How do I create a file-handling script in OSX? [more inside]
posted by Thrillhouse on Oct 26, 2009 - 3 answers

Auomating Mac Filter: I want to upload a movie to a free video sharing site from the command line. How? [more inside]
posted by 47triple2 on Oct 15, 2009 - 3 answers

How do I export a whole bunch of Home URLs from NetNewsWire, or an alternate RSS feeder for the Mac? [more inside]
posted by Magnakai on Jun 8, 2009 - 3 answers

I have a podcast (M4A format) that I'd like to trim and save without re-encoding. Is this possible? In Quicktime Pro I can select a time range, trim it, and choose save, but it saves the resulting file as a .MOV file. [more inside]
posted by krunk on Jun 1, 2009 - 7 answers

In Word 2008, how can I set up an AppleScript macro to move selected text so that it appears underneath a particular bookmark? [more inside]
posted by I EAT TAPAS on Apr 29, 2009 - 3 answers

I need to automate the process of printing a report to PDF with the date in the file name, saving it in an archive folder, printing it, and emailing it as an attachment. I am on a Mac and using Pages, Automator, and AppleScript. Help me find the missing pieces! [more inside]
posted by joshrholloway on Mar 28, 2009 - 4 answers

Is there a scriptable solution to add items to the OS X iTunes library? [more inside]
posted by harkin banks on Nov 14, 2008 - 16 answers

Obscure Mac geekery filter... On OS X Leopard, how can I get a reference to the current location of an Automator workflow/app in a shell script within that workflow? [more inside]
posted by Xuff on Sep 3, 2008 - 3 answers

A few of us work off a local OS X Fileserver. We often need to point each other to files deep with it by email. I am looking for an automated way to create clickable local links in the mail.app friendly format of "file:///Volumes/Server%20Portal/". Any solutions? [more inside]
posted by Raff on Jul 7, 2008 - 8 answers

My career involves me using OSX Terminal ssh'd into other servers. Often, I have multiple ssh connections open, sometimes two or three to the same server. I can't bring myself to use tabs. Is there anything that can automatically be done to automatically color/title my terminal windows once I ssh into them? [more inside]
posted by neilkod on May 15, 2008 - 7 answers

My Macbook says my AppleScript version is outdated (1.1.0). How can this be? And how can I fix it/download an update? I know that I should at least have something like 1.10, but I'm guessing that it's bug. All roads travelled lead to release notes only.
posted by drea on Jan 21, 2008 - 13 answers

Asking for Mr Waterlily: "I would like write a script that starts when the computer starts, goes into a permanent loop, looks to see if a key is pressed, if the key is pressed it would do something, if not it would pause n seconds then loop again. How does one detect key events in applescript?" [more inside]
posted by waterlily on Dec 8, 2007 - 5 answers

Is it possible to export an .ics file from iCal containing just today's events from specific calendars? [more inside]
posted by jack_mo on Nov 4, 2007 - 2 answers

15-line AppleScript is giving this n00b nightmares. I think something's wrong with my "if ... then" syntax. [more inside]
posted by electric_counterpoint on Nov 2, 2007 - 6 answers

I have a folder of about two thousand .png files. For each file, I need to (1)create a new folder named the same as the currently selected file(minus the extension), and (2)move the file into its eponymous folder. How can I accomplish this using Applescript?
posted by 40 Watt on Oct 17, 2007 - 7 answers

I have a laptop cooling fan which runs on USB power. It works well but it's a fairly monotonous drone. The internal fans are linked to the cooling unit and the temperature monitor, so they operate based on the current temperature. Is there any way I can control the USB fan based on temperature as well? [more inside]
posted by Mr. Banana Grabber on Oct 16, 2007 - 3 answers

I have Mac OS X, with its Unix underpinnings. I have a number of text files through which I did a search-and-replace. Unfortunately, that altered all of the timestamps on the files. I'm trying to restore things via the "Date Created" info. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Aug 6, 2007 - 12 answers

Applescript + Excel . How to suppress subtotals for a field in a pivot table? [more inside]
posted by cdavis on Jul 12, 2007 - 2 answers

Is it possible to programmatically strip some (but not all) of the formatting from text that's been copied from safari? [more inside]
posted by Tlogmer on May 2, 2007 - 13 answers

Is there a Windows scripting language that is equivalent to AppleScript? [more inside]
posted by hooray on Sep 25, 2006 - 5 answers

Tearing my hair out over automator and applescript. [more inside]
posted by Tlogmer on Jun 30, 2006 - 8 answers

When I use the "Open Dictionary" option in Apple's Script Editor (2.1.1, part of OS X 10.4.6), a lot of my apps have multiple dictionary entries. Where do these come from? How do I get rid of them?
posted by mph on Jun 23, 2006 - 5 answers

