I have a short applescript that exports the bibliographic info from Papers3.app. It's very simple. However, it works the first time when no output file exists. However, if I want to update the output file (by overwriting it), it doesn't work.
Is there something specific I need to tell Applescript to overwrite the current file if it already exists?
tell application "Papers"
set outFile to "/Users/alex/Dropbox/Papers3_Citations/Bibliography-Master.bib"
export ((every publication item) as list) to outFile
end tell
First check for and delete the file, then export it:
set outFile to "/Users/alex/Dropbox/Papers3_Citations/Bibliography-Master.bib"
tell application "System Events" to if (exists file outFile) then delete file outFile
tell application "Papers" to export ((every publication item) as list) to outFile
NOTE: The file is immediately deleted and not placed in the Trash!
If you want to be safe, then use Finder to place the file in the Trash.
set outFile to "/Users/alex/Dropbox/Papers3_Citations/Bibliography-Master.bib"
set itExists to application "System Events"'s (exists file outFile)
if itExists then
set thisFile to POSIX file outFile as alias
tell application "Finder" to move thisFile to trash
end if
tell application "Papers" to export ((every publication item) as list) to outFile
Related
I am trying to clear out a shell script file if it exists but I keep running into the errors.
tell application "System Events"
set fileList to POSIX path of disk items of mdFolder
end tell
-->check to see if there is a shell script in the destination folder
repeat with i from 1 to count of every item in fileList
set thisFile to item i of fileList
set oasd to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
set fileName to last text item of thisFile
if fileName is equal to "ditaShell.sh" then
tell application "System Events" to delete thisFile
end if
end repeat
tell application "Finder"
-->create new file for shell script
make new file at mdFolder with properties {name:"ditaShell.sh"}
display dialog "Created new file"
end tell
I get this error message:
System Events got an error: Can’t make "/Users/xxxxxxxxx/Desktop/DITAConversions/Input/ditaShell.sh" into type disk item.
I solved it, was overthinking the problem:
tell application "Finder"
delete (every file of folder mdFolder whose name is "ditaShell.sh")
-->create new file for shell script
make new file at mdFolder with properties {name:"ditaShell.sh"}
display dialog "Created new file"
end tell
Scratching my head after reading lots of different threads on this and tried a bunch of scripts but none seem to work.
I'd like to use Automator to automate Word 2016 conversion of a selection of docx files to pdf.
Used the following Automator Service:
Used the following script:
on run {input, parameters}
tell application id "com.microsoft.Word"
activate
open input
set doc to name of active window
set theOutputPath to (input & ".pdf")
save as active document file name theOutputPath file format format PDF
end tell
end run
Which results in error: Microsoft Word got an error: active document doesn’t understand the “save as” message.
The main issue is that input is a list. You have to use a repeat loop to process each file separately
I added a line to close the current document after having been converted
on run {input, parameters}
tell application id "com.microsoft.Word"
activate
repeat with aFile in input
open aFile
set theOutputPath to ((aFile as text) & ".pdf")
tell active document
save as it file name theOutputPath file format format PDF
close saving no
end tell
end repeat
end tell
end run
To prevent the problem discussed in #vadian's answer, save the file first to Word's default folder (that's usually ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Documents) and then move the file somewhere else.
on run {input, parameters}
repeat with aFile in input
tell application "System Events"
set inputFile to disk item (aFile as text)
set outputFileName to (((name of inputFile) as text) & ".pdf")
end tell
tell application id "com.microsoft.Word"
activate
open aFile
tell active document
save as it file name outputFileName file format format PDF
close saving no
end tell
set defaultPath to get default file path file path type documents path
end tell
tell application "System Events"
set outputPath to (container of inputFile)
set outputFile to disk item outputFileName of folder defaultPath
move outputFile to outputPath
end tell
end repeat
return input
end run
I've some problems to find the correct apple script command: I want to open the info window for a given file or folder. It's that window which I can open via cmd+i in Finder. Now I want to be able to automate this action by script file.
My code actually looks like this:
set aFile to POSIX file "/Users/xyz/Documents/test.rtf"
tell application "Finder" to open information window of aFile
But that doesn't work. The error message says that the file "information window of Macintosh HD:Users:xyz:Documents:test.rtf" cannot opened.
