CARVIEW |
AppleScript: The Missing Manual
- By
- Adam Goldstein
- Publisher:
- O'Reilly Media / Pogue Press
- Released:
- January 2005
- Pages:
- 352
AppleScript: The Missing Manual is every beginner's guide to learning the Macintosh's ultimate scripting tool: AppleScript. Through dozens of hands-on scripting examples, this comprehensive guide ensures that anyone including novices can learn how to control Mac applications in timesaving and innovative ways. Thanks to AppleScript: The Missing Manual, the path from regular Mac fan to seasoned scripter has never been easier.
From newspapers to NASA, Mac users around the world use AppleScript to automate their daily computing routines. Famed for its similarity to English and its ease of integration with other programs, AppleScript is the perfect programming language for time-squeezed Mac fans. As beginners quickly realize, however, AppleScript has one major shortcoming: it comes without a manual.
No more. You don't need a degree in computer science, a fancy system administrator title, or even a pocket protector and pair of nerdy glasses to learn the Mac's most popular scripting language; you just need the proper guide at your side. AppleScript: The Missing Manual is that guide.
Brilliantly compiled by author Adam Goldstein, AppleScript: The Missing Manual is brimming with useful examples. You'll learn how to clean up your Desktop with a single click, for example, and how to automatically optimize pictures for a website. Along the way, you ll learn the overall grammar of AppleScript, so you can write your own customized scripts when you feel the need.
Naturally, AppleScript: The Missing Manual isn't merely for the uninitiated scripter. While its hands-on approach certainly keeps novices from feeling intimidated, this comprehensive guide is also suited for system administrators, web and graphics professionals, musicians, scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and others who need to learn the ins and outs of AppleScript for their daily work.
Thanks to AppleScript: The Missing Manual, the path from consumer to seasoned script has never been clearer. Now you, too, can automate your Macintosh in no time.
-
AppleScript Overview
-
Chapter 1 Setting Up AppleScript
- The Script Menu
- Working with the Scripts You Have
-
Chapter 2 Using Script Editor
- The Script Editor Look
- Script Formats
- Setting Script Editor's Preferences
-
Chapter 3 Building a Script from Scratch
- Getting Started
- Commanding Other Programs
-
-
Everyday Scripting Tasks
-
Chapter 4 Manipulating Text
- String Notation
- Getting Text Back from Dialog Boxes
- Linking Strings Together
- Multiline Strings
- Scripting TextEdit
- Adding Word Count
- Commanding Microsoft Word
- Running Scripts from Text
-
Chapter 5 Controlling Files
- File Path Boot Camp
- Displaying Folders
- Moving Files Around
- Backing Up Files
- Deleting Files
- Picking a File from a Dialog Box
- Saving Files
-
Chapter 6 Creating Lists
- Common List Commands
- Displaying Lists
- The Ever-Useful every Keyword
- List Processing
- Joining Lists Together
- Inputting Lists
- Getting Lists from Other Programs
-
Chapter 7 Organizing and Editing Graphics
- Scripting iPhoto
- Controlling Photoshop
- Image Events
-
Chapter 8 Playing Sound and Video
- Scripting iTunes
- Speaking and Listening
- Scripting QuickTime
-
Chapter 9 Internet and Network Scripting
- Internet Connect
- Safari
- Address Book
- iChat Control
- URL Access Scripting
- Recalling Passwords
-
Chapter 10 Organizing Information in Databases
- Record Notation
- Making a Simple AppleScript Database
- Getting File Information
- Scripting FileMaker Pro
-
-
Power-User Features
-
Chapter 11 Linking Scripts to Folders with Folder Actions
- Enabling Folder Actions
- Built-in Actions
- Running Your Own Actions
-
Chapter 12 Scripting Programs That Don't Have Dictionaries
- Enabling GUI Scripting
- GUI Scripting Basics
- Controlling Menus
- Clicking Buttons
- Deciphering Interface Hierarchies
- Fake Typing
-
Chapter 13 Mixing AppleScript and Unix
- Terminal
- Unix Without Terminal
- Running Superuser Commands
- Running AppleScripts from Unix
- Scheduling AppleScript Commands
-
Chapter 14 Testing and Debugging Scripts
- First Line of Defense: The Compiler
- Noting Important Events
- Preventing Errors
- Isolating and Handling Errors
- The Xcode Debugger
-
Chapter 15 AppleScript Studio
- What Is AppleScript Studio?
- Making a Program
-
-
Appendixes
-
Appendix A AppleScript Support in Common Programs
- Databases
- Email Programs
- Graphics Editors
- Page Layout Programs
- Plain Text Editors
- Word Processors
- Web Browsers
-
Appendix B Moving from HyperCard to AppleScript
- Data Types
- Dialog Boxes
- Existence
- Numbers
- Pausing
- Ranges
- Repeat Statements
- Subroutines
- Variables
-
Appendix C Where to Go from Here
- Web Sites
- Discussion Lists
- Books
-
-
Colophon

- Title:
- AppleScript: The Missing Manual
- By:
- Adam Goldstein
- Publisher:
- O'Reilly Media / Pogue Press
- Formats:
-
- Ebook
- Safari Books Online
- Print Release:
- January 2005
- Ebook Release:
- February 2009
- Pages:
- 352
- Print ISBN:
- 978-0-596-00850-5
- | ISBN 10:
- 0-596-00850-3
- Ebook ISBN:
- 978-0-596-10520-4
- | ISBN 10:
- 0-596-10520-7
-
Adam Goldstein
Adam Goldstein got his programming start in Kindergarten, when he first played around with Logo on an old Apple II. Through middle school, Adam wrote useless but amusing HyperCard programs. Nowadays, he runs GoldfishSoft, a shareware company that makes games and utilities for Mac OS X. Adam was a technical editor for O'Reilly's best-selling Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, and an editor for Mac OS X Panther Power User. When he's not writing books or code, Adam attends MIT.
Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. Genevieve d'Entremont was the production editor and proofreader for AppleScript: The Missing Manual. Linley Dolby was the copyeditor. Phil Dangler and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Reg Aubry wrote the index.
Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by David Freedman. Rose Cassano created the cover illustration with Adobe Illustrator CS. Ellie Volckhausen produced the cover layout with Adobe InDesign CS using Adobe's Minion and Gill Sans fonts.
Phil Simpson designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Andrew Savikas and Joe Wizda to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Adobe Minion; the heading font is Adobe Formata Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS.
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