Chapter 9 Chapter 9Desktop scripts are a convenient way to make the power of Frontier available right on your desktop. In this chapter, we'll take a quick look at some of the desktop scripts that are packaged with Frontier. Then we'll examine two of these scripts closely so that you can see how they work. Next, we'll discuss how you can customize desktop scripts. Finally, we'll explain how to create a desktop script from scratch.Our focus here is to give you an overview of desktop scripts, it's not critical that you understand the details of every script. Remember, to get details on any verb, look it up in DocServer.
Frontier comes with a number of useful desktop scripts. They are stored in a folder called "Desktop Scripts" on the Frontier distribution disks. Like all good Macintosh applications and goodies, their names tell you a lot about their purpose. For example, the Frontier desktop script called "Find in File" looks through the contents of a file for a string. "Delete Packages" removes AppleLink package files from the folder or volume in which it is stored. You get the idea.Contents Page | Next Section -- A Closer LookThese scripts appear to the user much like stand-alone Macintosh applications. However, they require Frontier to be available, making them a cross between a document and an application.
If you double-click a desktop script in the Finder -- or even open one from Frontier's File menu -- the script will run. So, how do you edit it? There's a trick: when you double-click on the file, hold down the Command key and continue holding it until the script is open in Frontier. (If you let go before the MacOS passes control to Frontier, Frontier will just run the script since it has no way of knowing that you held the key down briefly.)