Mac OS® X Leopard™ Bible

Chapter 22. Automating and AppleScript

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding messages and events

• Introducing AppleScript

• Introducing the Script Editor application

• Recording, analyzing, and saving a script

• Creating a script from scratch

• Creating a drag-and-drop script

• Running scripts with the Script Runner application

• Linking to programs on other computers

• Automating your life with Automator

Although computers have been touted for years as the ultimate tool to perform redundant tasks, you may feel as though computers have generated new monotonous tasks. In previous chapters, you learned about technologies in Mac OS X that help you launch documents, edit text, manipulate multimedia, print, and perform hundreds of other tasks. And though you may be impressed by components in all of those technologies, the individual components don't do much by themselves—they tend to require user input. Scripting has long been a way to coordinate the different components of a task by allowing you to compose a script that plays back a set of commands in order.

The AppleScript scripting language is a simplified programming language that enables you to control your applications and perform tasks automatically. Scripts range from the simplest to the highly complex, depending on your skill at scripting, your knowledge of AppleScript's nuances, and the requirements of your task. This chapter contains enough information about AppleScript that even a scripting novice can get scripts up and running.

You begin by learning the underlying ...