A few days ago I wrote to ask the forum for help in solving what appeared to me to be a very simple problem (see: http://bbs.applescript.net/viewtopic.php?t=8955). I wasn’t asking for someone to do my job for me; rather, I was trying to find a way to help myself. But no one has responded, and by now the post has gone from the front page and so in the normal course of events it will never be seen again.
Can I ask, please, why this is? I can think of a few possibilities, and no doubt there are others:
1 The problem has no answer, or it is too difficult to address
2 The problem is too easy for most users of the forum, and not worth their time to respond
3 My request for help was phrased in a way that offended people
This isn’t meant to be offensive in itself – it’s a genuine call for help.
Thanks in anticipation
Martyn
To be true, we have here lots-of-lots of people which signs up, asks 1 or 2 questions and dissapears from the board forever. On the other hand, there are usually about 5/10 folks-usuals which try to answer all questions, only if they find the time to do it or if they are capable to do it.
So, perhaps your question arrived in a unlucky day :?:
Also, believe or not, it is not easy most of times redirect to something similar to a tutorial. As you guess, it does not exist a tutorial called “pick the first line of 2000 word files and write the results to another place”. You could be instructed to a “how-to write a droplet”, a “brief introduction to word applescripting” and “basic file I/O tutorial”, but gather all this data is much hard than writing the entire script… 
So, unfortunatelly, there are not much differences between a “please, write this script for me” and “how can I do a, then b, then c”. 
A better approach would be: “how can I read the first line in a word document?”
Then: “how can I process lots of file in the same script?”
Then: “how can I write text to a file?”
(at least as I see it, these questions are more easy to get answered 1 by 1)
As this is a site full of resources, you can take a look to our FAQ section or Links section, or stay in the board and hope it is a “lucky day”…
Answer in the same thread: :rolleyes:
http://bbs.applescript.net/viewtopic.php?p=31987#31987
Thank you, jj, this is exactly the sort of answer I was looking for. You are right: it is better to analyse the problem and break it down into steps, and then ask the appropriate questions. I will bear that in mind for the future.
And thank you, also, for your response to my original post. It works perfectly without modification – and, I think I understand your script all the way through!
Best wishes
Martyn