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I work on a lot of Keynote presentations, and when I duplicate a previous Keynote file, the new file's creation date will take the creation date of the file I duplicated it from. I want my newly duplicated file's creation date to be the date it was duplicated on. This will help me know which files are newer vs. older without having to have the date in the file name.
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.6
Duplicate does exactly what you tell it and keeps the original creation date.
Instead, with the currently opened presentation, press the option key and then File menu > Save As… On this same panel, you append some noteworthy string to the existing filename (e.g. foo_001.key) and click Save. This closes the original Keynote document, leaving only the new foo_001.key open with the current creation date of when you clicked Save. The creation stamp on the original file remains unchanged.
Otherwise, you are looking at installing Xcode to get its SetFile command that allows you to change the creation date on a document, and being deprecated, SetFile could be removed in future Xcode updates.
I just wrote a short AppleScript that can set the creation and modification dates of a Keynote presentation to the current date/time without needing any external commands. It prompts you for the file, and immediately changes those two date/time stamps that are verified with a Get Info on that file.
Copy/paste the following into Apple's Script Editor, click the hammer icon to compile and the Run button to execute it:
use framework "Foundation"
use AppleScript version "2.5"
use scripting additions
property ca : current application
set myPath to POSIX path of (choose file of type "key")
set now to ca's NSDate's now()
set fm to ca's NSFileManager's defaultManager()
set adict to ca's NSDictionary's alloc()'s initWithObjects:{now, now} forKeys:{ca's NSFileCreationDate, ca's NSFileModificationDate}
try
fm's setAttributes:adict ofItemAtPath:myPath |error|:(reference)
on error
display dialog "Failed to set creation and modfication dates." with title "Error Result"
end try
return
Tested: macOS Sequoia v15.0.1 with a Keynote v14.2 presentation.
It would be easy to write an Apple Shortcut Quick Action that allows one to right-click on a file and apply the same result in a Run AppleScript action.
Change Keynote Creation Date