PlayerChapter 1, Quick Start
(or, how to avoid the rest of the User's Guide)
To install Player, double-click on the Installer file and follow the prompts. For details, see Chapter 3, Installation.
To write a script with Player, first determine the step-by-step procedure for performing the desired task manually from the user interface. Then, translate each step into the equivalent Player verb and enter into your favorite script editor. For example:
The manual procedure:
- launch SimpleText and bring it to the front
- choose "Page Setup" from the "File" menu
- choose "US Legal" from the "Page Size" pop-up menu
- type the enter key to accept the dialog
tell application "SimpleText" to activate
tell application "PreFab Player™"
do menu menu item "Page Setup" of menu "File"
do menu popup item "US Legal" of popup "Page Size"
type enter
end tell
Important!
- Please review the many example scripts that are included with Player. Each was designed to demonstrate one or more verbs or key ideas.
- All the AppleScript examples are saved as text files. You can open them even if you don't have the application they control. You can also open them with any text editor, and search them (e.g. for specific verbs) if you have a utility that can search multiple files.
- This manual assumes you are familiar with AppleScript. If not, please review the AppleScript documentation first. For additional sources of information, see http://www.scriptweb.org/.
Notes
- To get information about specific dialog items, switch to the target application and call up the dialog of interest. Type control-option-? to display Player's special balloon help. When you move the mouse over a dialog item, the balloon will show the item name (if any), type, unique ID# and XY location. To turn the balloons back off, type control-option-? again. For details, see Balloon Help in Chapter 4, Composing Scripts.
- Some dialog items (e.g. icons) do not have names. These items can be targeted by the unique ID# displayed by Player's balloon help. Other items are invisible to Player, so the balloon will only show XY coordinates. Scripts that depend on XY location are less readable but still quite robust, since Player uses the location relative to the dialog (not to the entire screen). For details, see Appendix 1, Questions & Answers.
Chapter 2. Product Overview