AppleScript in a Nutshell

Line Continuation Character

You can split a very long statement into several lines by typing Option-Return on the Macintosh. This produces a continuation character (¬). This character only affects how the code looks in Script Editor and is not part of the compiled code. If you store a string literal in a variable, however, and add a continuation character to the middle of the literal string, then this character becomes a visible part of the compiled string of characters (you usually want to avoid this). Splitting long code statements with the continuation character makes the script more readable. You will use this character often.