Hi, I'm new, with a possibly simple question....

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

I’m trying to write a simple script that will access the system preferences pane and then access “desktop & screen saver”.

I’ve tried many ways, but I can’t seem to access anything that has an “&” in its title. Any answers or suggestions?

Here’s the basic script I’m trying to use.

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.xxxx"
end tell

If I set “xxxx” to any of the other preferences such as “displays” or “energysaver” it works fine. I just don’t know what format that would go in.

Please help!

#2

You’re using the wrong id. Try this:

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect"
end tell

To see a list of ids, use this:

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	return id of every pane
end tell
#3

Wow, thanks :smiley: I was searching for something that would do that. :smiley:

#4

When I do this in OS X 10.3.9, I get:

with id highlighted. I don’t see id as the property of a pane; is that a Tiger-only property?

What can be done is


tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	name of every pane
end tell
#5

I don’t know. Does this work?

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	return every pane
end tell
#6

We cross posted - I edited mine to get the name. Thanks

#7

Using ‘name’ might cause problems for users of other languages.

#8

True. However, the names are the names. There is also “localized name” which is in the language chosen. To find out what the file name for a given panel is, use this after opening the pane you want:

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	name of current pane
end tell