Special Features of AppleScript
AppleScript has a number of features that set it apart from both macro programs and scripting languages that control a single program:
- AppleScript makes it easy to refer to data within applications. Scripts can use familiar names to refer to familiar objects. For example, a script can refer to paragraph, word, and character objects in a word-processing document and to row, column, and cell objects in a spreadsheet.
- You can control several applications from a single script. Although many applications include built-in scripting or macro languages, most of these languages work for only one application. In contrast, you can use AppleScript to control any of the applications that support it. You don't have to learn a new language for each application.
- You can write scripts that control applications on more than one computer. A single script can control any number of applications, and the applications can be on any computer on a given network.
- You can create scripts by recording. The Script Editor application includes a recording mechanism that takes much of the work out of creating scripts. When recording is turned on, you can perform actions in a recordable application and the Script Editor creates corresponding instructions in the AppleScript language. To learn how to turn recording on and off, refer to Getting Started With AppleScript.
- AppleScript supports multiple dialects, or representations of the AppleScript language that resemble various human languages and programming languages. This guide describes the AppleScript English dialect. You can use Script Editor to convert a script from one dialect to another without changing what happens when you run the script.