FastScripts 1.1 Readme

Installing FastScripts

To install FastScripts, simply drag it to a folder on your hard drive where you  keep your Applications.

Note that if you haven't already installed Apple's Script Menu, you may not have any AppleScripts available in the various script folders on your computer.  FastScripts will find scripts in the ~/Library/Scripts folder in your home directory, in /Library/Scripts, or in /Network/Library/Scripts if you are sharing scripts on a network file system.

FastScripts installs a script menu to the menu bar at the upper-right corner of the screen.  Just double-click the FastScripts application icon to launch it.  Even though it doesn't appear in the dock, it will appear in the menu bar.

If you use FastScripts frequently, you will probably want to configure your Login Items to launch FastScripts when you log in.  The easiest way to do this is to allow FastScripts to automatically set this up for you when it prompts you upon first launching it.

What's New in this Release?

FastScripts 1.1 is a major update which adds several new features: 

- Application-specific script support
- Keyboard modifiers for easily revealing or opening a script in your script editing application
- Automatic synchronization with your script directories.

For more information on these features, see the "What Can FastScripts Do" section, below. 

What Can FastScripts Do?

FastScripts is a utility for quickly and elegantly running scripts (AppleScript or shell scripts) from whichever application you happen to be running at the moment.  In most respects, it can be considered a replacement for the Apple-provided "Script Menu" menu extra.  FastScripts offers a refined appearance and improved organization of the menu contents.  In addition to the functionality provided by Apple's Script Menu utility, FastScripts provides all of the following:

Smart Switching. This is one of the most important features of FastScripts!  When you run a script, we switch the application context only when appropriate.  Apple's utility switches context regardless of the script's functionality, and then neglects to switch back when the script is finished running!  With FastScripts, focus remains on the application you're working on.  If the executed script needs to put up a window, the context is switched to the script.  When you dismiss the dialog, FastScripts switches you back to the application you were working in!

Convenient menu shortcuts. When you get an inclination to edit a script or reveal it in the finder, you no longer have to go digging through folders in the Finder.  FastScripts makes it super-easy to edit and reveal script files: just hold down a modifier key as you select menu items.  Shift key for revealing and option key for editing.

Elegant application-specific script support.  FastScripts is designed to display your scripts in as convenient and "natural" a form as possible.  Apple's application-specific script support puts the scripts for the current app all the way at the bottom of the menu, making it harder to navigate to than any of the other scripts!  In FastScripts, the application--specific scripts are displayed prominently at the top of the menu, right where you would expect to find them.

Direct execution of applet and droplet script code.  Scripts that are packaged as applicationsfor convenient launching from elsewhere in the system can take a lot longer to execute when launched as applets.  FastScripts recognizes such scripts, but runs the script in its own application context, saving yet more time!
		
Finally, FastScripts is, well, fast!  FastScripts operates on the assumption that if you care enough about a script to put it in an easy-access menu, you don't want to waste any time at all getting it to execute when you select it.  To eliminate as much delay as possible, FastScripts preloads every script, essentially "priming" it for execution.  As a result, it takes a little while for FastScripts to finish loading scripts when it's first started, but every script you execute afterwards will be lightning fast!

Frequently Asked Questions (aka the "Help" section)

Q: How do I use the application-specific scripts feature?
A: FastScripts uses the same organizational cue as Apple's menu to determine whether a script belongs in the "Application Specific" section of the menu.  Inside your "Scripts" folder, make a folder called "Applications".  You can do this easily by asking FastScripts to open your Scripts folder, then selecting "New Folder" from the Finder's "File" menu.  Once you have the Applications folder created, any other Folders inside that are treated as application specific "sets."  The folders inside the Applications folder should be named after the application you intend to use the scripts in.  For example a folder called "Safari" would contain scripts that were useful while running Safari.  You can put script files or aliases to script files in these folders.  Any scripts in those folders will be shown in the application-specific section of the FastScripts menu when the desired application is active.

Q: How can I easily edit or reveal a script file from the FastScripts menu?
A: FastScripts offers two convenient "shortcuts" for editing and revealing script files.  

To open a script for editing, simply hold down the option key (and only the option key) while selecting a script from the menu.  The selection cursor will change to a "Pencil" icon to reflect your intended action.  

To reveal a script or folder in the Finder, hold down the shift key while selecting an item in the menu.  The cursor will change to a "link" arrow to reflect your intended action.

