Somewhere before I have seen an example of code that uses the Foundation framework to call Objective-C commands to provide a display dialog with a text input area that is not just a single line tall. That can make it much easier for a user to input a return-delimited list of text. I suspect someone like @Piyomaru provided the example code.
however, when I search here, I cannot find it.
Does anyone know how to find that post? Or, can anyone provide sample code?
I’m not sure if this is what you are looking for, but AppleScript’s display dialog command converts to multiline text-entry mode when at least one linefeed or return character is included in the default answer parameter value:
activate
set textReturned to (display dialog "Enter one of more lines of text:" default answer linefeed)'s text returned
or
activate
set textReturned to (display dialog "Enter one of more lines of text:" default answer return)'s text returned
To enlarge the text entry box vertically, simply add multiple linefeed or return characters. For example:
activate
set textReturned to (display dialog "Enter one of more lines of text:" default answer (linefeed & linefeed & linefeed & linefeed & linefeed & linefeed & linefeed & linefeed & linefeed & linefeed))'s text returned
One caveat is that when the editable text field is converted to multiline text-entry mode by the above technique, the Return key no longer serves as a proxy for an OK button press but rather as a text insertion key, inserting a literal linefeed character into the text. In order to close the window with a key press, a special key combination must be used. Function-Return works on my computer, but I’ve read of others, including Command-Return or pressing the Enter key on the numeric keypad (neither of which works for me.)