I was laid off recently and want to use my knowledge of AppleScript to do some consulting. I have a meeting this week about automating tasks for a local newspaper, but am uncertain how to bill such a project. [more inside]
posted by the biscuit man on Jan 22, 2006 - 1 answer

Learning applescript, worth it? [more inside]
posted by gtr on Jan 5, 2006 - 16 answers

AppleScript: How do I tell iTunes to search my Library for something? [more inside]
posted by nickerbocker on Dec 8, 2005 - 8 answers

Anyone ever use QuicKeys for OS9? I am trying to figure out if there is a good way to fake it into using variables, possibly via AppleScript. [more inside]
posted by mzurer on Nov 14, 2005 - 0 answers

Windows equivalent of AppleScript? [more inside]
posted by Skyanth on Oct 8, 2005 - 7 answers

I want to send a weekly e-mail reminder to myself that shows my appointments for the upcoming week. How the heck so I do this with iCal on OSX? [more inside]
posted by sanitycheck on Sep 22, 2005 - 4 answers

We're looking to automate a batch process that can be pointed at a directory of image files. Those files will need to be inserted one by one into an InDesign template appropriate text changed in the file based on a CSV file, and then have the resulting document saved as an EPS file based on the original image file name. [more inside]
posted by willnot on Aug 16, 2005 - 1 answer

I need to learn how to build Applescript Studio apps in a very short amount of time. I mostly need to build widgets that capture variables through dialogs, run some shell commands and consume some webservices. Dashboard isn't an option in the target environment. Can anyone recommend some online guides other than Apple's dev site or some decent books?
posted by machaus on May 10, 2005 - 4 answers

SafariFilter or AppleScriptFilter: I very often collect bookmarks of pages I'd like to look at in Safari, through the double magic of NetNewsWire and Saft. The problem is that I end up having one folder with 180+ bookmarks in it. I often then manually split them into chunks of 20 using cut and paste, but it strikes me that there's got to be an easier way to do that automatically via AppleScript. However, my google-fu fails me in that respect. Anyone know of a link to an AppleScript that takes one bookmark folder and splits it into folders with x number of bookmarks each in them? Or any AppleScript master and MeFi resident out here savvy enough to whip one up for me? I'll send you a cute picture of my cat sunning himself in a sunbeam, if you want. :)
posted by WCityMike on Mar 15, 2005 - 4 answers

Simplified scenario: I have a text file called "blah.txt" with some text in it. I also have a To-Do item in iCal named "Blah". I'd like to be able to doubleclick something to make the contents of blah.txt appear in the notes section of the Blah to-do item. [more inside]
posted by sirion on Mar 4, 2005 - 8 answers

I'm using Grep within BBedit 6.1.2 lite, in order to change some data in tables from "regular" time in the format: "0530PM" to military time: "1730"

Essentially, I am able to locate the data I want using:

(####)PM

Which, in the above example returns: "0530"

So here's the question: I want to treat that result as a number, and add 1200 to it to convert it to military time.

Is there a way to do this within BBedit using the replacement patterns, or do I have to go figure out how to write a perl/python/awk/applescript to accomplish this?
posted by mecran01 on Jan 6, 2005 - 10 answers

Applescript help, please. I'm trying to generate a custom e-mail reminder for certain events [MI] [more inside]
posted by adamrice on Feb 6, 2004 - 4 answers

Is there a plugin, AppleScript -- anything -- which will allow me to enqueue songs in iTunes for Mac. Ideally I would like a similar system to Winamp 3, where I could enqueue some songs in my iTunes Library and once they have been played, have iTunes go back to doing its regular thing.
posted by teem on Jan 5, 2004 - 1 answer

Applescript help... [more inside]
posted by machaus on Jan 2, 2004 - 3 answers

So I just got a whizzy new cellphone with SMS and a POP client.

I want to get some kind of text message whenever a client sends e-mail to my regular account, and I've already got this working, basically. My cellular service is with T-Mobile. I use OS X and Mail.app; I've already set it so that, when a Mail.app rule is matched ("sender is in Clients group"), an Applescript is triggered that fires a short e-mail message showing the sender and subject line of the client's message to a special mobile-only e-mail account I set up. It might be nice to include the first few words, too, but I haven't gotten that far.

Questions: Would it make more sense to do this by SMS? If so, how would I send the message via SMS? Right now I've got the phone polling my mobile-only POP account every 30 minutes, and it seems to be a slow process. I'm also not sure what the billing hit would be per SMS message or for checking POP e-mail.
posted by adamrice on Dec 17, 2003 - 14 answers