Making Compress Pictures Dialogue Box Selections in Mac

[paespi]

Finally, I made it work using a combination of both AppleScripts and VBA Macros.

So, basically, I started the macro execution from AppleScript and the macros does its thing until it reaches the Compress Images dialog.
The macro is saved on a centrally macro-enabled file that I left open all the time while needing this.

Later, I hit ENTER / RETURN using AppleScript so that the macro can continue.

This is the AppleScript:

on compactImages(ppt)
    tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
        open ppt
        activate
        repeat until frontmost
            delay 0.1
        end repeat
    end tell
    
    tell application "System Events"
        click menu item "Macros..." of menu "Macro" of menu item "Macro" of menu "Tools" of menu bar item "Tools" of menu bar 1 of application process "PowerPoint"
        delay 0.1
        -- choose workbook with Macros
        tell pop up button 1 of window 1 of application process "PowerPoint"
            click
            click menu item 2 of menu 1
        end tell
        delay 0.03
        -- choose the right macro
        tell text field 1 of window 1 of application process "PowerPoint"
            set value to "OpenDialogCompressPicturesAndSaveAndClose"
        end tell
        delay 0.5
        -- run it
        click button "Run" of window 1 of application process "PowerPoint"
        
		


        -- Compress Pictures dialog
        delay 0.5
        -- choose> "On-screen (150 ppi)"
        tell pop up button 1 of group 1 of window 1 of application process "PowerPoint"
            click
            click menu item 4 of menu 1
        end tell
        -- choose "All pictures in this file"
        click radio button 1 of radio group 1 of group 1 of window 1 of application process "PowerPoint"
        delay 0.03
        -- click OK to compress all images
        keystroke return
    end tell
end compactImages




set ppts to (do shell script "ls '/<<YOUR-PATH>>/'*.pptx")'s paragraphs


if ppts is {} then return


repeat with ppt in ppts
    compactImages(ppt)
    log ppt
end repeat

This is the VBA macro:

Sub OpenDialogCompressPicturesAndSaveAndClose()
    Dim shp As Shape
    Dim sld As Slide
    Dim atLeastOneImageSelected As Boolean
    Dim ppt As Presentation
    
    atLeastOneImageSelected = False
    For Each sld In ActivePresentation.Slides
        sld.Select
        For Each shp In sld.Shapes
            If shp.Type = msoPicture Then
                shp.Select
                atLeastOneImageSelected = True
                Exit For
            ElseIf shp.Type = msoPlaceholder Then
                If shp.PlaceholderFormat.ContainedType = msoPicture Then
                    shp.Select
                    atLeastOneImageSelected = True
                    Exit For
                End If
            End If
        Next shp
        
        If atLeastOneImageSelected Then Exit For
    Next sld


    If atLeastOneImageSelected Then
        CommandBars.ExecuteMso "PicturesCompress"
    End If


    'Now I want to save the presentation and close it without closing other open PowerPoint files
    With Application.ActivePresentation
        If Not .Saved And .Path <> "" Then .Save
    End With


    'If PowerPoint.Application.Version >= 9 Then
    '    PowerPoint.Application.Visible = msoTrue
    'End If
    PowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Close
End Sub