March 2003
Beginner
432 pages
11h 30m
English
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Using AppleScript in Contextual Menus
Ranchero’s BigCat is a plug-in to Mac OS X, allowing you to run AppleScripts via a new Scripts item in your contextual menus.
Back in the old days, there was a magical little utility called FinderPop (http://www.finderpop.com/). FinderPop was pre-OS X, and many users saw that it was good . . . very good, in fact. Along with a healthy dose of other features, you could add a number of new abilities to your contextual menu, including the abilities to browse compressed archives, change file types, run AppleScripts, and more. FinderPop, sadly, won’t ever exist for OS X, but what else do we have?
Enter BigCat from Ranchero Software (http://www.ranchero.com/). With one simple 185K free download (read that again, eh? 185K!), you can install a plug-in for OS X that will allow you to run AppleScripts via a new Scripts item in your contextual menus.
True to its purpose, BigCat operates on context. When you install the BigCat scripts, there are two subfolders: one for Text, which includes such basic examples as Copy, Google Search, and Open Selection in BBEdit, and the other called Files, containing Copy Path, Open in TextEdit, and Stuff (i.e., Archive with Stuffit). Even though there are two folders, you’ll see only one based on — you guessed it — context. Got some text highlighted? You’ll see only the scripts in the Text folder will be shown. Selected a bunch of files? Only those in the Files folder.
This is an important advantage over other utilities ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.