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macOS Applescript to automate "Save as PDF" in print menu

D

dmgibney

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 27, 2011
1
0
Hello,

I've spent some time searching for a solution but haven't found anything, hence this post. Here's what I would like to do...I often find myself using the "save as PDF" option in the print menu to archive things that I do online (bank receipts, order confirmations, etc...) I save the PDFs to either of two places, a personal records folder for my personal transactions, and a business folder for my business transactions.

I am trying to write an applescript that I could select from the script menu that would:

1 - Open the print menu (cmd+p)
2 - Choose "Save as PDF…" from the print menu
3 - Prompt me to send it to either my personal or business folder
4 - Save the PDF to a subfolder for the current year (HD/users/username/docs/personal_records/2011)

I am new to applescripting, all I've been able to do so far is get the print menu of the current application to open. I did that with this code:

tell application "System Events"
keystroke "p" using {command down} -- activate print menu item
end tell

Any ideas on how to automate the selection of "Save as PDF" or how to dictate the save location based on the current year?

Your help is greatly appreciated!
 
MacGrunt

MacGrunt

macrumors newbie
Jul 25, 2011
7
0
G'day,

It looks like you're still waiting for an answer. Here's a partial one, as I have no idea how to script the Safari part. I haven't done any UI scripting.

Code: 
--get the current year 
set ThisYear to year of (current date)

--create a dialog to choose where to store the pdf
set ThisChoice to button returned of (display alert "Where should this be stored?." buttons {"cancel", "business", "personal"} default button "personal")
if ThisChoice is "personal" then
	set TheFolder to "HD:users:username:docs:personal_records:"
else if ThisChoice is "business" then
	set TheFolder to "HD:users:username:docs:business_records:"
else if ThisChoice is "cancel" then
	error -128
end if

--create 'year' folder if it does not already exist
tell application "Finder"
	if (exists folder ThisYear of folder TheFolder) is false then
		make new folder at TheFolder with properties {name:ThisYear}
	end if
end tell

--set the final folder path
set FolderPath to TheFolder & ThisYear & ":" as string


Hope that helps a little

m.
 
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