APXL File

What are APXL files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an APXL file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your APXL files.

What is an APXL file?

An .APXL file is an Apple Keynote Presentation Data file.

Apple Keynote Presentation Data files store the complete structure, content, and styling rules for slides created in Apple's Keynote application. They capture the hierarchy of master slides, individual slides, text, themes, transitions, and layout definitions in a human-readable text format. These files are written by Keynote (version 1.x) as the XML description of a presentation, intended both for display and programmatic reading or editing. They are particularly useful for developers who need to generate or modify Keynote presentations without using the Keynote app itself.

These files are found inside Keynote document bundles, which are treated by the operating system as package folders. Keynote document containers include an APXL (or index.apxl in Keynote 2.x) file plus supporting resources such as images, audio and video. The APXL/XML file adheres to an official schema defined by Apple (Technical Note TN2067), which specifies the XML vocabulary elements, attributes, and types used to describe every slide, master template, graphical object, and UI state.

The first few bytes begin with an XML declaration (e.g. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>). Internal identifiers include tags and attributes such as presentation metadata ("application-name", "application-version", "theme", "slide-list", etc.), slide elements ("slide", "master-slide", "transition-style"), styling attributes ("fill-style", "stroke-style", "shadow-style", etc.), and layout controls ("paragraph-alignment", "horizontal-stacked-bar-defaults", "title-visibility", etc.).

How to open APXL files

Important: Different programs may use files with the APXL file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your APXL file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 18, 2026

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