Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

What is AppleScript?

AppleScript is the Mac’s built-in scripting—that is, programming—language. (It’s been around since 1993, with System 7.1.) Even without learning to write your own scripts, you can use scripts to control any program (Apple’s or otherwise) whose developers have made it scriptable, meaning that they’ve built the necessary code into their program and provided an AppleScript dictionary. In other words, although the AppleScript language is built into Mac OS X, you can use it to control programs like Entourage, Word, iCal, iTunes, Adobe InDesign, and Photoshop.

Why Use AppleScript?

The vast majority of Office fans never dip a toe into AppleScript. But if you use Office to run a business or manage a department, you’ll probably find a use for it. The advantage of AppleScript is that you only need to learn one programming language to communicate with every scriptable program on your Mac. For example, you can create a workflow that takes data from the Entourage Address Book and puts it into both Excel and FileMaker Pro, then prepares a Mail Merge in Word using the same information to type personalized form letters and envelopes, and then sends an email message from Entourage.

• Automate. Perform repetitive tasks automatically in a few seconds, instead of spending minutes or even hours plowing through them yourself. For example, you can run a script in Entourage to set the default address to the Home address, rather than Entourage’s default of the Work address. If you have 1,000 ...