Find the Right Slide Instantly: Search Inside PowerPoint Presentations Exported from Keynote with Fenn
May 29, 2025
If you work with presentations on a Mac, you’ve probably used both Keynote and PowerPoint. Maybe you design your slides in Keynote, then export to PowerPoint to share with colleagues or clients. But here’s the problem: once you’ve got that .pptx file, finding a specific slide or bit of information becomes a time-consuming hunt. Spotlight barely indexes slide content, and Finder just shows you filenames.
That’s where Fenn comes in.
Why Searching Inside Exported Presentations Is So Frustrating
Spotlight is useful for finding files by name, but it doesn’t look inside slides for actual text or images. If you’re trying to track down the exact chart, quote, or agenda slide, you’re stuck opening huge files and clicking through them manually. For more on the limits of Apple’s built-in search, you can check out our Spotlight search tips for Mac.
This isn’t just an annoyance for presenters. It’s a real productivity blocker for anyone who works with dozens or even hundreds of presentations.
How Fenn Solves the Problem
Fenn changes the game by indexing the content of your PowerPoint files, even if they were exported from Keynote. With Fenn, you can:
Search for any keyword, number, or phrase across all your .pptx presentations
Instantly preview the slide containing your search result, so you know you’re in the right place
Jump directly to the slide in PowerPoint with one click
If you’re someone who also needs to search inside Word or Excel documents, you’ll appreciate our detailed article on how Fenn searches inside Office documents on Mac.
Perfect for Professionals, Educators, and Students
Anyone who creates or receives presentations in Keynote and then exports to PowerPoint can save time with Fenn. Imagine preparing for a big meeting and quickly locating every mention of a project, statistic, or client name—no more endless scrolling.
If you handle large projects or external drives, you might also want to read about how Fenn enables fast search on external drives for Mac. Everything is indexed locally, so you can find slides stored anywhere on your Mac or connected drives.
How to Search Slides in PowerPoint Files with Fenn
Export your Keynote file as a PowerPoint (.pptx) presentation.
Open Fenn and add the folder where you store your presentations.
Let Fenn index your presentations (this happens automatically in the background).
Enter your search term and Fenn will instantly show you the slides where your keyword appears.
It’s that simple. No more guessing, no more wasted time.
Ready to Try Fenn?
If you want to work faster and smarter with your presentations, Fenn is the tool you need. Download Fenn for macOS today and see how easy it is to find exactly the slide you’re looking for.