applescripts
Latest
Control iTunes from your Dock
Jonathan from Ripstyles.com sent along this easy little pack of apps, just like Dockables, that can be used to control iTunes from your Dock if you so choose. He confides in us that it wasn't that hard to put together ("just a few Applescripts"), and yes, it's true that there are now about five million ways to control iTunes out there, but what the heck, here's one more, just in case you haven't found your sweet spot yet.Actually, it would be awesome to control iTunes using Speakable Items! Has anyone done that yet? Then, you could make two recordings in Garageband that said "next track" and "previous track," import them into iTunes, and iTunes could control itself! Trippy!
An AppleScript for automatically opening WWDC '07 news sites
While we unfortunately won't have anyone liveblogging Steve Jobs' WWDC '07 keynote tomorrow morning, that doesn't mean we won't help you track down who will. Nik Fletcher has created an AppleScript that will automatically open nine - count 'em, nine - news sites and blogs that will be covering tomorrow's keynote and the rest of the WWDC 07 events in separate tabs of your default browser. He even includes a quick tip for those using Safari who haven't enabled tabbed browsing since - even still on 10.4 Tiger - Apple hasn't switched on this revolutionary feature by default.The nine sites Nik included in the AppleScript are as follows: Engadget MacRumors Live MacDailyNews (sigh, I know, but hey) AppleGazette Ars Technica Gizmodo Slashgear LoopRumors Apple Matters Of course, I link Nik's script with a bit of advice: be kind to these sites. The more we all furiously pound that refresh button on any site covering such a major event, the more likely the site is to buckle under insane traffic and stop being able to serve up the very news you're looking for. Be sure to read up on how each site is running the show and abide by their rules so we all can join in on the party, even if we have to watch from far away.
TUAW Tip: Re-embed iTunes artwork in media files
One of the backend changes that came with the release of iTunes 7 is how the app stores album artwork. The days of embedding album artwork in music files are gone, due in part (I assume) to the purchase and integration of CoverFlow, a flashy new way to browse your albums. Artwork is now stored in a new ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/ folder, but what if you want your album artwork embedded in those files? Users can have any number of reasons for wanting this, such as the Growl notifications that Quicksilver creates when iTunes starts playing something new. Those notifications (as I understand it) are incapable of properly display album artwork unless the image is embedded in the file, so iTunes 7 has created a bit of a conundrum with this new organization feature.Never fear, however, for Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes is yet again to the rescue. Doug has a handy script aptly titled Embed Artwork that can do just what it says: embed the album art back into your files. This should make things easier on Quicksilver + Growl, as well as if you move your media files to a new computer, artwork in tow.As usual, Doug's scripts are provided for free, but donations for all his hard work are strongly encouraged.[via Quicksilver's forums]
Hazel update brings even more productivity to automated file manager
I instantly fell in love with Hazel from Noodlesoft the first time I found it back in September '06, and since then it has received a literal landslide of new features that make it even more indispensable to any heavy file trafficker. For those just tuning in, Hazel is fundamentally a file organization utility; it allows you to set up a series of rules that watch files in directories of your choosing, and then it carries out various actions based on your criteria. For example: I download a lot of videos, particularly motion pieces I find from studios all over the web. I also download a lot of DMGs and ZIPs in the name of TUAW, and as you might guess, after just a busy morning of all this watching and downloading, my desktop is about as messy as the typical freshman dormroom. Enter Hazel, the background file management ninja. For these two scenarios, I have a couple of rules that watch my Desktop for files of type Movie, DMG or ZIP which were added more than 1 day ago. These rules will then move said files into their respective directories (Movies and Software, as one might guess) and apply a blue label to them, just to make sure I know what was moved how.
AppleScript brings iPod syncing to Yojimbo
On the Yojimbo mailing list, Steve Kalkwarf has shared an AppleScript he built that can send Yojimbo items tagged 'ipod' to the notes section of (surprise!) an iPod. Steve gave his permission to redistribute the script so we're hosting it here at TUAW to help keep the load off his servers. It's actually a pretty smart little script: it can break up long Yojimbo items into sequential notes, and it offers a dialog to wipe out previous Yojimbo notes from the iPod in case things get messy.Grateful users on the list have already asked if there's any way to make this script run automatically once an iPod is mounted. While there is surely some fancy schmancy command one can enter into Terminal to do this (anyone care to share?), I'm sure utilities like Life2Go, an app that syncs all sorts of info to an iPod and can run anything you want when one is connected, can do the trick for those of us who aren't wearing the badge of the code ninja.
Import del.icio.us bookmarks into Yojimbo via AppleScripts
Kenneth Kirksey has posted two AppleScripts on the Yojimbo mailing list for importing your del.icio.us bookmarks into Yojimbo, complete with all your tags. You can get these scripts from the mailing list archives of course, but Kenneth gave me permission to host both of them here on TUAW to make things easier on you readers.The first script, titled All del.icio.us to Yojimbo, imports all your del.icio.us bookmarks into Yojimbo, bringing along all of your tags to boot (If you're a messy tagger, I highly recommend tidying up your del.icio.us tags before you run this script). Per Kenneth's instructions, you simply need to download the text file we've zipped for you, copy all the code from the file into a Script Editor window, and then edit the "set delAccount" and "set delPassword" lines to add your account details in quotes.The second script, called Last del.icio.us to Yojimbo, simply imports your most recent del.icio.us bookmark into Yojimbo. Same instructions apply. Since these scripts make use of Yojimbo 1.3's new tag feature, I'm pretty sure these won't play well with previous versions. Feel free to share your experiences with the scripts here, and be sure to hit up the Yojimbo mailing list if you need more help with them.
kGTD author enthusiastic about OmniFocus
Ethan J. A. Schoonover, author of kGTD, has exhaled enthusiastically on his blog about the Omni Group's recently announced teased OmniFocus. Apparently, the Omni ninjas actually brought Schoonover out to their Seattle headquarters (along with Merlin Mann of the ever-productive 43folders) earlier this year for some good ol' fashioned brainstormin' and idea wranglin', and from the sounds of things, he's pretty excited about what's in store. Ethan had nothing but good things to say about his experience and the Omni folk, and explains that this natural and evolutionary collaboration with the Omni Group couldn't have happened at a better time, as his next logical step was to turn kGTD into a full-blown Cocoa app anyway (as opposed to the series of bolt-on, awkwardly installed AppleScripts it is now).Ethan refrained from offering any salvation from the dark, torturous and detail-less dungeon the Omni Group has already enslaved us in, but check out his Hold breath. Exhale. Focus blog post for some more bits and pieces about his experience, and some inspiring (though still incredibly vague) details of what's in store for OmniFocus.
Remove and restore iPod album art
If, for one reason or another, you're interested in stripping all the album art from every track on your iPod, I've found an applescript over at Doug's Applescripts for iTunes that's right up your alley. While you might be able to spend a bit more time to complete this same process manually, you'll tie up iTunes and your iPod until it finishes. The beauty of this script is that it can work in the background, allowing you to still use iTunes.Now on the other side of the fence, Restore iPod Album Art might just be for those of you who are suddenly panicking and need all that artwork back on the iPod. This one requires you to select tracks on the iPod in iTunes, in which case the script will attempt to find the corresponding track in the library to copy the album art from. I haven't gone through the readme, but Doug's listing says it's a must for using this script.
