PlayerApplication Info
Some applications don't follow all of Apple's human interface guidelines or they implement the expected behavior but in a non-standard way. Working around these obstacles is covered in Chapter 4. Composing Scripts. Here are some details on specific applications. Please share information that you learn about these and other applications so that we can share it with others.
Please Note
A casual glance at this document might leave the mistaken impression that Player has "lots of problems". Not true! We continue to get feedback from our customers that Player has proven to be simpler, more robust, and more flexible than the commercial or shareware alternatives. As part of our commitment to top-notch tech support, we want to provide you with as much information as possible. This page is one result.
General Tips
- Please review the example scripts, totally revised for Player 1.1 and updated again for 1.5. They were written specifically to demonstrate certain techniques and to answer frequently asked questions.
- Some menu items end in dot-dot-dot (three periods) rather than an ellipsis (option semi-colon). Unless you change Player's default setting to require a complete match, you can just leave punctuation off, e.g.
do menu menu item "Open" of menu "File" -- no "..." needed chooseMenu("File", "Open") « Frontier's UserTalk
Apple LaserWriter 8 Dialog
- When printing to disk using the LaserWriter 8 driver 8.6 with MacOS 8.5, the Navigation Services dialog doesn't yield to a script despite Player's "set forced yield". (Nav Services does yield in other cases.) Solution: use KeyQuencer or similar. (They operate within the context of the frontmost application so no yield is required to get processor time.)
Adobe Acrobat Exchange
- On MacOS 8.5 and in certain dialogs (e.g. File>Export>Postscript), Player may not detect the type of certain objects, e.g. seeing radio buttons, checkboxes and buttons as "custom controls". Note that balloons may see the type; they have the luxury of operating within the context of the frontmost app; Player's query & control verbs operate from the background. Solution: use the 'dialog item' verbs.
- A newly-discovered problem that affects Player 1.1 as well as 1.5: in certain dialogs (e.g. File>Preferences>General), balloon help doesn't appear to see anything by XY location, yet "outline dialog" sees everything except pop-up menus. However, it sees the wrong XY values! (A quick test of one of the keyboard macro products suggests that this problem is Acrobat's not Player's.) XY values aren't as easy to read, but are generally quite reliable. Their main limitation in general is that "set value of checkbox" won't work if the object can't be detected since a click would toggle (doing the wrong thing every other time). The workaround here:
-- use query to decide whether or not to click if value of (get info dialog item 5) is 0 then click location {25, 147}
Adobe Illustrator 8.0 (and perhaps other versions)
- On OS 8.5, Player can't see hierarchical menus in Illustrator. Solution: see the included script for workarounds
Adobe Illustrator 5.0, 5.5, 6.0
- "get info window" can't see all the palettes, and may only see them when CLOSED. See the "Windows & Palettes" example script.
- Palette items are invisible to Player, control using XY location (shown by balloons).
Adobe Photoshop 3.0, 4.0
- See the Player 1.1 release notes for new features useful in Photoshop.
- Please review the example scripts, including the Sample Photoshop Player library. They include solutions to subtle problems that have been encountered in scripting Photoshop, such as spurious error messages.
- Using "get info" to see if an entire menu is enabled may not be reliable; check a particular menu item instead. (See the waitForMenubar routine in the Sample Photoshop Player library.)
Adobe/Aldus PageMaker 5.0 (we have not tested later versions)
- balloons show incorrect XY values for main window, Find dialog & probably others.
Chooser (and other desk accesories)
- Player's balloon help doesn't work; the DA grabs the keystroke. Most of the dialog items are named exactly what they seem, but if you need more details, see the "Chooser, query dialog items" example scripts.
Facespan
- Player and Facespan work well together. One minor problem: if you are trying to type a value from a storage item, you may need to use their AnyToString scripting addition to coerce it, rather than AppleScript's standard "as string" or "string (...)". The problem may be fixed in the latest release of Facespan.
Finder
- TIP: the Apple menu is menu 1 (in any application). See the example script "Open CDEV [Player not required]" for details on selecting items from the menu or running them directly with the Scriptable Finder.
Global Village FAX
- Player can usually select FAX from any application by "holding down" a modifier key while choosing the menu item -- just like you would do by hand. This technique generally does not work with Global Village's FAX software. Solution #1: select Global FAX in the Chooser (by hand or with Player). If you have a dedicated FAX computer or send a large batch of FAXes, this solution might be best. Solution #2: use Player's drag verb, with a mouse delay of 20 or so. It's not pretty, but it's quite reliable.
MacWrite Pro 1.5
- control key combinations don't work. Typing return may not work in certain dialogs.
