Search doc's B,C & D for number from each line of Doc A

[ccstone]

@lotr

Oops. Yes the perl script works fine in SL & took a second to finish! The previous version perl script also works on SL.

Hey lotr,

You tried to run the Perl script from the Applescript Editor? That explains a couple of things.

Live and learn…

Now I see why everyone recommends TextWrangler. Super fast, particularly the perl script!

TextWrangler is an excellent freeware plain-text html and programming editor. Its commercial big brother BBEdit is even better.

The speed of the Perl script is more because Perl is fast than TextWrangler is fast in this case.

A huge thanks for all your time and effort Chris.

You’re welcome.

This will reduce multiple hours or days of laborious searching through docs into a fraction of time.

That’s why we script and pursue automated solutions.

By the way I strongly recommend people who use AppleScript regularly employ an automation utility.

I have both FastScripts and Keyboard Maestro on my system for this reason.

FastScripts is only $9.95 U.S. and offers per-application and global keyboard shortcuts.

It will run AppleScript, Perl, Automator-Workflows, and many other things.

I’ve used it since 2003 and consider it amongst the best 10 bucks I’ve ever spent on my Macs. If you automate things on your Mac and are on a budget it’s a no-brainer.

So for your task I’m using my Temp.Script.Finder.sh script in the Finder.

Its keyboard shortcut is Cmd-Shift-J.

To open that script for editing in BBEdit I have another script with a keyboard shortcut of Cmd-Opt-Shift-J.

This way I don’t have to fiddle around and open BBEdit (or TextWrangler) or Script Debugger (or the Applescript Editor) to run any given script.

FastScripts has a menu if you don’t like keyboard shortcuts.

I think Keyboard Maestro is a total-no-brainer for anyone who wants to get things done on a Mac, but at $36.00 U.S. it’s a little bigger bite.

Even so it’s saved me so much time and effort I consider it absolutely indispensable.