MacBook® All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 2. AppleScript Just Plain Rocks

In This Chapter

• Simplifying your life with AppleScript

• Letting AppleScript create scripts for you

• Writing scripts on your own

• Using Automator to create your own applications

• Searching for AppleScript help elsewhere

Using a Macintosh is supposed to make your life easier — and in many ways, it does. But there's a limit to how much your MacBook can do by itself, right? After all, you still have to move your finger on the trackpad, press keys on the keyboard, and read information on the screen to get things done ... or do you? Why not let your computer do the dull chores — such as renaming a thousand digital photographs from your family vacation and organizing them into folders based on the subject of each photo — for you? Although most people are familiar with controlling their MacBooks with the trackpad and keyboard, few realize that they can operate their machines without touching a key or a button, or even glancing at the screen.

What's So Great about AppleScript?

If one word could describe what AppleScript is all about, it'd be automation. AppleScript is a technology for automating practically any action that you perform with your MacBook, including both common tasks in the Finder and those that you perform in other applications.

Automate common tasks in the Finder

If you've ever found yourself repeating some task more than once, you're an ideal candidate for becoming an AppleScript techno-wizard. AppleScript is particularly good at taking the boredom ...