AppleScript Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Adding copy-to-clipboard rollovers in Contacts app via AppleScript

by Ben Waldie (Apr 29th, 2013)

Apple's Contacts app includes a lot of great shortcuts for initiating different forms of communication. Just click an email address, phone number or URL field label to display a list of available options. You can send an email, show a phone number in ...

Extract App Resource Icons with AppleScript

by Ben Waldie (Apr 22nd, 2013)

Whether I'm preparing for a demo or writing an article, blog post, book, or technical documentation, I often find myself performing the same set of repetitive steps. I need to navigate into an app's packaged resources folder, find one or more icon ...

AppleScripting OmniFocus > Send completed task report to Evernote 2

by Ben Waldie (Apr 15th, 2013)

In February, I provided instructions for using AppleScript to send completed task reports from OmniFocus to Evernote. The script was quite well-received by readers, and I've had numerous requests for enhancements. This post provides an updated ...

AppleScripting Email > Developing a Quoted Reply Service

by Ben Waldie (Apr 8th, 2013)

A reader recently wrote to me with a problem. Apparently, Microsoft Outlook no longer contains the ability to create quote level chunks of text when replying to messages in plain text format. Why this functionality was removed, I can't say. But, ...

AppleScripting Microsoft Outlook > Announce New Emails By Voice

by Ben Waldie (Apr 1st, 2013)

In my last post, I demonstrated how to write an AppleScript that verbally announces when new emails arrive in Mail. Some readers asked whether the same thing could be accomplished with Microsoft Outlook. It certainly can. Here's how... Creating ...

Talking to Siri: Remote-controlling your Mac by voice with Siri Listener

by Steven Sande (Mar 27th, 2013)

In this episode of "Stupid Siri Tricks," I make my iOS devices control a remote Mac. How remote? Well, it should work anywhere on the planet (or off, if you happen to be on the International Space Station) with Wi-Fi or a cellular data ...

AppleScripting Mail > Announce New Emails By Voice

by Ben Waldie (Mar 25th, 2013)

You're in the kitchen cooking dinner, or sitting down watching TV, or exercising. Ding! You have a new email. Quickly, run to your Mac to see who it's from. Meh, spam. Ding! Meh, a message from your boss. Ding! Meh. Sure would be nice if Mail could ...

Triggering AppleScripts from Calendar Alerts in Mountain Lion

by Ben Waldie (Mar 18th, 2013)

AppleScripts are great tools for increasing your daily productivity. They're even better when they can be set to run unattended, at night, on weekends or during downtime. In Lion, iCal included a handy option for attaching a script to a calendar ...

Use Keyboard Maestro to get ready for podcast recording

by TJ Luoma (Mar 12th, 2013)

When you're in the middle of recording a podcast, chances are you'd like your Mac to be focused on that job -- not other network-hungry activities like syncing Dropbox, or CPU- and disk-intensive tasks like saving a Time Machine backup. Gabe ...

More Tips for Troubleshooting Automator Workflows

by Ben Waldie (Mar 11th, 2013)

In my last post, I shared some useful tips for troubleshooting Automator workflow problems. I didn't cover everything, though. There are lots of other ways you can troubleshoot your workflow. Here are some more tips to help. 1. Use Get Selected ...

Tips for Troubleshooting Automator Workflows

by Ben Waldie (Mar 4th, 2013)

Automator's great for streamlining time consuming and repetitive tasks on your Mac. It's easy. Just launch it, find a few actions, and string them together to form a workflow. Then, run your workflow anytime you want to perform that series of tasks ...