Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition

Recording Scripts in “Watch Me” Mode

You can, if you wish, create a script by typing out the computer commands one at a time, just as computer programmers do the world over. Details on this process come later in this chapter.

But if the task you want it to handle isn’t especially complex, you’ll be pleased to discover that in Mac OS X 10.3—surprise!—the Finder itself is once again recordable, much as it was in the Mac OS 9 days. That is, you can create a script just by doing the job manually—using menu commands, opening windows, changing window views, and so on—as Script Editor watches and writes out the necessary lines of code automatically. Recording an action and watching the Mac turn your movements into lines of AppleScript code is a fantastic way to learn how AppleScript works.

GEM IN THE ROUGHText to Audio Files

Your Mac can perform an astonishing feat: It can convert a text file into a spoken digital recording in AIFF audio format.

This is a twist with huge implications. If you transfer these files to your iPod, you can listen to your documents—email, Web pages, reports, eBooks, or anything else you can type or download—as you commute, work out, or work outside.

Of course, commuters and joggers have been listening to Books on Tape for years, and companies like Audible.com create what you might call Books on MP3. But those products are expensive, and you can’t listen to your own stuff.

To pull this off, just download the two sample scripts at http://www.apple.com/applescript/macosx/text2audio.html ...