Can I beg some help with an Applworks applet?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
,
#1

I know nothing about Applescript except what it is capable of doing.

I am trying to automate a frequent task that I do in Appleworks 6 word processing. It is so simple that I cannot believe there isn’t a shortcut to do it.

I want to take a highlighted section of copy, make it the name of a new file, paste it into the file, and then return to the original file.

In other words:
control C
control N
control V
control S
control V
return
control ~

Can some expert write this script for me?

(It is amazing that applesot OS-X won’t record a macro, won’t record an applescript, and won’t cooperate with automator.)

Thanks in advance!

#2

[u]GUI SCRIPTING IS EVIL
REMOVE SATAN FROM YOUR SCRIPTS[/u]

#3

Did I miss the joke somewhere? What the hell kind of reply is that?

(Edit: Punctuation.)

#4

sorry, I don’t have appleworks or i’d have made your script for you.
but if it follows the rules of most other apple apps GUI scripting is unnessecary and unrecommended

#5

I think you mean command not control.

#6

Hi John,

Is this the sort of thing? Run this after highlighting the text.

tell application "AppleWorks 6"
	activate
	copy to clipboard
	make new document at front
	paste
	save document 1 in (choose file name default name (the clipboard))
	close document 1
end tell

Best wishes

John M

#7

Thank you John, I will try it tonight!

Always happy to amuse you others…

#8

On the contrary, John. If anyone found your question amusing, I’m sure they were in a very small minority. We’re all at some point on a learning curve here, after all. :wink:

I should add that I don’t agree with the views expressed earlier about UI scripting. Sure, it’s probably best kept as a last resort but, hey - if it works, why knock it? And while John M’s approach would also be my preferred method in this situation, your initial post was already remarkably close to a working script. All it needed was a little nip’n’tuck here and there:

tell application "AppleWorks 6" to activate
tell application "System Events"
	keystroke "cnvsv" using command down
	keystroke return
	keystroke "~" using command down
end tell

The same general technique could be used to invoke the keyboard shortcuts of any number of apps - including quite a few that may have only limited access via AppleScript. Of course, there’s no substitute for gradually getting to know AppleScript better - and checking an application’s AS dictionary for clues as to what might be possible. But when the chips are down, I wouldn’t hesitate to use anything that works… :slight_smile: