I would like to add a context menu item in MacOS Mojave which gives the option to create a new file in the finder on a right click (the way you would in windows). I would also like to be able to specify the file type (text, word, html, css, javascript, etc)
I have followed a tutorial online in order to create the context menu item with automator but I am not familiar with writing shell scripts.
is it just as simple as:
for f in "$#"
do
touch "$f"
done
I was able to implement this following the instructions here: How to get Create New Text File from context menu
The only drawback as it stands is that you need to select a folder in finder to get the context menu. I would like to be able to click in the current I am in and get the menu but I can live with this. Hope this helps someone else.
This tool provides the "Create a file here" option out of the box. With this tool you can easily create your own options as well by writing simple shell scripts. The tool is free and the page has a link to the source if you want to check the source. The source has a shell script that creates a file in a directory that is given as an argument to the script. The script avoids file name conflicts when creating new files.
Related
I am trying to write an Automator script, that replaces a given text by some other text. I followed the steps in
Editing text in Automator
which are the same as given by a bunch of blog posts covering this topic and may vary with regards to the language the script is written in. I tried with AppleScript and with bash.
My (reduced example) bash script is:
echo hello
I have selected the option "Output replaces selected text".
I tried the script when selecting text in Xcode, TextEdit and another app. The text is not replaced (it remains the same). The script is executed - as I tested via say hello inside of the script. Also I followed the setup of:
http://www.kevincallahan.org/software/services.html
to make sure my script is enabled in "System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Services -> [√] myService", because this tool used to work on my machine and it should have the same requirements for replacing text inside a TextView like the script I am going to write. Also I read the answer:
Automator not working inside xcode
from which I could not deduct, what "give xcode access to be able to modify accessibility settings" means. I am running macOS 10.13.4.
I finally figured something out. After creating a copy of the script in the file system, the copy worked. The only difference was the name. Indeed, if I renamed the original script, it worked. The name was "resolveConflicts". I have no app in my PATH with the same name. The only place I used the same name was inside SourceTree -> Preferences -> Custom Actions. Renaming the action in SourceTree did not allow me to successfully run the script with the name "resolveConflicts". In the end I could not figure out, with which name the scripts collided. I also checked /System/Library/Services and /System/Services. No scripts with same name existed there. I sticked with a different name.
I have custom Alfred workflow to File Filter some folders of my choice. I have two actions - to browse with Alfred, and, with CMD modifier, to open in Sublime.
I want to have an action where I may choose which program I want to open it in. I use 2-3 programs for basic editing, so I want to be able to select one of these.
Workflow would be:
start my workflow
enter few chars to find file
select a file with CMD
choose editor of choice from the list
How to implement the last thing? In other words, how to implement incremental actions e.g. "do this with this and then this".
There're two ways to do it.
Because you can choose which application will be used to open the file instead of the default one. A simple idea is using different keyword for each application. e.g. vim [file-name] for vim while sublime [file-name] for sublime.
Another way is using Run Script instead of Open File. An Apple script or Bash script can get the result in File Filter and open different application as you wish.
I thought this would be easy. The Google makes me think otherwise.
What I want is a poor man's inter-OS clipboard. Everything I looked at on the net is either not free, no app this simple should cost anybody anything, or isn't compatible with local linux installs or Windows or some such.
In the best solution a right mouse action would be added to "cut", "copy" and "paste" named something like "copy to file". The file might or might not exist but would have a fixed name and be on a shared disk.
I guess I'd need a second right mouse action "Paste from file" to complement the "copy to file".
So, would some one show me how to have an AppleScript or, maybe, Automator, take the current text contents of the clipboard and paste into an existing file, overwriting any
existing contents of the file?
OS/X Snow Leopard
Thanks.
how to have an AppleScript […], take the current text contents of the clipboard and paste into an existing file, overwriting any existing contents of the file
AppleScript code:
do shell script "pbpaste > /path/to/your/clipboard-file.txt"
In order to read text from the file back into the clipboard, use
do shell script "cat /path/to/your/clipboard-file.txt | pbcopy"
For documentation, see man pbpaste
EDIT: Now, to convert the AppleScript into a Mac OS X Service, which will appear in the "Services" group of every context menu (at right-click / CTRL+click on any text), you can use Automator, as described in this tutorial.
