AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1. Why to Use AppleScript

If you've never used AppleScript before, you're probably in need of motivation as much as information. You'd like to know: "What is AppleScript?" You'd also like to know: "And why should I care, anyway?"

Those are good questions, and they are best answered by a brief explanation of what AppleScript is for. Therefore, this first chapter classifies the main uses of AppleScript, along with some examples.

By presenting AppleScript in action, in some typical real-life contexts, I hope to inspire you to imagine how you might use AppleScript in your own life. AppleScript is a big subject, and your best incentive to press ahead is a vision of some task you actually want to accomplish with it. At the same time, you'll have a far easier, more enjoyable experience of AppleScript if your aims are consonant with its nature and abilities.

Tip

In this chapter, the examples are not intended for you to run on your own computer. This is real-life code that works on my machine, but is not expected to run elsewhere. Nor are you expected to understand the code at this point. I'm just showing it to you for purposes of illustration, so glance over it and move on! When you've read more of the book and have learned some AppleScript, you'll understand how to adapt these examples to your own purposes.

The Nature and Purpose of AppleScript

Consider the many and various applications on your computer, and how you typically make them do things. With your hands, you choose menu items, ...