Mark Conway Munro - AppleScript: Developer Reference

AppleScript

Mark Conway Munro

AppleScript

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.10475 Crosspoint BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 46256www.wiley.com

Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-56229-1

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Aaron Black

Executive Editor

Jody Lefevere

Project Editor

Katharine Dvorak

Technical Editor

Rob Vanderwerf

Copy Editor

Lauren Kennedy

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator

Lynsey Stanford

Graphics and Production Specialists

Andrea HornbergerErin Zeltner

Quality Control Technician

John Greenough

Proofreading

C. M. Jones

Indexing

WordCo Indexing Services

Media Development Project Manager

Laura Moss

Media Development Assistant Project Manager

Jenny Swisher

Media Development Associate Producer

Doug Kuhn

About the Author

Mark Conway Munro is an entrepreneur who turned a software-writing hobby into a business. Mark was born in Indiana and raised in Ohio. In 1986, Mark moved to New York City. As the manager of Louis Tannen's Magic Store in New York City, he taught himself the Macintosh Computer and FileMaker Pro while building a database of inventory, which eventually led to the development of a networked order processing solution. From there he went on to work for the Jack Morton Company, where he was the Network and Telecommunications Manager. He began developing custom solutions with HyperCard and FileMaker Pro in his spare time. After the release of AppleScript in 1992, he refocused his experience with computer networking, training, technical support, database development, and custom application development. He quickly transitioned from HyperTalk to AppleScript and began building custom workflow automation solutions.

Mark founded Write Track Media in 1994, where he continues to develop innovative solutions that eliminate repetition and optimize computerized workflows. Write Track Media has since become known for its reputation for excellence, and has developed complex automated solutions for companies in a variety of industries all across the country including Adobe Systems, The Associated Press, BMG, Dreyfus, Entertainment Weekly, Epson, KraftMaid, McCann-Erickson, The Miami Herald, MYOB, Nabisco, NASA, Nikon, Random House, Reader's Digest, Sony Music Entertainment, and many other companies.

Currently Mark resides in Pennsylvania, where Write Track Media is located. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking and nature photography.

Dedication

To my father, Philip Conway Munro, for teaching me the difference between hardware and software at an early age.

Foreword

T welve years ago Mark Munro asked me to write something for the Web site he was building for his company, Write Track Media. I had already been working with him for about three years: me as an editor and in-house FileMaker developer at the country's second-largest record company, and Mark as outside FileMaker and AppleScript developer. He had helped build the departmental Mac-based database of discs, tapes, and videos with up-to-date listings of all their artists, prices, genres, formats, and so on. But the major part of the project, and where Mark was proving so invaluable, was in the system's output.

We needed to produce a monthly pocket-sized catalog of the active product about 13,000 data records. Mark automated production so that I could generate a 180-page complexly styled catalog using FileMaker Pro, AppleScript, and Quark at the push of a button. We needed to constantly produce multipage order forms with elaborate line listings and scannable barcodes. Mark automated these so that one button would trigger the form to build from scratch: Quark firing up, new blank documents opening, text boxes being created and placed, text flying into the boxes, picture boxes being created, AppleScript running off and building barcode images for each product, bringing them back, dropping them into the picture boxes, sizing them to fit. All this looked like magic to the IT guys that would drop by occasionally, none of them Mac users, with no idea that an application like AppleScript existed that could make the programs all talk to each other. It was magic to us, too: the documents were data driven, accuracy was better than it ever had been, and the automation was saving countless hours of typing, page layout, and proofreading every week.