Jun 25, '03 10:08:00AM • Contributed by: Robert Black
An Example: Tickle File
If anyone out there is as obsessed about organising yourself as I am, you've probably come across the concept of the Tickle File. A Tickle File is nothing more than a sequence of 12 folders (one for each month), and 31 more folders for the days of the month at the front. As each day of the month passes, you look inside the corresponding day folder, act on its contents, and then put the empty folder into the following month. This very simple structure allows you to effectively file things up to a year in advance, confident that they won't be overlooked.
Okay, here's the example - a way to use AppleScript to sort folders named after the months of the year, so that the current month is at the top, with the subsequent months in the correct order, and wrapping around for the start of the next year.
Each morning, when this AppleScript is run automatically by a third party macro tool, it opens my tickle file and makes sure that the sorting is up to date. I act on today's filed actions if there are any, and then drag today's now empty day folder down to the following month. When the next month starts, you look for any tasks/files dumped into the Month folder, and if there are some, sub-file them away in appropriate days of that month if you don't want to act on them immediately.
A stuffed archive of the basic folder structure is available here [thereafter.com.au].
Read the rest of the article for the script...
(If your system uses a language other than English, adjust the month names in both the script and folders accordingly)
property mypath : "Disk:GeneralReference:TickleFile:"
try
tell application "Finder"
open folder mypath
end tell
on error
set mypath to choose folder with prompt "Please select the folder ¬
(named TickleFile?) containing the 12 folders with month names..."
tell application "Finder"
open folder mypath
end tell
end try
set mymonths to {"January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", ¬
"July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"}
-- Check that it's the right folder...
try
repeat with n from 1 to 12
set x to (mypath as string) & item n of mymonths as alias
end repeat
on error
display dialog "The TickleFile folder doesn't seem to contain the ¬
correct 12 months. Stopping script." with icon stop buttons {"Okay"} ¬
giving up after 10 default button 1
return
end try
set curmonth to month of (current date) as string
set curmonthnum to monthnum(curmonth)
tell application "Finder"
set current view of front window to list view
set icon size of list view options of front window to small icon
set visible of column comment column of list view options of front window to true
set width of column comment column of list view options of front window to 0
set sort column of list view options of front window to comment column
repeat with n from 1 to 12
set x to (mypath as string) & item n of mymonths
set t to ((n - curmonthnum + 13) mod 12)
if t = 0 then set t to 12
set comment of item x to t as string
end repeat
activate
end tell
on monthnum(mymonth)
set mymonths to {"January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", ¬
"July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"}
repeat with i from 1 to count of mymonths
if mymonth = item i of mymonths then
return i
end if
end repeat
end monthnum
