AppleScript to make the display black and white for monteray - applescript

Question

Can you rewrite this applescript for Monterey?
tell application "System Preferences" to reveal anchor "Seeing_ColorFilters" of pane "Accessibility"
tell application "System Events"
tell process "System Preferences"'s first window's first group's first tab group
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
tell first pop up button
click
-- if necessary, uncomment the following line to allow time for the menu to open
-- delay 0.1
tell its menu
click menu item 1
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
tell application "System Preferences" to quit
This code is a script that makes the display grayscale. I used to use this code in BigSur. However, after updating the version to Monterey, it stopped working. My Monterley version is 12.6.2.
Thanks,

Answer 1

The problem appears to be a timing issue. The menu that your script uses to select the greyscale option is no longer immediately available under Monterey 12.6.2. A short delay is required.
I took this script and enabled it one line at a time. With the System Preferences window already open and the color filters pane revealed, it worked all the way to the end.
So, I then ran the full script with System Preferences closed. It failed at the line:
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
with the error:
Script Error
System Events got an error: Can’t get group 1 of window 1 of process "System Preferences". Invalid index.
That error sounds like the window isn’t yet available. So I tried adding a delay in front of clicking the checkbox:
delay 0.1
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
The script then began to work as I assume you wished it to: the checkbox is checked, the first item on the menu (Greyscale) is selected, and the screen goes greyscale.
However, a hard-coded delay seems likely to fail if the system takes variable amounts of time to make the window available. So, rather than hardcode the delay, I added a loop to check for the existance of the desired checkbox:
repeat while not (exists checkbox "Enable Color Filters")
delay 0.1
end repeat
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
This version should work in past and future operating systems even if the timing changes, as long as the terminology remains the same.
The same technique should also work for your commented-out delay that waits for the menu to become available:
tell first pop up button
click
-- if necessary, allow time for the menu to open
repeat while not (exists its menu)
delay 0.1
end repeat
tell its menu
click menu item 1
end tell
end tell
Currently, the script toggles between greyscale and no filtering. That is, if the checkbox is already checked, this script will uncheck it. If your purpose is to ensure that the screen is always in greyscale, as your question implies, you may wish to verify the value of the checkbox first:
if the value of checkbox "Enable Color Filters" is 0 then
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
tell first pop up button
click
-- if necessary, allow time for the menu to open
repeat while not (exists its menu)
delay 0.1
end repeat
tell its menu
click menu item 1
end tell
end tell
end if
Checkboxes have a value of 0 or 1, depending on whether they’re currently checked (1) or unchecked (0).
If, on the other hand, your goal is for the script to toggle between the two states, there’s no reason to play around with the menu if you’re toggling color filters off:
if the value of checkbox "Enable Color Filters" is 0 then
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
tell first pop up button
click
-- if necessary, allow time for the menu to open
repeat while not (exists its menu)
delay 0.1
end repeat
tell its menu
click menu item 1
end tell
end tell
else
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
end if
Assuming the purpose is to guarantee the screen is in greyscale, the full script might end up looking like this:
tell application "System Preferences" to reveal anchor "Seeing_ColorFilters" of pane "Accessibility"
tell application "System Events"
tell process "System Preferences"'s first window's first group's first tab group
-- if necessary, allow time for the checkbox to become available
repeat while not (exists checkbox "Enable Color Filters")
delay 0.1
end repeat
--ensure that greyscale filters are enabled
if the value of checkbox "Enable Color Filters" is 0 then
click checkbox "Enable Color Filters"
tell first pop up button
click
-- if necessary, allow time for the menu to open
repeat while not (exists its menu)
delay 0.1
end repeat
tell its menu
click menu item 1
end tell
end tell
end if
end tell
end tell
tell application "System Preferences" to quit