Learning AppleScript for Beginners » Choose Dialogs

Choosing a Color from the Color Picker

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:41:47 +0000

The final ‘choose’ command, ‘choose color’ will be covered here. The choose color dialog is somewhat obscure and you aren’t as likely to use it as the others, but it is worth mention. It is not complicated at all. The script below results in the color picker window, with the rainbow effect as in the [...]

Choose Application

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:39:51 +0000

The ‘choose application’ command is very similar in syntax to the ‘choose file’ command, in fact, so similar that I will not go into too much detail. As in my post on the enhancements to the list dialog, I will present a script and then explain the purpose of the parameters used as needed:

set theApp [...]

Enhanced Choose from List (Tiger and Leopard)

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:04:25 +0000

In one of my early posts I outlined the basic syntax for the ‘Choose from List’ dialog. Here, I will present some of the new parameters that are available in Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5).

In case you need to refresh your memory, here is the basic command:

set theName to (choose from list {"John", "Joe", "Bill"} [...]

Choose File Name Command

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:10:54 +0000

The ‘choose file name’ command is similar to the ‘choose file’ command. unlike the choose file command it returns a reference pointer to a file that does not yet exist without actually creating the file:

set theFile to choose file name with prompt "Set file name and location:"

With a result such as:file “Macintosh HD:Users:administrator:Desktop:Untitled”

Choose file name [...]

Choose File Dialogs

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:23:56 +0000

In this post, we continue with the ‘choose file’ command. Like the ‘choose folder’ command, it returns a reference pointer to the actual file that it represents. In this case, it returns an alias reference to a document such as:

set theFile to choose file with prompt "Select a file to open:"

With the following result:alias “Macintosh [...]

Choose Folder Dialogs

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:27:56 +0000

In the next few posts, we will look at dialogs where the user chooses among items in directories on the desktop that return reference pointers to the actual files (most are aliases) that they represent. The dialogs we will deal with here are ‘choose folder’, ‘choose file’, ‘choose file name’ and ‘choose color’.

First, a simple [...]

Display Dialog with Password

admin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:29:59 +0000

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This script presents a text entry dialog where the text entered by the user is encrypted as bullets so that nosy people, for instance, cannot see what is being entered on your screen.

Seriously, though, the main purpose of this type of dialog is as a security measure to restrict access to [...]

Trapping for List Dialog Errors

admin — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:16:03 +0000

With ‘List Dialog’ type dialogs, since errors cannot be intercepted in an ‘on error’ handler, there is no ‘normal’ way to trap for ‘Cancel’ which, of course, would result in some sort of undesirable error dialog such as ‘User cancelled. Error number -128′. Here is an example of one simple way I have found to [...]

More on List Dialogs

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:07:47 +0000

This post will deal with what I consider a very concrete use of the ‘choose from list’ dialog. After reading this (and perhaps trying it out in the Script Editor) you will probably be totally confused (just kidding!!) It gets a little complicated, but it is basically a cut-and-paste script.

If you pay close attention to [...]

Dialogs for Lists

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:43:26 +0000

In this post, we will deal with situations when you want to choose from multiple options within a list. You can have lists that are preset, such as choosing from a list of months of the year, for instance, or perhaps a list such as that which might be generated from a database program when [...]