Some commands are picky with posix file. So we can coerce that to something else and it will work...
set aFile to (POSIX file "/Users/xyz/Documents/test.rtf") as alias
tell application "Finder" to open information window of aFile
or
set aFile to (POSIX file "/Users/xyz/Documents/test.rtf") as text
tell application "Finder" to open information window of file aFile
I've been trying to get System Events to duplicate files in AppleScript and I've been failing :) I eventually always get the error "error "Files can not be copied." number -1717". So I changed my tactics and tried using the Finder to make sure what i was trying to do was correct. Here is the code that works:
tell application "System Events"
set desktopFolder to (path to desktop folder) as string
set fullPath to desktopFolder & "Temp Export From DO"
set theDOEntries to every file of folder "/Users/jkratz/Dropbox/Apps/Day One/Journal.dayone/entries" whose name extension is "doentry"
repeat with DOEntry in theDOEntries
set source to path of DOEntry
log "Source file: " & source
set destination to fullPath as string
log "Destination folder: " & destination
tell application "Finder"
duplicate file source to folder destination with replacing
end tell
end repeat
end tell
If I remove that last tell, so that it uses System Events, I get the same error noted above. The dictionary for System Events standard suite has a "duplicate" command so I'm not sure what is going on here. Also, "Learning AppleScript, 3rd ed" from APress notes:
"One particularly annoying omission in System Events is that it can’t yet duplicate files and folders; if you need to do this, the Finder is your best bet."
The 3rd edition is from 2010. It would seem that even in Mountain Lion this is still true. Can anyone confirm this? The 1717 error number lists everywhere else as a handler error and i'm not using handlers.
Unfortunately, you cannot duplicate files using System Events - you have to use the Finder. Even in the answer provided by adayzdone, System Events is not actually handling the duplication.
This looks like it's working (because it's inside a System Events tell block)...
tell application "System Events"
duplicate myFile to myFolder
end tell
...but if you inspect the event log you'll see that the Finder is actually performing the duplication. Behind the scenes, you are passing two Finder objects to System Events. System Events doesn't know how to handle Finder objects, so execution is passed to the objects' owner, the Finder, which executes the command.
For file duplication in AppleScript, you are unfortunately limited to using the Finder or the command line via do shell script.
Try:
tell application "Finder" to set desktopFolder to (path to desktop folder as text) & "Temp Export From DO" as alias
tell application "System Events" to set theDOEntries to every file of folder "/Users/jkratz/Dropbox/Apps/Day One/Journal.dayone/entries" whose name extension is "doentry"
repeat with DOEntry in theDOEntries
log "Source file: " & DOEntry
log "Destination folder: " & desktopFolder
tell application "Finder" to duplicate file DOEntry to desktopFolder with replacing
end repeat
If you don't need to log the values you can simply:
tell application "Finder" to set desktopFolder to (path to desktop folder as text) & "Temp Export From DO" as alias
tell application "System Events" to set theDOEntries to every file of folder "/Users/jkratz/Dropbox/Apps/Day One/Journal.dayone/entries" whose name extension is "doentry"
tell application "Finder" to duplicate theDOEntries to desktopFolder with replacing
Or:
set desktopFolder to quoted form of (POSIX path of (path to desktop folder as text) & "Temp Export From DO")
do shell script "find '/Users/jkratz/Dropbox/Apps/Day One/Journal.dayone/entries' -name \"*.doentry\" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -I {} cp -a {} " & desktopFolder
Getting back to your question, the duplicate commands creates duplicates of Finder items. You can use System Events to duplicate Finder items like this:
tell application "Finder"
set myFile to file ((path to desktop as text) & "Test File.txt")
set myFolder to folder ((path to desktop as text) & "Test Folder")
end tell
tell application "System Events"
duplicate myFile to myFolder
end tell
I have a massive set of files (4000+) that are in an old Apple format (Appleworks). My employed needs them all updated to PDF. By opening the documents in Appleworks and using the system print dialogue, I can save them to PDF—this is ideal. I'm a complete nub with Applescript/Automator, however.
Using a Python script I was able to gather all the Appleworks files from my bosses computer and put them in a directory; each file is then in a subdirectory with a .txt file containing its original location (where, eventually, I will have to put them back).
I need the script to move recursively through this massive directory, getting every file that's neither a folder nor a .txt document, and save it to PDF in the same directory in which the original file was found. ie.
