Learning AppleScript for Beginners » MacOsX

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 [...]

AppleScript – When to Use Set and When to Use Copy

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:04:58 +0000

This one can be a difficult one, but if you have been following my posts so far, or otherwise are that much interested in learning AppleScript, this is an important issue to get straight.

Even if you have been using AppleScript for a while, as I have, you may still be unclear as to the difference [...]

AppleScript to Sort Folder Items by Creation Date

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:48:00 +0000

This script takes the items in a folder specified by ‘front finder window’, gets their names, and sorts them according to their Date of creation. This will look a little complicated if you are fairly new to AppleScript, but a few notes on this should clarify how this works:

tell application "Finder" set itemGroup to sort (get [...]

AppleScripts for Basic Printing

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:01:13 +0000

The Mac 512 K, the first in the Macintosh series of computers

The first script below is for printing a document in “TextEdit”. Before running the script, you must bring the desired document to the front:

tell application "TextEdit" print the front document with properties {copies:2, collating:true, starting page:1, [...]

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 [...]

‘Display Alert’ Dialogs

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 02:24:00 +0000

These are a type of dialog, introduced in OS 10.4 (Tiger), which are similar to regular dialogs (in use as well as syntax), the noteable difference being that their purpose is to expand upon the standard ‘display dialog’. They are used when it is important to impart further information on the state of the Finder [...]