Chapter 14: Using AppleScript and Automator
In This Chapter
Understanding how OS X messages and events let scripts work
Understanding the AppleScript language
Using the AppleScript Editor application to create scripts
Creating, analyzing, and saving basic scripts
Developing drag-and-drop script applications
Accessing scripts via the Scripts menu
Using AppleScript to run programs on other Macs
Using Automator to create programming-free workflows
Although you may be impressed by components in all the technologies that come with OS X, individually, the components don't do much by themselves—they tend to require user input. Scripting has long been a way to coordinate the different components of a task by enabling you to compose a script that plays back a set of commands in order.
OS X's AppleScript scripting language is a simplified programming language that lets you control your applications and perform tasks automatically. Scripts range from the simplest to the highly complex, depending on your skill at scripting, your knowledge of AppleScript's nuances, and the requirements of your task. This chapter contains enough information about AppleScript that even a scripting novice can get scripts up and running.
I begin by showing the underlying technologies that make AppleScript possible: messages and events. Then it's on to an introduction of AppleScript and a look at the tools that let you run, modify, and create scripts of your own. Finally, I run through a few basic scripts, to ...
