I would like to open Siri with AppleScript, and I don't know how.
It has been very hard trying to find it in the official documentation.
Any help is very appreciated.
A possible solution is to enable "Show Siri in menu bar" in System Preferences and run
tell application "System Events" to tell the front menu bar of process "SystemUIServer"
tell (first menu bar item whose description is "Siri")
perform action "AXPress"
end tell
end tell
You have to enable the appropriate Accessibility sections in Security&Privacy
Related
Trying to find the Applescript method of controlling the order of tabs in a merged Finder window. I am using this script to merge folder windows:
tell application "System Events"
click menu item "Merge All Windows" of menu "Window" of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1 of application process "Finder" of application "System Events"
end tell
Thanks for any help!
As #pbell mentioned you should sort your windows before merging them. Here is a little snippet sorting three opened windows (Desktop, Applications, Documents) that shows how it could work for you.
set windowsFromBackToFront to {"Desktop", "Applications", "Documents"}
repeat with aWindowName in windowsFromBackToFront
tell application "Finder"
try
set index of window aWindowName to 1
end try
end tell
end repeat
tell application "System Events"
click menu item "Merge All Windows" of menu "Window" of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1 of application process "Finder" of application "System Events"
end tell
That should be a good starting point for you. Should be easy to change the script to match your finder windows.
Regards, Michael / Hamburg
I'm trying to open a messaging application (it does not have an Apple Script Dictionary (command + shift + o)), click on text, and type into the text box, and hit send.
Pop up: Script Error - Telegram got an error: Can't continue click after the application becomes active.
Result Tab: error "Telegram got an error: Can’t continue click." number -1708
P.S., The messaging application is Telegram.
Apple Script:
tell application "Telegram"
activate
delay 1
click on text "chat name"
keystroke "some text"
//assuming this works because text box is the first responder when the chat opens.
click on text "Send"
end tell
If an application lacks an AppleScript dictionary, any command except the standard commands launch, activate, open, reopen and quit will throw an error.
The solution is GUI scripting: The built-in application System Events is the bridge to send mouse clicks and keyboard events to the target application.
I don't know the application Telegram at all, so this code might fail, but it might also be a starting point
activate application "Telegram"
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Telegram"
tell window 1
keystroke "some text"
click button "Send"
end tell
end tell
end tell
You have two choices for a 3rd party app that lacks an AppleScript dictionary.
Option 1:
Use System Events as described above to perform an action on an element, e.g. click a button, keystroke text into a field, etc. The trick is to identify the element in syntax that is recognized by Applescript. Besides UIElementInspector mentioned above, which can be confusing and occasionally wrong/incomplete, you can also run the following commands in a separate Applescript Editor. For example, to get all UI elements for the active window (window 1) in Telegram:
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Telegram" to tell window 1
UI elements
end tell
To get all UI elements for the main menu bar in Telegram:
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Telegram" to tell menu bar 1
UI elements
end tell
In each case the Result pane will display a comma delimited list of all available UI elements in that window or menu bar. Moreover, the syntax as listed is guaranteed to be recognizable by Applescript. Just identify the correct element and tell System Events to tell it what to do.
For example if you want to click the Menu item "Format" In TextEdit first run the following:
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "TextEdit" to tell menu bar 1
UI elements
end tell
Among the results in the Result pane will be the following:
menu bar item "Format" of menu bar 1 of application process "TextEdit" of application "System Events"
Convert that to Applescript, run the script and it will click the "Format" Menu:
tell application "TextEdit" to activate --you need TexEdit up and running to click its menu bar
tell application "System Events" to click menu bar item "Format" of menu bar 1 of application process "TextEdit"
For submenus, etc. you just iterate the process asking for UI elements for the submenu. GUI scripting is iterative and empirical.
Option 2:
Download the free Terminal/Command Line app cliclick which allows you to click on any point in the screen. The screen coordinates you want to click can be manually identified with your cursor by holding down command + shift + 4.
Sometimes I use PdaNet to tether using my iPhone. The desktop client for OSX is not as rich as the one for windows. One of the chief differences is, that the OSX does not allow to automatically connect to iPhone as soon as the latter is plugged in.
Would you know of a way using Applescript to click on the PdaNet icon on the Menu Bar and then select and click the 'Connect' option on it ?
Here is what the 'PdaNetMac' application's menu bar icon looks like:
I have looked at the following questions but am an applescript newbie and am not sure how to search for PdaNet's icon on the menu bar:
Click menu item on Mac OSX Lion using AppleScript
Applescript: on clicking Menu Bar item via gui script
Accessing dock icon right-click menu items with AppleScript
I have confirmed that 'Enable Access for assistive devices' is enabled.
