5.7. Saving Files

The last piece of the Mac OS X file puzzle is saving documents you already have open. AppleScript makes this simple: the save command works the same way as choosing File Save.

Similarly, the save as command works the same way as choosing File Save As (that is, when you provide a file path to the save as command, Mac OS X saves a copy of your current file in the location you specify).

Unfortunately, this trick works only in certain programs (TextEdit, Microsoft Word, and Safari, for example). To see if a particular program supports AppleScript-based saves, open the program's dictionary and see if the dictionary's Standard Suite (Section 3.2.3) includes the save command.

Power Users' Clinic You Can't Judge a File by its Extension

Back in the days of Mac OS 9, before you had to put file extensions at the end of documents' names, your Mac knew what kind of files you had by their type and creator codes. The type code told your Mac what kind of information was stored in a file. For example, if a file's type code was "TEXT," that meant the file was just plain text, while a type code of "APPL" meant the file was an application. The creator code, on the other hand, told your Mac which program produced a file. A file created with Photoshop would use the creator code "8BIM," while one created with AppleWorks would use "BOBO"go figure. The importance of type and creator codes in Mac OS X is reduced, but they're still around. In fact, if a file has a type and creator code, they override any settings for which program should open the file. That's why the help files that come with Photoshop won't open in your default Web browser: Adobe has set their creator code to "MSIE," so they'll always open in Internet Explorer. Thankfully, AppleScript lets you modify type and creator codesor get rid of them completely. The following script can help you do it: set selectedFile to (choose file) (* Get the file's current type and creator codes: *) tell application "Finder" set fType to the file type of ¬ selectedFile set cType to the creator type of ¬ selectedFile end tell (* Get the new type and creator codes you want to use: *) set newF to text returned of ¬ (display dialog "Current type code: " ¬ & fType & ". New:" default answer "") set newC to text returned of ¬ (display dialog "Current creator ¬ code: " & cType & ". New:" default ¬ answer "") --Set the new type and creator codes: tell application "Finder" set the file type of ¬ selectedFile to newF set the creator type of ¬ selectedFile to newC end tell If you'd like to banish the type and creator code from a fileso that Mac OS X will judge the file by its extensionenter "????" for both codes (or, if you want the details of erasing such codes, see http://daringfireball.net/2004/02/setting_empty_file_and_creator_types). If you'd rather just replace the existing codes with new ones, check out http://kb.indiana.edu/data/aemh.html for a list of type and creator codes for different programs and files.

5.7.1. An Example: Saving in TextEdit

As the epitome of Mac-ness, TextEdit does support the save command. Thus, if you needed a script to save your current TextEdit document, this one would work well:

tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    save the front document
end tell

If you haven't saved your current TextEdit document yet, a Save dialog box appears. (The Save dialog box, as you know, lets you specify a name for the document and where you want it stored.)

5.7.2. Forgoing the Dialog Box

Of course, you could always save your files without using AppleScript. The real benefit of scripting Save operations, though, is that you can completely bypass the Save dialog box, saving you several precious seconds:

tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    save the front document in ":Users:
yourUsername
:Desktop:kiwi.rtf"
   --Remember to replace 
yourUsername
 with your actual one-word username
end tell

The in option lets you specify the colon-separated path of the file into which you want to save your document (in this example, the kiwi.rtf file on your desktop). If there's a particular file you often savesay, your personal home pageyou might find it useful to run the previous script whenever you want to save a new version of the document in the old location.

Make sure you specify a file, not a folder! If you put a path to a folder after the in option, AppleScript overwrites that folder completely. And if that folder were your desktop, the script would instantly trash your Desktop folder and every file inside it, leaving your desktop files as mere memories. Here's what to avoid:

--DO NOT RUN THIS SCRIPT!!
tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    --Wanna erase your Desktop? Here's how:
    save the front document in ¬ 
        "Macintosh HD:Users:yourUsername:Desktop:"
(* Since you specify the path to your Desktop, Mac OS X overwrites the 
Desktop...permanently! *)
end tell

Instead, specify the actual file you want to save the document into. (You can tell you're specifying a file because it won't end in a colon.)

5.7.3. Saving All Documents at Once

There's one more timesaving trick to the save command: saving all your documents in one step. This can come in handy for those times when you have multiple files open and want to quickly save all of themwithout switching to each document window individually and hitting -S. Use this script to get the job done:

tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    save every document
end tell

When you run this script, TextEdit does the same thing it would do if you chose File Save All. The nice thing about this script, though, is that it works in many programs that don't even have a Save All command, such as Microsoft Word, Safari, and even Script Editor itself. Simply change the tell statement to reflect the program you want to command, and run the script again.

For example, here's how that script would look if you wanted to use it with Word:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
    activate
    save every document
end tell

Now that you know how to open, move, copy, and save documents automatically, you can call yourself a true AppleScript filephile.