How to Convert Keynote File to Google Slides

Need to convert a Keynote File to Google Slides? If you use Google Slides for collaborating and working on presentations online, you might be interested in importing a Keynote file into the mix, perhaps sent from a colleagues who own a Mac, iPhone, or iPad. No problem, that’s what we’re going to cover here.

Keynote is Apple’s equivalent of Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint that’s used for handling presentations on their macOS, iOS, and ipadOS devices. However, both Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint currently lack native support for .key file format, so you may run into compatibility issues if you switch between multiple platforms. So whether you’re trying to access the Keynote file on a Windows PC, Chromebook, Android, Linux, or even on a Mac with Google Slides, no worries, you’ll be able to convert a Keynote file to a format supported by Google Slides with a tool called CloudConvert.

How to Convert Keynote File to Google Slides

Before you’re able to convert a Keynote presentation to Google Slides, you’ll need to upload the file to Google’s servers using Google Drive. Simply follow the steps below to get started.

1. Head over to drive.google.com on your web browser and sign in with your Google account. Once you’re in the Google Drive home page, click on “New” located in the left pane.
   
   
2. Next, choose “File upload” from the dropdown menu and find the Keynote file stored on your computer to upload it.
   
   
3. Now, the file you uploaded will show up in Google Drive, as shown here. Right-click on the presentation file, click on “Open with” in the dropdown menu, and choose “CloudConvert”. CloudConverter is an online file conversion service that’s integrated into Google Drive. When you choose CloudConvert, you’ll be asked to sign in with your account before you’re able to convert the file.
   
   
4. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be taken to the conversion page. Here, use the dropdown as shown in the screenshot below and choose a file format that’s compatible with Google Slides like “PPT” or “PPTX”. Make sure you’ve checked the option to “Save output files to Google Drive” too and click on “Convert”.
   
   
5. The file you converted will immediately show up in Google Drive. You’ll also have the option to download the file directly from CloudConvert, but since you’re working on Google Slides, you don’t need to. In Google Drive, right-click on the converted file, click on “Open with” in the dropdown menu, and choose “Google Slides”.
   
   

And that’s how you convert a Keynote presentation file to a Google Slides-supported format using CloudConvert. Not too bad, right?

It’s noteworthy that PPT and PPTX are the file formats used by Microsoft PowerPoint, while Keynote files typically have a .key extension. Since these PPT files are natively supported by Google Slides, you can continue working on it just like any other Google Slides presentation, and even save the file as Google Slides, if necessary, they won’t need to be converted.

Alternatively, if you have an Apple account, you can use iCloud.com to easily convert a Keynote file to a PowerPoint presentation file. Even if you don’t have an account yet, it’s pretty easy to sign up for a new Apple ID regardless of what device you use. This could also come in handy if you just want to quickly open and view the contents of a Keynote presentation from a Windows PC too.

To avoid running into platform compatibility issues in the future, you could request your colleagues who use Mac (or iPhone or iPad) to export the file as a PowerPoint presentation within the Keynote app directly from the Mac. Or you could simply rename the Keynote file as a ZIP file and then open it in Microsoft PowerPoint, which typically works too.

Were you able to convert your Keynote presentations to a file format that’s natively recognized by Google Slides? What do you think about Google Drive’s CloudConvert integration which makes this process convenient? Did you find another solution? Let us know your experiences and thoughts in the comments.