AppleScript in a Nutshell

Name

with timeout [of] {integer} second[s] end [timeout]

Syntax

With timeout of 15 seconds
End timeout

Description

The with timeout statement allows you to alter AppleScript’s default 60-second time limit for the Apple events that are sent to applications. Normally, if an application fails to respond to an Apple event within 60 seconds, AppleScript raises an “Apple event timed out” error and stops running the script. You can make this time limit shorter, say 30 seconds, by using the syntax:

with timeout of 30 seconds...end timeout

You enclose the with timeout structure in a try block to trap and report any timeout errors (see “try”). with timeout only applies to the following types of commands. In other words, the with timeout limit is ignored unless the command is one of these types:

• Commands sent to applications targeted in tell blocks

• Scripting addition commands that have application objects as parameters (not too many osaxen have application objects as parameters)

• Scripting addition commands that are called inside of tell statements that target other applications

Examples

The following example times out if you just let the display dialog dialog box sit there for over five seconds. This happens because the display dialog scripting addition is positioned inside the tell block targeting the Finder. Pull the scripting-addition command outside the tell block, and the script does not time out. Again, with timeout does not work with scripting-addition commands unless the command is part of a ...