- Player can't choose from the "Character" submenu of "Style".
- set complete match to true may prevent Player from seeing menu items that are there.
- TIP: "Save As" menu item ends in dot-dot-dot (three periods) rather than elipses (option-semi-colon), with Player's default setting, you can just leave them out.
Microsoft products
- As Player's balloon help will show, the internal name for many dialog items does not match the label. For example, some items have a leading "&" character. Use either the unique ID or the internal name.
- Some things that don't look anything like buttons are implemented as buttons; click button or click dialog item will still work.
- In place of pop-up menus, Microsoft uses "drop-down" menus. Because the data structure is proprietary, Player cannot choose a drop-down item by name. A drag should be reliable, using the following technique (for a specific drop-down menu):
on doFormatDropDown(itemNumber) « Frontier's UserTalk itemHeight = 16 « standard size xLocation = 45 « or wherever it is located yStart = 26 « or wherever it is located yFinish = yStart + (itemNumber * itemHeight) dragMouse( {xLocation, yStart}, {xLocation, yFinish} )on doFormatDropDown(itemNumber) -- AppleScript set itemHeight to 16 -- standard size set xLocation to 45 -- or wherever it is located set yStart to 26 -- or wherever it is located set yFinish to yStart + (itemNumber * itemHeight) drag from {xLocation, yStart} to {xLocation, yFinish}
Microsoft Excel 4.0
- get info doesn't get the correct value for 3 state "checkboxes", e.g. in the Format > Border dialog.
- The "Save As" menu item ends in dot-dot-dot (three periods) rather than elipses (option-semi-colon); with Player's default setting, you can just leave them out.
Now Up-to-Date 3.5 (and perhaps other versions)
- One of the print options is a pop-up menu that includes "Day View". Player can only select from the pop-up if the pop-up is on the first item.
Now Utilities
- See below for Now Menus conflicts.
- If you enable the option that adds a submenu to the File menu's Open item, the standard do menu may not work. Try the command-key equivalent:
typeCombination(command, "o") « Frontier type "o" holding command -- AppleScript
Software Conflicts
Player is a system extension (and a faceless background application) so conflicts are, alas, inevitable. As noted above, customers tell us they have fewer conflicts with Player than with alternative solutions.One type of conflict is somewhat common and very easy to fix. Player's menu verbs ("do menu" and "get info") make an invisible click in the upper left corner of the screen to access the menu's data structure. Extensions or Control Panels that intercept clicks at that position will generally prevent Player from choosing or getting information about the menu item. Most of these utilities allow you to change the location of the "hot spot", resolving the conflict.
Or, use Player 1.5's new "set menu selection location".
Or, if the conflicting extension has different behavior depending on how long you hold the mouse down in the menu bar, setting Player's mouse delay may fix the problem.
Apple Menu Options (Apple's bug): With a default System 7.5.0 installation, if Player tries to perform certain actions (e.g. choose a menu in Photoshop 3) while the system is busy, all but the first 3 menus may disappear. Solution: remove the Apple Menu Options control panel, update to a later version of the MacOS, or get the fixed version from Apple's web site: http://www.support.apple.com/pub/apple_sw_updates/US/Macintosh/system_sw/other_sys_sw/Apple_Menu_Options_1.0.2.hqx
Now SuperBoomerang: because SuperBoomerang changes the height of the open or save dialog, Player may not be able to control any of the dialog items. We recommend switching to Default Folder from St. Clair Software. (We liked their solution so much, we licensed code from them for our "set dialog folder" verb -- and included.)
NowMenus: conflict on certain machine/OS combinations. Moving the "hot spot" to something other than the upper left corner may fix the problem.
Norton Directory Assistance II: locateFile and locateFolder end up in the wrong place. Player 1.1's new "set default folder" may work.
OSA Menu: OSA Menu has been enhanced to work better with Player, though with some side effects. With any luck, the latest release of OSA Menu will eliminate them. If you encounter problems, please send e-mail.
PopFolder 2.0: no problem with popup folders, but the "click drop" or "auto click" options for the menubar may prevent Player's menu verbs from working. "Normal" mode works fine.
PopChar (tested 2.5.2 & 2.7.1): conflict on certain machine/OS combinations. Moving the "hot spot" to something other than the upper left corner may fix the problem. Or, use Player 1.5's new "set menu selection location".
StickyClick: To prevent StickyClick from intercepting Player's menu verbs, try a mouse delay of 20 or so.
TypeIt4Me: Move the "hot spot" to the right side of the screen to prevent conflicts with Player's menu verbs. Or, use Player 1.5's new "set menu selection location".
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