AppleScript and Keynote: Lines

Lines

Lines are a fundamental iWork object and exist in all three iWork applications. In addition to inheriting the properties of iWork items, such as locked and position, lines have the following line-related properties:

The iWork Suite line Class

line n [inh. iWork item ] : A line.

elements

contained by iWork containers such as: slides.

properties

end point ( point ) : A list of two numbers indicating the horizontal and vertical position of the line ending point.

reflection showing ( boolean ) : Is the line displaying a reflection?

reflection value ( integer ) : The percentage of reflection of the line, from 0 (none) to 100 (full).

rotation ( integer ) : The rotation of the line, in degrees from 0 to 359.

start point ( point ) : A list of two numbers indicating the horizontal and vertical position of the line starting point.

responds to

delete, exists, make.

Here’s an example script that will overlay a series of lines for positioning an image using the Rule of Thirds:

Overlay Rule of Thirds Grid

tell application "Keynote"

activate

tell document 1

set documentWidth to its width

set documentHeight to its height

set documentWidthThird to documentWidth div 3

set documentHeightThird to documentHeight div 3

tell current slide

-- HORIZONTAL LINES

set thisLine to make new line with properties {start point:{0, documentHeightThird}, end point:{documentWidth, documentHeightThird}, reflection showing:false, reflection value:100}

set thisLine to make new line with properties {start point:{0, documentHeightThird * 2}, end point:{documentWidth, documentHeightThird * 2}, reflection showing:false, reflection value:100}

-- VERTICAL LINES

set thisLine to make new line with properties {start point:{documentWidthThird, 0}, end point:{documentWidthThird, documentHeight}, reflection showing:false, reflection value:100}

set thisLine to make new line with properties {start point:{documentWidthThird * 2, 0}, end point:{documentWidthThird * 2, documentHeight}, reflection showing:false, reflection value:100}

end tell

Once you’ve positioned the image using the grid on lines as guides, run this script to remove all lines from the slide:

Delete Every Line from Slide

tell application "Keynote"

activate

tell document 1

tell current slide

try

delete every line

end try

end tell

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KEYNOTE SCRIPTING

Overview
Automation Utilities

Examples

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