(thx: Tom X) In the spirit of automation, this temporarily pops up a message box. If a process takes a long time, this will let the user know, but not require a click to clear the box. For now, this will have to do in place of a progress indicator. Put what you want in TextGoesHere and change 2 to the number of seconds you want the box to be on the screen. You’ll want to leave it up long enough for a comfortable read, but not so long that they get bored and have to click the OK button.
--Pop Box
display dialog "TextGoesHere" giving up after 2