At their most complex, they can automate intricate and repetitive tasks that are messy in a GUI.Īs a minimum, every application supports a small core of commands to play clean with the Finder and macOS. At their simplest, these can open a document and print it, for instance. The concept behind AppleScript is simple: scripts that compile to a series of instructions for despatch by macOS to their destination application, which in turn is controlled by those commands to perform a co-ordinated sequence of functions.

AppleScript is designed to give users and developers direct control over the applications on their Macs, and was quickly supported by professional products such as QuarkXPress, as well as Apple’s own rich software portfolio. The release of Apple’s System 7 Pro, version 7.1.1, in October 1993 brought a new programming language, based on the ‘natural’ English-like syntax of HyperTalk, HyperCard’s scripting language.

As an introduction to future articles about Shortcuts and how to get more out of it, this article provides an overview of the last 28 years of scripting the Mac. With the imminent release of macOS Monterey comes a new system for scripting and automating the Mac: Shortcuts.

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