
posted by 4ster at 11:13 AM on May 6, 2010

I'm at work and my mac's at home, but you could probably use automator to do this. Should be in your applications folder. here's a tutorial for a similar process to convert images. You just need to find the right automator actions to save your pages files as word files.
posted by Chris4d at 12:01 PM on May 6, 2010

Response by poster: I found a great, fast script here that converts Pages to PDF. If someone could show me what changes need to be made to make the conversion to Word instead of PDF, it would be perfect.

The script I'm referring to is the last one on the page.

Many thanks.
posted by 4ster at 1:45 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

It works amazingly well, but everything is converted to .rtf instead of .doc.

Have you tried editing it? It might be an easy tweak to make the script output a .doc file instead of an .rtf.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:11 PM on May 6, 2010

Response by poster: OK, everyone. by reading Blazecock Pileon's link more closely and combining what he posted with the Pages to PDF script, I linked to above, I got it to work. A million thanks.

Here is the script:

on open filist
if application "Pages" is running then
repeat with lvar in filist
tell application "Finder"
set thename to name of lvar
set thepath to container of lvar
end tell
set x to the offset of "." in thename
set nuname to text 1 thru text item x of thename
tell application "Pages"
activate
set filname to (thepath as text) & nuname & "doc"
open lvar
save document 1 as "Microsoft Word 97 - 2004 Document" in filname
close every window saving no
end tell
end repeat
else
repeat with lvar in filist
tell application "Finder"
set thename to name of lvar
set thepath to container of lvar
end tell
set x to the offset of "." in thename
set nuname to text 1 thru text item x of thename
tell application "Pages"
activate
set filname to (thepath as text) & nuname & "doc"
open lvar
save document 1 as "Microsoft Word 97 - 2004 Document" in filname
close every window saving no
end tell
end repeat
tell application "Pages" to quit
end if
end open
posted by 4ster at 2:27 PM on May 6, 2010

Response by poster: I should also add that this worked for me using iWork '09 on Snow Leopard, and that the Word files will be saved in the same folder as the Pages files.
posted by 4ster at 2:47 PM on May 7, 2010