Jump to content

Keynote 6 (MacOS 10.9) and Dropbox - Caution


Rick Bennett

Recommended Posts

Ok, so I just stumbled on to quite a big change in Keynote 6.1, which I recently moved to after upgrading to 10.9.

 

Apple now by default forces you to save Keynote presentation (and evidently all iWork documents) as packages. This is nothing new on Mac, per se (we use it within Accordance as well), but what I noticed tonight is that Dropbox does not recognize these new packages as flat files, but folders, and very importantly does not retain version history of folders, only individual files.

 

In Keynote '09 (v. 5.x) you had a preference whether you wanted it to save presentations as packages (screen shot below). This preference is gone in Keynote 6.1!

 

post-5629-0-02053900-1396311587_thumb.png

 

I did a save as (which you can still access with opt) on a presentation and renamed it only to find out that Keynote saved over the previous version and dropbox didn't keep an older version of it. Thankfully I had a TimeMachine backup. Just thought others might find this helpful in case you rely on Dropbox for version history.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not only does this happen in Dropbox but OneDrive, too. Moreover, if you drop images onto slides, Keynote automatically gives them names and some of the names will not even upload. You just get an error message.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interestingly enough, this does not happen if the keynote file originates from iOS. I've long had the "Dropbox treats Keynote as a File" problem--didn't know about the preference setting in earlier versions. Usually I create my Keynotes on my Mac, but this weekend one of my children was using our Mac so I created it on my iPad, before moving it over to a dropbox folder. This time it's treated as one file. I can't say how internal updating is working, but it was interesting.

 

Lorinda

 

Edit: I think I probably exported the file from iOS Keynote to Dropbox by using the "Open In" command. Kept it as Keynote. In any event, it ended up being treated by Dropbox like a file, not a folder. As an experiment, I just edited that file in Keynote on my Mac, and it has reverted to a folder. Sigh.

Edited by Lorinda H. M. Hoover
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I often wonder, whenever Apple make changes these days, whether they ask, 'how will this affect the workflow of our customers'. It seems they are becoming more and more oblivious to the needs of ordinary users. This was a really frustrating loss for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I just read your remark and I tried to reproduce this. But I don't see a change in the Keynote file. I saved a file in Dropbox on my iMac and I was able to open it on my laptop.

The versions I use:

Keynote 6.2

Dropbox 2.6.31

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jana, thank you for pointing this out, otherwise I may have not noticed.

The latest upgrade on Keynote or Dropbox appears to have this sorted. Most importantly, it now works on iPad and iPhone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Files will still open; that's not the issue. Dropbox recognizes Keynote presentations now as folders, not files. So it will not keep a version history (which to me is a major reason why I keep important files on Dropbox).

 

See here in this shot where it says 'folder', whereas other types of files will show 'file'.

 

post-5629-0-15393700-1399137077_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, that is still a major drawback, since the 'history' is an important feature. However, I am glad to be able to pull the present file onto my iPad which I had given up on with the last major update of keynote. It gives me hope that dropbox and apple may yet get full functionality back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Rick,

 

I understand now what you mean: you are referring to the web interface. In the Apple discussions I found a remark from the Dropbox team. But it dates from october 2013.

The latest version of iWork (upgraded with Mavericks) changes the way files are saved. Instead of individual files, changes are now stored in file packages (archive folders). This prevents the Dropbox application from correctly synchronizing those changes. Our engineers are aware of this issue and are working on a fix to synchronize the new iWork files, however we can’t give you an exact timeline on when this fix will become available.

Currently, the only workaround available to keep these files in sync is to downgrade to the previous version of iWork. To downgrade you can go to your Applications folder and install the previous version of iWork by running the installation file in the iWork 09 folder that the upgrade should’ve left in place.

We apologize for the inconvenience this might cause.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Indeed, what's fixed is that if I create a Keynote file on my Mac and save it in Dropbox, I can now open it in Keynote on my iPad, something I couldn't do for a while. In my iOS App, the file shows up as a file. But on the web interface, it still shows up as a folder, meaning no version control.

 

But my (perhaps faulty) memory is that this was true before the new Keynote. I remember trying to recover an older version via Dropbox and discovering I couldn't quite some time ago--as in before the new Keynote.

 

Lorinda

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...