Batch Converting Pages Documents to Word Documents with Applescript

So if you read this blog you already know that I have pretty much come to the decision that my next computer will not be a Mac. I love my old MacPro 4,1 but it is getting long in the tooth, and I haven’t even been able to do the Firmware Upgrade to get it to 5,1, so the next OS Sierra will not work on my current MacPro as it will only work on a 5,1 (I haven’t tried putting in my old video card before the upgrade, which might help, but it looks like El Capitan makes it harder).

Unfortunately in 2007 I moved over to Pages to do my invoices, resumes and cover letter. Now you can individually export your documents to the modern word format docx, but I am talking hundreds and hundreds of files that I may want to access at some point, so I wanted a way to batch those files.

This requires applescript, and while I used to be OK at Applescript all those skills have since gone away.

A quick google search showed one page dedicated to scripting the iWorks suite, and it is iWorkAutomation. Specifically there is a script to Export to Word, but it is not a batch export, just a single use, and so not of use to me, except for stealing some of it’s commands.

So then I went back to the old faithful applescript forums MacSpripter, and did a search. And I found an awesome script from Yvan Keonig, which automates the process, allowing you to pick a folder with you pages documents and then chose a destination folder, and it batch converts to PDF files.

Luckily my limited Applescript skills and the fact that the script was so well written, let me use the Microsoft Word commands from iWork Automation and combine them to make a script to convert to Word documents.

Just copy this script and paste it into Script Editor and run the script. You can also save the script to your scripts folder.

set theSourceFolder to (choose folder with prompt “Select a folder whose files you wish to convert to word:”)

tell application “Finder”

set filesArray to every file of theSourceFolder whose name extension is “pages”

end tell

set theDestinationFolder to (choose folder with prompt “Select a folder where you want the converted files to be placed: “)

tell application “Pages” to activate

repeat with aFile in filesArray

tell application “Finder”

set fileAlias to aFile as alias

set fileName to name of fileAlias

set fileExtension to name extension of fileAlias

end tell

set theOriginalName to fileName

— remove extension

set prevTIDs to AppleScript’s text item delimiters

set AppleScript’s text item delimiters to “.” & fileExtension as string

set fileName to first text item of fileName

set AppleScript’s text item delimiters to prevTIDs

— prepare desktop folder path and name

set docPathAndName to (theDestinationFolder as text) & fileName & “.docx” # EDITED

tell application “Pages”

— open the file

set targetDocument to open fileAlias — EDITED : was aFile which is a Finder reference, not what Pages requires

repeat 10 times # I added a loop which may be useful if the original document is very long

try

export targetDocument to file docPathAndName as Microsoft Word

exit repeat

on error

tell me to delay 0.5

end try

end repeat

— close it

close targetDocument saving no

end tell

end repeat

tell application “Pages” to quit

display dialog “Done!”

Awesome, now I have batch updated all my pages documents to Word documents. Sure the formatting needs some updating, but at least they will all work on a PC!