Opening Word

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
,
#1

When I open Microsoft Word with an AppleScript it takes you to the “Project Gallery” window. Does anyone know how to close that window with an AppleScript command?

Model: 17" PowerBook
Browser: Safari 417.8
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.4)

#2

Try this:
In Word Preferences (available in the Word menu bar when a document is opened), go to General and uncheck Show Project Gallery at startup (I have Word in French; I guess this is it in English). The next time you will launch Word, it will open a new document (the Normal template). So I asked my script to close this window:

tell application “Microsoft Word”
launch
close window 1
end tell

#3

That’s helpful but if I want the Project Gallery to be the default, is there a way to close it with an AppleScript command? Maybe the answer is no.

#4

I tried that and here’s what I got in the event log:

tell application “Microsoft Word”
launch
current application
end tell
tell application “System Events”
set frontmost of process “Microsoft Word” to true
get every window of process “Microsoft Word”
{window “Project Gallery - New” of application process “Microsoft Word”, window 2 of application process “Microsoft Word”, window 3 of application process “Microsoft Word”}
ASCII character 27
“”
keystroke “”
end tell

It did not close the window. It opened Word and the Project Gallery - New window and then it just stayed there. I increased the delay to 12 but no difference. What is ASCII character 27? Is it a return or enter character? Maybe it should be something else. Interesting approach though.

It’s a bit of a tough nut because the window doesn’t understand the close command so I can’t just close the window.

#5

I tried moving the “keystroke (ASCII character 27)” inside the repeat. Still did not close the window.

#6

Hi tupertoller,

try adding this to make sure word is launched before continueing:

tell application “Microsoft Word” to launch
tell application “Finder”
repeat while not ((count (every process whose name is “Microsoft Word”)) as boolean)
delay 1
end repeat
end tell
tell application “System Events” to tell process “Microsoft Word”
set frontmost to true
repeat until windows is not {}
delay 1
end repeat
keystroke (ASCII character 27)
end tell

(for me it worked)

D.

#7

I also knocked up a quick routine a little earlier, but didn’t post when I saw that Jacques had beaten me to it (again). It’s fairly similar:

tell application "Microsoft Word" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Microsoft Word"
	repeat until (count windows) > 0
		delay 0.2
	end repeat
	tell (first window whose title starts with "Project Gallery - ") to if exists then click button "Cancel"
end tell
#8

Both Jacques and Kai’s methods work. Thank you both and yes I am using Office 2004. Regards, JJ

#9

Glad to hear the suggestions work for you, JJ.

A couple of small points may be worth bearing in mind. If the gallery option chosen previously was not ‘New’, then the name/title of the gallery window could differ slightly. The “starts with” syntax should help to avoid potential problems here.

It’s also a good idea to check for the existence of a window before attempting to perform an action on it, just in case the script is ever run mid-session - or someone changes Word’s preferences so that the window never appears.

You might like to consider something like the following variation, which gives up checking for the window after a certain time (in this case, up to 5 seconds after launch):

launch application "Microsoft Word"
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Microsoft Word"
	set frontmost to true
	tell (first window whose title starts with "Project Gallery - ") to repeat 25 times
		if exists then
			click button "Cancel"
			exit repeat
		end if
		delay 0.2
	end repeat
end tell
#10

Kai yes that’s better. While I’m on this, what is the default unit for the delay command. I seem to remember ticks somewhere along the appescript way, which were very brief. Is the unit of a delay statement seconds? JJ

#11

Yes JJ, the delay command is expressed in seconds. So if the loop that I suggested repeats 25 times with a delay of 0.2 seconds on each iteration, the total checking time would be [25 * 0.2 =] 5 seconds. (That’s assuming, of course, that the window doesn’t materialise and cause the script to exit the repeat loop sooner.)

Ticks (as used, for example, in Jon’s Commands.osax) are units of one sixtieth of a second. :slight_smile: