GUI scripting basics - help!

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

I’m trying to script Preview, which doesn’t have a Dictionary.
I’m trying to use GUI scripting with some basics I picked up from “The Missing Manual” and from Apples website.
Could someone let me know either why this doesn’t work:

tell application "Preview"
	activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
	tell process "Preview.app"
		tell menu bar 1
			tell menu item "Save As..."
				tell sheet 1
					tell group 1
						tell pop up button 1
							tell menu
								click menu item "PDF"
								end tell
							end tell
						end tell
					end tell
				end tell	
			end tell
		end tell
	end tell
end tell

Or, where I can find out a good way to make it work.
Thanks! AB

#2

Tell us what it’s supposed to do for you.

#3

Thanks for quick reply -
This is opening a jpeg document, Saving As a PDF document and closing the document.

#4

Take your lead from this previous thread which uses Image Events (built-in to Tiger and perhaps Jaguar too).

#5

Aha, Image Events App - very useful, thanks for pointing me there.

In the dictionary, they list:
save‚v : Save an image to a file in one of various formats
save reference : the object for the command
[as BMP/JPEG/JPEG2/PICT/PNG/PSD/QuickTime Image/TIFF] : file type in which to save the image ( default is to make no change )

No PDF on the this though. Is this what Preview would be using?

#6

Very frustrating. Image Events will convert among all the rastered image types but won’t go to pdf which is like a bit map type (I think) rather than a vector file. At the same time, converting anything to be printed to a saved PDF is an option. Surely there’s an engine somewhere to do that, but I can’t find it.

#7

Actually, it is vector based.

#8

Hi,

ui scripting the Print window to save as pdf can be done. You end up with a save dialog, however you can’t ui script the location on where to save the pdf.

What I like to do is change the “Save As PDF…” to a popup button using PDF Workflow which is a built-in option to all users.

http://www.apple.com/applescript/print/

Switching the button to popup allows you to select a menu item which saves your pdf to a certain folder or may pass a reference of the pdf located in a hidden folder to a script. You sould probably use the first option and save to a predesignated folder where your script can do whatever it wants with the new pdf.

Your’s is a common post and may still be here in discussions where I showed someone how to do it.

I’m thinking that there was a way to do this with unix also, but can’t remember.

Note I los all my new scripts, so haven’t posted an example.

gl,