Using AppleScript

If you’ve never used AppleScripts before, let me show you the ropes:

  1. The Script Editor is the only way to view and edit an AppleScript (especially compiled AppleScripts, which all of these are). Drag the AppleScript of interest onto the Script Editor icon to see it. The Script Editor icon can even be on the Launcher; this will still work. The Script Editor has a comments window at the top where more detailed instructions on how to use the script can be found.
  2. Many AppleScripts operate by having files dragged and dropped onto them. In the case of the scripts I’ve written, these scripts that operate on lists of files can also work by first selecting the file(s) in the Finder and then choosing the script to run off of the AppleMenu or some submenu thereof, something that I do all the time.
  3. AppleScripts often store state information between executions in “properties”, which are actually part of the script, and which the script may modify from run to run. This means that the modification date of the script can change as you run it even if you aren’t changing its source code.
  4. AppleScripts talk to applications by name. This means that if, for example, I wrote a script to talk to “dataComet”, but your version of dataComet is named “dataComet 4.45b2”, the script won’t work smoothly (it will prompt you for the location of dataComet a lot). Change your app’s name or edit the script.