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AppleScript 1-2-3 now available from Peachpit Press

Steven Sande — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Books, Developer, AppleScript

Mac users rejoice! Santa brought just what you wanted, a new book about AppleScript by the two of the top wizards of the Mac automation world.

Apple's Product Manager for Automation, Sol Soghoian, and Bill Cheeseman, who is a noted developer in his own right, have announced the publication of AppleScript 1-2-3 by Peachpit Press. This book guides AppleScript newbies through an easy and enjoyable process of understanding how to use the Mac's automation language. Soghoian and Cheeseman based the book on ideas and scripts that have been used at hands-on seminars taught at Macworld Expo.

While the book can take someone with no prior knowledge of programming or AppleScript and turn them into a confident Mac automator, experienced scripters will find a lot to like about AppleScript 1-2-3 as well. The authors have made a copy of the first chapter available on the Apple AppleScript website. During Macworld Expo, the Peachpit website will feature a "tip of the day" from the book. The book will be available at the Peachpit booth as well (#812).

The book is available for pre-order now (US$44.99) through Peachpit, and will start appearing in bookstores in January. There's also an Adobe Reader version of the text that is available now (US$35.99) for download.

AppleScript 1-2-3 now available from Peachpit Press originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleScript: Creating To-Dos in iCal

Cory Bohon — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Features, How-tos, AppleScript

Recently, a friend asked me to create an AppleScript that would allow him to automate To-Dos with a Mail.app mail rule. I immediately rose to the occasion because this was a cool idea: Mail.app could run the script when you get an ebill, for instance, for your car payment. The script would then create an iCal To-Do for "Pay your car payment, now!"

The script
set theSumm to "Pay My Bill Soon!" set dueDate to (current date) + 10 * days set theUrl to "http://www.paymybillexample.com" set thepriority to 1 tell application "iCal" make todo at end of events of (item 1 of every calendar) with properties {summary:theSumm, due date:dueDate, url:theUrl, priority:thepriority} end tell

Customizing the script
To customize the To-Do's title, fill in the text you want, within the parenthesis on line 1. To Change the due date, change the "10" in line 2 to the number of days until it is due. If you want to change to weeks or months, use the appropriate wordage instead of "days" at the end of line 2. To change the URL, paste a URL in the parenthesis on line 3.

By default, the script will set the newly created To-Do to have a priority of 1, however, you can change this to your priority preference.

Continue reading to learn how to integrate the To-Dos with a Mail.app mail rule.

Continue reading AppleScript: Creating To-Dos in iCal

AppleScript: Creating To-Dos in iCal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleScript: Taking screenshots

Cory Bohon — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Features, How-tos, AppleScript

Last week, Dave mentioned that you can change the file type used system-wide for screenshots. However, some people are afraid of using Terminal.app to muck around with their Mac. In this week's AppleScript article, I am going to show you how to take screenshots and change their file type using an AppleScript.

The AppleScript
property N : 0 set N to N + 1 set picPath to ((POSIX path of (path to desktop)) & "Picture_" & N & ".png") as string do shell script "screencapture -tjpg " & quoted form of picPath
Using the AppleScript
Open the ScriptEditor (/Applications/AppleScript/ScriptEditor.app). Copy/paste the AppleScript into the script edtitor and click the run button at the top. You will hear the camera shutter sound and a picture will be taken and saved to your desktop.

This script comes in handy when you want to take a screenshot in a different format. To do this, just change the ".png" file type to whatever you might want (say, .jpg, .tiff, etc.). When you re-run the script, the new file type will be associated with the capture image.

Continue reading to learn how to save this script.

Continue reading AppleScript: Taking screenshots

AppleScript: Taking screenshots originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Simplify media transcription with hotkeys and AppleScript

Brett Terpstra — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: How-tos, Productivity, AppleScript

I've found myself transcribing different types of media lately; primarily recorded Skype conversations and footage from interviews. I do a lot of work in Scrivener, an application so enjoyable that it makes me want to write a lot more than I do. Scrivener allows for a split pane editor with a QuickTime media file loaded in one pane, and your current document in the other. While you type you can hit Shift-Space to start and stop the media. I loved it, but I wanted to take it to another level. There are applications specifically designed for this, but why not have a system-wide, works-with-anything solution?

Find out how I did it after the jump.

Continue reading Simplify media transcription with hotkeys and AppleScript

Simplify media transcription with hotkeys and AppleScript originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleScript: Integrating shell scripts

Cory Bohon — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Features, How-tos, AppleScript

We've talked about AppleScript how-tos before. AppleScript is fun and all, but what if you already know how to write shell scripts? Well, did you know that by integrating shells scripts into AppleScript, you can create simple applications that do useful things? It's true, and I am going to show you how.

Continue reading to learn how to integrate shell scripts into AppleScripts.

Continue reading AppleScript: Integrating shell scripts

AppleScript: Integrating shell scripts originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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