AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

Name

open for access

Synopsis

open file

open file

Opens a file for read access—optionally, for write access—creating the file as a text file if it doesn't exist (it does this even if you're opening for read access only; I regard this as a bug). Returns a file reference number that can be used with the other commands.

Example

set f to (path to desktop as string) & "newfile.txt"
set ff to open for access file f
close access ff