How can I create a droplet that takes a text selection as input? When I create a script that starts with on run inputText, the resulting application icon will only darken when files are dragged over it.
You can achieve a similar result by using Automator to make a service. Services can be fed selected text, (or urls or files etc) and not just from Finder, but from the right-click contextual menu or the Services menu. You can run applescript inside the Automator script, so basically Automator makes a wrapper for your appleScript. The downside is that it tends to be even slower than applescript.
Dropplets in AppleScript only support files. You can follow #stib's suggestion of using a service with Automator or using the Scripts menu (launch AppleScript Editor and choose AppleScript Editor>Preferences from the menu bar, General in the preferences window and check "Show Script menu in menu bar"). You can then place the script in the /Library/Scripts/ or ~/Library/Scripts folder to have the script appear in the menu. Alternatively, check out FastScripts to include the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to the scripts and enhanced menu organization.
In applescript, you can create a simple droplet like this:
on open theThing
set fileToRead to open for access theThing --open the file so we can perform operations on it
set myVar to (read fileToRead) --The myVar variable is set to the contents of the dropped file
display dialog myVar --Shows the contents of the file in a dialog; do what you want with the text here
//other code here
close access fileToRead
end open
So, it's not too hard, just make sure you open for access the file first. I hope this helped!
Helpful Links:
http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=24772: About Droplets
http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=24745: About File IO
As far as I could tell, this could only be achieved by wrapping the Applescript in a Cocoa application. I don't know Objective-C, but was able to cobble something together. When I get a chance I'll try to clean up a bit and post an explanation.
OK, this feels like an idiot question, but I'm stuck - I don't know the first thing about AppleScript. I have a .scpt file and I want to double-click it and just have it run, but instead every time I click, it opens up the AppleScript Editor. This feels like it should just be an option on the file, but I'm missing something obvious.
Please help me feel less dumb, thank you.
From the “File” menu, choose “Export”; there’ll be a “File Format” dropdown underneath the file browser. To get a double-clickable application instead of a document, choose “Application”. This will produce a .app bundle like ordinary Mac applications (this will also let you package other resources with your script if you need to). You can choose “Run Only” or not; if you do, then anybody with just the .app won’t be able to edit your script further, since it’ll be compiled. (But if you’re saving a copy as the application, that might be what you want.)
Another option, as per an anonymous user on Ask Different, would be to save/export your file as a “Script” (.scpt) or “Script Bundle” (.scptd), save it in ~/Library/Scripts/, and check “Show Script menu in menu bar” in Script Editor’s preferences.
(If you’re running an old version of OS X, the first version of this answer has the information you’re looking for.)
There's more than one way to do it; i have found this to be the simplest:
In sum, you create an Automator application and place your applescript inside it (easier than it sounds, and it's not a hack either--there's actually a specific Automator action for this). Then when you are finished, you select "File" from the menubar, next "Save As Application", then select a location. Now check there and you'll see the newly-created Automator icon (little white robot holding a grenade launcher).
You can do anything that you would ordinarily do with this application icon--double click to open, drag it to your dock, etc.
Appstorm has created an excellent step-by-step tutorial for building an applescript-embedded automator action. On the page i linked to, the tutorial author has also supplied an Automator script that you can download and use as a template.
While it's certainly not the simplest route, one benefit to running your script from Automator, as doug suggested, is that you can set a hotkey or keyboard shortcut to execute your script if you hide it in an Automator Service (OSX 10.6+). See:
http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/08/09/assign-keyboard-shortcut-applescript-automator-service/
When you save a new script, a menu should appear asking what you want the file name to be, where it will be stored, any tags for it, and what script format you want it to be. There should be 4 scripts formats:
Script
Script Bundle
Application
Text
The script format you want to use would be "Application." This will turn it into a double-click application if its not in the dock.