Based on the second question above, Here is my current attempt at doing this:
ignoring application responses
tell application "System Events" to tell process "PdaNet"
click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
end tell
end ignoring
do shell script "killall System\\ Events"
delay 0.1
tell application "System Events" to tell process "PdaNet"
tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
click menu item "Connect" of menu 1
end tell
end tell
Interestingly, the above script works for me fine when I change PdaNet to Flux.
Thanks!!
You were very close !!
I just downloaded the PdaNet application to test this, and the only edit I had to make to your script was change PdaNet to 'PdaNetMac` ( I was thinking that this is the Process Name and so used the process name displayed in Activity Monitor).
So this works for me:
ignoring application responses
tell application "System Events" to tell process "PdaNetMac"
click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
end tell
end ignoring
do shell script "killall System\\ Events"
delay 0.1
tell application "System Events" to tell process "PdaNetMac"
tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
click menu item "Connect" of menu 1
end tell
end tell
Hope this works for you too !!
(Very useful script, btw. Cheers !)
How can I control click with AppleScript?
This script should work, but it doesn't
activate application "Finder"
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Finder"
key down control
delay 1
click at {600, 600} -- {from left, from top}
delay 1
key up control
end tell
end tell
MouseTools is sometimes unreliable. I know of cliclick — still haven't tried it.
I'd prefer an AS only workaround but welcome any suggestions.
Most of the actions from contextual menu you can do using menu bar (File, Edit, etc.). It can simplify your job.
To open contextual menu for particular GUI element you should tell to perform action
"AXShowMenu" to that element. You can use Accessibility Inspector application to find out the GUI elements hierarchy. Take a look at this discussion.
You can try mouse keys. Take a look at this thread for details. Note that "Mouse Keys" settings is in the "System Preferences" -> "Accessibility" -> "Mouse & Trackpad" in Mountain Lion.
For finder scripting AppleScript Finder Guide can be of much help.
I hardly ever use the function keys on my macbook pro. I mostly just use them for volume, brightness, etc. Now that I've started playing Starcraft 2 a bunch, I want to use them without having to press the fn key down.
I want to write a little shell script that will flip the "Use all F1, F2, etc keys as standard function keys" check box. I was thinking I could use the defaults command to change it but I wasn't sure what values to use. This way I don't have to change the the preferences every time I want to play. I can just run the script that'll switch the keys and even launch the game.
Any ideas?
An AppleScript that should do the trick -- taken from http://scriptbuilders.net/files/fn1.1.html, with slight modifications
--Check if GUI Scripting is Enabled
tell application "System Events"
if not UI elements enabled then
set UI elements enabled to true
end if
end tell
--Enable/Disable "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" option in Keyboard & Mouse Preference pane and close System Preferences
tell application "System Events"
tell application "System Preferences"
reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
end tell
if application "System Preferences" is running then
tell application "System Preferences" to quit
end if
Tested on MacOS 10.6.4
The command is defaults write -g com.apple.keyboard.fnState, although I've had problems in the past changing it. I ended up just using an AppleScript. Give it a try.
defaults write -g com.apple.keyboard.fnState -boolean true
EditTo elaborate, the problems I've had is that the actual value is changed, but it doesn't actively change the setting in System Preferences nor does the fnState toggle, because the file is only read at boot/login etc. Also, making changes to a config file that's opened by another task sounds like a good way to corrupt the file.
You can install the awsome Karabiner-Elements.
Under System Preferences-> Keyboard preferences, make sure "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" is checked as a perquisites.
Open KeyRemap4MacBook preferences.
Navigate to "Pass Through Mode" option.
Check the 'Change Fn+Escape to toggle "Pass Through Mode"'
Open "Change F1..F19 Key" and check the "Macbook Pro" or "Macbook Air" option choosing your correct mac type.
For anyone else trying to make this work - I've finally gotten my solution to work. Tested with: MacOS Big Sur, 11.4, June 2021.
The code is based here:
https://github.com/MrSimonC/Toggle-Mac-Function-Keys
but for brevity, here is the contents of the apple script file:
-- Apple Script (i.e. Use in Apple's Script Editor Application) to Toggle Function Keys / Media keys on/off
-- Tested on MacOS Big Sur (11.4) June 2021
-- Project Path: https://github.com/MrSimonC/Toggle-Mac-Function-Keys
tell application "System Preferences"
set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
if UI elements enabled then
tell application process "System Preferences"
repeat until exists tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"
delay 0.5
end repeat
click radio button "Keyboard" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"
click checkbox "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Preferences" to quit
else
-- GUI scripting not enabled. Display an alert
tell application "System Preferences"
activate
set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.security"
display dialog "UI element scripting is not enabled. Please activate this app under Privacy -> Accessibility so it can access the settings it needs."
end tell
end if
end tell
Hope someone finds it useful!