Q: I use a different Application to edit my scripts.  Can FastScripts use that instead?
A: YES!  FastScripts can be configured to use whatever application you like to edit AppleScript or shell script (text) files.  This "power user" feature requires a preference setting that can be made using the "defaults" tool from the Terminal application.  The keyed values for these preferences are strings that match the "identifier" of the application you'd like to use.  For example, the default setting for editing AppleScripts is Script Editor, whose identifier string is "com.apple.scripteditor".  If you don't know the identifier for your application of choice, you can find it in the Application's Info.plist file, located inside the application package.  The keys for these preferences are:

	"AppleScriptEditorIdentifier"  - sets the application that FastScripts asks to edit AppleScript scripts.
	"ShellScriptEditorIdentifier"  - sets the application that FastScripts asks to edit Shell/Perl scripts.

For example, to set the application "Smile" as the default script editor:

defaults write com.red-sweater.FastScripts AppleScriptEditorIdentifier com.satimage.Smile

Special note for "unpackaged" applications: If the application of your choice is not a "packaged" application (is not packaged as a folder with contents including an Info.plist file), you can still configure it as your default script editor, but you must do so by specifying a FastScripts preference identifying the application by the old-style "signature code." You can get this code by running the "GetFileInfo" tool on the application from the Terminal. The preference keys in this case are "AppleScriptEditorSignature" and "ShellScriptEditorSignature" respectively. For example, to set the popular application "Script Debugger" as the default script editor, issue the following command from the terminal:

defaults write com.red-sweater.FastScripts AppleScriptEditorSignature asDB

Note that once you set a default editor using the "signature code" variant, this signature code will take precedence over any setting made to the "identifier" variant.  If you decide to switch applications and were using a signature code, you should delete the old signature code preference.  For example:

defaults delete com.red-sweater.FastScripts AppleScriptEditorSignature

Q: I don't like the "[AppName] Scripts" label in the app-specific section.  Can I remove it?
A: YES!  Using a "power user" preference setting, similar to above.  The key in this case is "ShowCurrentAppliationLabel" and the value is a boolean (either YES or NO).

Q: These preference settings are really hard! Why don't you just make a preferences dialog?
A: A preferences dialog is planned for a future release. I just included this method of customizing FastScripts behavior as an advanced feature for users who would like to make the most of FastScripts today. 

For up-to-date answers to common questions, visit the following web site:

http://www.red-sweater.com/RedSweater/FSHelp.html

Version History

1.1.2 - Minor update to prevent restoring the current application if the script intentionally changed to another process.
1.1.1 - Minor fixes to allow applications that are not "packaged" applications to be configured as the script editing app.
1.1 - Major update adding script edit and reveal shortcuts, automatic resynchronizing, and application-specific scripts.
1.0.2 - Execute script code from within AppleScript applets and droplets - without launching them!
1.0.1 - Fix a bug where scripts that contain periods in their titles had their names cut short in the menu.
1.0 - Initial Release!

System Requirements

FastScripts 1.1 is a Mac OS X only application, and requires Mac OS X 10.1 or later.

Acknowledgements

- FastScripts 1.1 uses NDAppleScriptObject by Nathan Day.  Thanks, Nathan!
- Thanks to Eggert Thorlacius and Allen Watson for reporting bugs!

Copyright and License

FastScripts is ©2003 by Red Sweater Software, All Rights Reserved.

FastScripts is $10 US ShareWare.  

FastScripts 1.1 is a free upgrade for users who registered an earlier version.

You are granted permission to use this software on an evaluation basis, free of charge.  If you find the software useful, you must purchase a single-user license.  For site licenses or bundling agreements, contact licensing@red-sweater.com. Permission is granted for distribution on shareware/freeware collections, as long as the price charged for the collection does not exceed a reasonable cost for production and distribution.

Registered users are the motivation for future improvement to your favorite script menu!

How Do I Register?

Visit the Red Sweater registration page at:

http://www.red-sweater.com/RedSweater/Register.html

There you will find a link which leads to a PayPal payment page for Red Sweater Software.

Contact Information

Updates to this program, as they become available, can be found at the Red Sweater Software homepage:

http://www.red-sweater.com/RedSweater/index.html

You are invited to report bugs, enhancement requests, praise, or condemnation to the following email address:

fastscripts@red-sweater.com

Thank You

Thank you for supporting ShareWare!