Learning AppleScript for Beginners » Script Editor

Scripting Primer for Pages Documents

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:26:34 +0000

If you have used AppleWorks 6 in the past, this script for Pages should be easy to follow, although the syntax is not exactly the same as AppleWorks.

In fact, the Pages application was derived from AppleWorks 6 ! To see the similarities (and the differences) check out some of my other posts on AppleWorks.

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Transfer Files to New Folder

admin — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:31:11 +0000

Sometimes I am overwhelmed with the number of items that I have on my desktop and within folders and subfolders and having to spend so much of my time trying to organize them so they will be easy to locate. So, I came up with a script to automate that task.

To use this script, [...]

AppleScript for PowerPoint Presentations

admin — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:10:53 +0000

This is for those of you who use PowerPoint on a daily basis. The code found in this script can be a real time saver when you have certain presentations that your organization needs to run frequently.

If you are used to doing scripting directed to ‘normal’ Apple applications, scripting PowerPoint will look a little [...]

AppleScript Droplet to Convert Text to HTML

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:34:13 +0000

Sometimes it’s nice to just eliminate some typing when creating html documents, especially when you write your HTML by hand (as I do). Even if it is just for the sake of setting up the initial template so you can get down to the details more efficiently.

Copy this into your Script Editor [...]

Working with Dates in AppleScript

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:51:49 +0000

If you have ever worked with date coercions and manipulations in AppleScript, you know how frustrating it can be, from something as simple as trying to coerce it to text so that it can be displayed in a dialog, to trying to convert it to a different date format; you have one simple thing in [...]

Formatting and Editing Text Objects with Word 2008

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:08:14 +0000

While Microsoft has its own scripting language (Visual Basic for Applications or ‘VBA’) to do all (most) of the same things as presented here, it is rather clunky and difficult to use compared with the more natural syntax of AppleScript.

Here we will look at some of the most necessary scripting elements for Word 2008 [...]

Using Aliases and POSIX Paths

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:18:53 +0000

Over the time that I have been writing AppleScripts, I have found that one of the most difficult, if not frustrating, tasks of writing scripts is referencing files by path so that they can be accessed by other applications.

As you’ll see below, creating a reference that is understandable by the Finder is fairly [...]

Using Info Window Data to Write Scripts

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:33:43 +0000

In the initial section of this post, I leave the AppleScript code formatted as it would appear in the Script Editor pane to show that keywords, statements and other expressions that appear in blue in the Script Editor are part of the AppleScript language and syntax and knowing that is helpful when writing scripts.

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AppleScript for Sending Email with Apple Mail

admin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:26:42 +0000

This is a very straightforward script to send data to Apple’s Mail application. There isn’t really anything difficult here. It should suffice to note here the AppleScript terms and expressions used here that are unique to the Mail application. You’ll often find that an application has, along with the standard terms that are used [...]

Using Say and Listen Commands with iTunes

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:42:06 +0000

In this post we look at the say and listen commands. It is a natural transition from the previous iTunes script. Before you try to run this script, go to the Speech Preferences and click on the Speech Recognition tab and click speech on. Also, if you have not used speech recognition before, click [...]