AppleScript Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Preview, sips, and more: OS X image processing tools

by Erica Sadun (May 16th, 2013)

On a recent trip, I found I had failed to add copies of my auto-resizing drop tools to my travel MacBook Air. My droplets allow me to convert images to TUAW-standard sizes, namely 225 pixels for small images and 456 pixels for banner images. (See? Information you never thought you'd need to ...

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 large type or start a FaceTime call, for example. ...

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 files, occasionally convert them to PNG and scale ...

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 version of the script, which includes a number of ...

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, with a little help from AppleScript and Automator, I ...

Prank crashes iMessages

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 1st, 2013)

Late last week, several iOS developers were hit with a denial of service attack that used Apple iMessages as the vector. According to a report in The Next Web, Grant Paul (chpawn), iH8sn0w and a half-dozen other developers were flooded with text messages that crashed the iMessages app on ...

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 and Installing the Script 1. Launch AppleScript ...

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 connection. If you can take a note with Siri, you can make ...

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 announce who's emailing you. That way, you 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 event. Just create an event, add a Run Script alarm, ...

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 Finder Items Wisely Automator workflows are ...

Watch a vintage Mac 512K talk to an iMac via Siri

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 11th, 2013)

Niles Mitchell has a variety of Apple devices, including an iPhone with Siri, an iMac and a vintage Mac 512K. Using a combination of the old Speak program, AppleScript and iCloud Notes, Mitchell was able to send files from his iMac to his Mac 512K via Siri. It's a clever mix of old and new ...

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 again. What happens if your workflow doesn't ...

AppleScript Productivity > Create OmniFocus Followups from Contacts

by Ben Waldie (Feb 25th, 2013)

As an OmniFocus for Mac user, it's important that I can quickly create tasks at any time, in any app. OmniFocus makes this pretty easy, by providing integration with OS X Mail, a keyboard shortcut for clipping content in apps such as Safari, a system-wide Quick Entry window and a Services menu ...

AppleScripting OmniFocus > Send Completed Task Report to Evernote

by Ben Waldie (Feb 18th, 2013)

I've mentioned before that OmniFocus is my task manager of choice. Each morning, I pull up a list of scheduled tasks for the day, and focus on getting them done. In OmniFocus, I've set up Perspectives (saved window states) for both Due tasks and Completed tasks. What I really want, however, is ...