Customizing Applications and Automating Workflows

Scripts can add new features to applications. To customize an application, you add a script that is triggered by a particular action within the application, such as choosing a menu item or clicking a button. For example, you can customize the Finder by attaching folder action scripts to folders. An attached folder action script is triggered automatically when you open or close a folder, add or remove items from an open folder, or move or resize a folder window.

You can use folder action scripts to perform simple tasks, such as automatically copying files to a backup folder, or more complex tasks, such as automating a workflow that uses multiple applications to perform operations on a graphics file dropped in a folder. For more information on folder actions, see the AppleScript section of the Mac OS Help Center.

Not all applications support adding scripts. The ones that do are responsible for specifying the ways you associate scripts with specific actions.