Handy Applescripts
Applescript,
in case you didn't know, is a wonderful scripting language for the
Macintosh. With it, you can tie applications together (for example,
making a button in a Filemaker Pro personnel record call up that person's
home page in Netscape). You can also automate repetitive tasks and make
simple applications. (Applescript is included in all recent versions
of the MacOS operating system.)
Besides this one, there are other Applescript archives
on the net.
Below are some Applescripts which I've written. Perhaps you'll find them
useful or instructive (I try to comment them liberally). If you have any
questions or comments, please write to
me.
To download the scripts:
- view the source, then Select All and Copy
- launch the Script Editor
- Paste into the Untitled window
- Save it as an Application
- Don't check "Stay Open"
- Do check "Never show startup screen"
You may also want to copy the brief description (below) into the
description box in the Script Editor window for future reference.
This script uses Netscape to download a batch of URLs, one at a time. The
URLs to be downloaded should be listed in a text file, one per line, with
no extra spaces or punctuation. This file (or several such) can be
dropped onto the application; or just double-click the app, and it will
ask for the file. Uses the Speech Manager for feedback.
Customization: If you don't have the Speech Manager,
change the "say" commands to "display dialog" or take them out altogether.
Change the download folder (currently the desktop) to something else, such
as "MegaDisk:Data:Downloads:".
This simple script makes files into
BBEdit
text files (i.e., changes the file type and creator). Drop a bunch of
files on the application, and they'll be converted. Better yet, select a
set of files in the Finder, and launch this script from the Apple Menu.
(Why BBEdit? Well, as
they say, it doesn't suck. And you can get BBEdit Lite for
free, to boot.)
(I especially like using it the latter way, as it effectively adds to
the set of Finder commands. But it means that you can't usefully launch
the script by double-clicking it.)
Customization: A good improvement would be to have
the script check the file type, and only change certain ones (maybe "TEXT" and
"????"), to prevent inadvertently breaking applications and such.
When I installed the Speech Recognition software, I noticed that although
it included scripts to close a window (or all windows), it did not include
a voice command for quitting the current application. So here it is!
This is a very simple app which quits the frontmost application. It
includes some error checking and speech feedback. Save this as an
application (with "Never show startup screen" checked) in the Speakable
Items folder.
Customization: A variation of this script could be made
which would quit all applications. You could call it something like "Quit
All Applications".
Here's a simple script that takes a bunch of graphics files and makes miniature GIF versions of them. Drop a batch of files on the script, or select them in the Finder and launch this script via the Apple Menu.
If the original file is named mypic.jpg, the output
of this script is named mypic-mini.gif.
Note: This script requires clip2gif, a great freeware
utility by Yves Piguet.
Customization: This script could be expanded to build an
HTML page from the set of selected pictures, so that the miniatures would
link to the full-sized version of each picture.
This script lists generates a hierarchical listing of all files under a
given folder or disk. It is meant as a demonstration of traversing a directory
tree; you could replace the "listing" behavior with any operation you
want to perform on a set of nested files and folders.
Scriptable Text Editor is required for this example.
http://www.strout.net/info/coding/applescript/index.html
Last Updated:
11/19/98
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