I am building a Delphi application which opens an image and its metadata and prints it. For the Windows version I build a form to generate the PrintPreview, but in Mac I can use the Print Dialog's 'Open PDF in Preview' instead. When I click on it, a PDF file is generated and I can see it, its OK. The problem is I want to access this option directly from a button, so when the button is clicked, the PDF in Preview is opened and the user does not have to open the Print Dialog, then click the 'PDF' and then select 'Open PDF in Preview'. How can I do this?
I read about using Automator, apple scripts etc, but I still can't find it.
Is there any path this generated PDF Preview is stored, so maybe I can open it from there?...
TIA
Possible duplicate of Using Automator or Applescript or both to recursively print documents to PDF but I'll answer anyways.
To answer your question directly see the question I linked to. Basically you need to use System Events from applescript to accomplish that exactly
However, there's a quicker solution using /usr/sbin/cupsfilter. Check the man page for more.
You can call cupsfilter <an-image-file> and you'll get a PDF on stdout, courtesy of OSX's printing daemon. It looks quite configurable but I just learned about it a while ago.
If you want this to open for the user you can save it in a nice place or you can do it the one-shot way and do cupsfilter <your-image> | open -f -a "Preview" to open the PDF right up.
Related
Is it possible to read what's currently displayed on the windows terminal pragmatically using any available API?
For example, I've got an app that tail's some log files. I'd like to be able to hit a key and open a text editor at the line that is currently being viewed. The problem is the terminal also has scroll bars.
Not easy. Perhaps you could capture the screen and use OCR to identify its contents, or make a shortcut to some sort of macro that selects all the screen and copies the text. But there is no API available to perform the task you ask.
Of course, you can tee the command you're running in the console to a file, and open such file with an editor whenever you like, however it will show the full output of the command and not the visible part. If you like more information on that topic, it is answered in SO - Displaying Windows command prompt output and redirecting it to a file
.
I wrote a windows shell extension to show 3D files' thumbnail image, so user can search quickly. It works when users don't change default open program. However, if a user right click on a 3D file, then select open with to change default open program. It will block explorer to call my shell extension. Does anyone could help me with this?
I would like to write a windows program that would enable the user to choose a ppt file. When that ppt file starts the slideshow, my program would automatically display some message in front of the slideshow. When the slideshow is over, my program would close itself. What do I need to learn to write this program?
I'm not good with VBS (which I'm sure you could use for this) but if you set your show's extensions to .PPS instead of .PPT that will force them to start playing automatically on open. Then you won't need to see when the show starts because you'll control that.
As for opening it, if you write BATCH script you can use it to prompt for a file location but it will all be manually typed because it will load from the command window. If a show opens, the command screen can stay open until that slideshow closes, then continue with the next line of script.
Depending on if these are your powerpoints that you want opened, I personally would put VBA script in them to trigger On_Open and On_Close That will get you a clean customizable popup error message.
Edit
After doing some quick searching the On_Open and On_Close is not found in PPT, you would need to install an add-in.
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.
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.