Table A-1 lists common scripting tasks and provides links to sections in this book with related sample scripts or overview material.
| Working With Applications | |
| Launching an application | Launch |
| Moving data from a database to a spreadsheet | Repeat Until |
| Quitting an application | Quit |
| Reopening an application | Reopen |
| Running an application | Run |
| Specifying an application on a remote machine | References to Remote Applications |
| Arithmetic, Boolean, Consider and Ignoring, Date and Time, Miscellaneous, Save Option, String, Text Style, and Version | Constants |
| Handling a User Cancelled error returned from the Display Dialog scripting addition command | Try |
| Setting a timeout interval | With Timeout |
| Using a Try statement to handle errors | Error |
| (See also Miscellaneous Tasks in this table.) | |
| Creating a new application document | Make |
| Opening a file | Open |
| Printing a document | |
| Printing all open documents with a Repeat loop and Exit statement | Exit |
| Saving a document | Save |
| Searching for a string in a list of documents | Examples of Subroutines With Labeled Parameters |
| Specifying a file by alias, by file specification, or by reference | References to Files and Applications |
| Cleaning up a Finder window | Dictionaries |
| Counting files in a folder | Using Results |
| Counting files on a disk | Count |
| Deleting a file on the startup disk | Delete |
| Determining if a file exists |
Characteristics of Control Statements
; If Statements |
| Determining if a folder exists | Exists |
| Duplicating a file on the startup disk | Duplicate |
| Examining files by file type | Filter |
| Moving a file to a different folder | Move |
| Opening all the aliases in a folder | Figure 2-3 |
| Opening files and folders by ID | ID |
| Special disk and folder names the Finder understands ( control panels folder , startup disk , system folder , and others) | Viewing a Result in the Script Editor's Result Window |
| Handling pathnames of files dropped on a script application | Open Handlers |
| Working with libraries of subroutines | Saving and Loading Libraries of Subroutines |
| Writing an idle handler | Idle Handlers |
| Writing a minimum value subroutine | A Sample Subroutine |
| Writing a quit handler | Quit Handlers |
| Writing a recursive subroutine | Recursive Subroutines |
| Overview of references and containers | References |
| Summary of reference forms | Reference Forms |
| Working with reference filters | Using the Filter Reference Form |
| Working with references to files and applications | References to Files and Applications |
| Working with the Reference value class | Reference |
| Compiling a script with the Script Editor | Compiling Scripts With the Script Editor |
| Entering raw data in a script | Entering Script Information in Raw Format |
| Examining an application's dictionary | Dictionaries |
| Using comments in a script | Comments |
| Using the Script Editor's Event Log window | Debugging Scripts |
| Getting a paragraph of text | Get |
| Moving text within a document | Relative |
| Replacing text in a word processing document | Styled Text |
| Styled Clipboard Text | Styled Clipboard Text |
| Unicode and International Text | Unicode Text and International Text |
| Common value classes | Table 3-1 |
| Coercing values | Coercing Values |
| Dates |
Date
; Date-Time Arithmetic ; Working With Dates at Century Boundaries |
| Measurements of length, area, cubic and liquid volume, mass, and temperature | Unit Type Value Classes |
| RGB Colors | RGB Color |
| Closing a window | Close |
| Closing a window on a remote computer | Tell (Compound Statement) |
| Getting the screen position of a window | Copy |
| Changing Text Item Delimiters | AppleScript Properties |
| Comparing strings |
Greater Than, Less Than
; Considering/Ignoring |
| Creating variables | Creating Variables ; |
| Debugging a script | Debugging Scripts |
| Getting and setting Clipboard data | Styled Clipboard Text |
| Inserting and accessing items in large lists |
List
; The A Reference To Operator |
| Rules for naming identifiers | Identifiers |
| Scope of properties and variables | Scope of Script Variables and Properties |
| Speaking text from a script | Debugging Scripts |
| Working with script objects | Script Objects |