/Appleworks/Boss_File_1/
will contain
/Appleworks/Boss_File_1/Boss_file_1.cwk and
/Appleworks/Boss_File_1/path.txt
But must eventually also contain /Appleworks/Boss_File_1/Boss_File_1.pdf
I can get half way with either solution, but don't know how to make them work together. The Applescript I'm using looks like:
set appleworksFolder to choose folder
tell application "Finder"
set folderItems to (files of entire contents of appleworksFolder)
repeat with I from 1 to number of items in folderItems
set the_doc to item I of folderItems
if name of the_doc is not "path.txt" then
try
tell application "AppleWorks 6"
open the_doc
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Appleworks"
keystroke "p" using command down
click menu button "PDF" of window "Print"
click menu item "Save as PDF…" of menu 1 of menu button "PDF" of window "Print"
click button "Save" of window "Save"
end tell
end tell
end tell
end try
else
tell application "Finder"
delete the_doc
end tell
end if
end repeat
end tell`
This opens the print dialogue but never gets any further and I have no idea why. I realize this script also doesn't deal with putting the document back in its original folder, but in Applescript I could easily enough do this if I could get past the actual printing-to-PDF bit.
Meanwhile, in Automator, using this workflow:
Get Specified Finder Items
Get Folder Contents
Filter Finder Items (by kind and then by file extension is not .txt)
Open Finder Items (with Appleworks)
I then am stuck; using the actual Print Finder Items and choosing Adobe PDF seems to actually do nothing at all, and recording myself using the print to pdf process live is useless because I don't know how to get Automator to retain the path the file originated from and ensure it prints to it.
If anyone can help me put this together somehow, I'd be enormously grateful. Thanks.
Convert using Pages
If you have Pages (part of iWork), it can open .cwk files and save them as PDF: just replace your if block with this:
if (the_doc's name extension is not "txt") then
set newName to my makeNewFileName(the_doc, "pdf")
try
tell application "Pages"
open (the_doc as alias)
set thisDoc to front document
save thisDoc as "SLDocumentTypePDF" in newName
close thisDoc saving no
end tell
on error
display dialog "Error: cannot export " & (name of the_doc) & " to PDF."
end try
end if
(you will need this custom function makeNewFileName):
(* prepare new file name with extension ext *)
on makeNewFileName(finderItem, ext)
tell application "Finder"
set fname to finderItem's name
set thePath to (finderItem's container) as alias as text
return (thePath & (text 1 thru ((length of fname) - (length of (finderItem's name extension as text))) of fname) & ext)
end tell
end makeNewFileName
(complete working script)
GUI scripting
Alternatively, you could do GUI scripting upon AppleWorks as you attempted, but it has the disadvantage that you cannot programmatically specify where to save the PDF file.
This snippet works for me:
tell application "AppleWorks 6"
open the_doc
activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "AppleWorks"
keystroke "p" using command down
delay 1 -- or longer, if it takes longer
click menu button "PDF" of window "Print"
click menu item "Save as PDF…" of menu 1 of menu button "PDF" of window "Print"
delay 1 -- or longer
click button "Save" of window "Save"
end tell
end tell
Unfortunately, AppleWorks doesn't seem to properly listen to AppleScript's close command, therefore you may need to close the file by also simulating the cmd+W keystrokes.
Try this:
set appleworksFolder to choose folder
set thePath to POSIX path of appleworksFolder as string
tell application "Finder"
set folderItems to files of appleworksFolder
repeat with aFile in folderItems
set {name:fileName, name extension:nameExtension} to aFile
set filePath to POSIX path of (aFile as alias) as string
if nameExtension is not "txt" then
set theLocation to POSIX path of (aFile as text)
set baseName to text 1 thru ((get offset of "." & nameExtension in fileName) - 1) of fileName
set destLocation to (thePath & baseName & ".pdf")
set theCommand to "/System/Library/Printers/Libraries/./convert -f \"" & filePath & "\"" & " -o " & "\"" & destLocation & "\"" & " -j \"application/pdf\""
do shell script theCommand
else
tell application "Finder" to delete aFile
end if
end repeat
end tell
I needed to do this today on Mountain Lion with a bunch of RTF receipts; here's how I did it:
#!/bin/bash
for file in *.rtf ; do
filename=$(basename "$file")
/usr/sbin/cupsfilter "$file" > "$filename.pdf"
done
Worked great; super easy. No Automator or AppleScript silliness.