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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click System
I wanted to look at the code of an AppleScript in the Scripts Menu. Normally, I would have to do this by navigating to the script in the Finder and opening it in Script Editor. But I took a wild guess and Option-clicked on the script in the menu, and it opened in Script Editor directly! This makes tweaking my frequently-used scripts really easy.

[robg adds: Amazingly handy, and as far as I can tell, not documented anywhere...]
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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click | 7 comments | Create New Account
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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click
Authored by: DougAdams on Jan 05, '05 10:39:50AM
This feature has been available as long as the Scripts Menu has been around, I believe. You may also notice that some apps with Script menus also have the same feature, notably Tex-Edit Plus. Other apps with Script menus offer an "Open Script Folder" option in the menu, which, agreed, is not as swift as the Option-click feature.

iTunes lacks an "Open Scripts Folder" menu option. Here's a script that you can place compiled in your iTunes Scripts folder (home/Library/iTunes/Scripts) that will open the iTunes Scripts folder in the Finder:
tell application "Finder"
	open folder (((path to "dlib" from user domain) as string) & "iTunes:Scripts") as alias
	activate
end tell


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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click
Authored by: Tom Robinson on Jan 05, '05 01:17:19PM

Other notable apps are those from Bare Bones: BBEdit, Mailsmith, and TextWrangler.



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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click
Authored by: dr_turgeon on Jan 05, '05 01:08:18PM
Sweet!
Thank you, FunkDaddy.

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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click
Authored by: osxpounder on Jan 05, '05 04:21:53PM

Funny coincidence -- just 2 days ago I tried this myself, for the first time, on the hunch that it might work exactly as you described. I assumed, since it did and my guess was right, that this was something Mac veterans already knew about even though it was news to me.

My hunch was just this: if it's a menu item, and there's some other presumably common thing you'd like to do with that menu item other than the default action the menu item normally initiates ... then try Option-clicking it. For Scripts, I assumed a commonly desired thing would be to open it in the editor.

If Option-click doesn't cause the result you were guessing it would, it's worth trying a Shift-click, too. Last night, Fire [chat app] crashed on start every time. I tried Shift-clicking the alias I use to open it, and it opened without automagically connecting -- and it didn't crash. Apparently Shift-click often starts apps without special startup options.

See what I mean about guessing? If you think there's a chance the programmers anticipated what you'd want, try an Option-click or a Shift-click. When I do, I'm often pleasantly surprised.

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osxpounder



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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click
Authored by: jakacmar on Jan 05, '05 05:21:36PM
Have a look at Apple's own page on the Script Menu which details this as well as the fact that shift-clicking a script in the script menu will reveal it in the Finder.

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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click
Authored by: osxpounder on Jan 06, '05 01:58:03PM

Nice! Thanks for that link.

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osxpounder



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Edit the Scripts menu scripts with one click
Authored by: marook on Jan 11, '05 12:01:28PM

If you use FastScripts 2.x it even turn the cursor into a pencil to indicate this behaviour.. nice touch! Shift key makes an 'alias' cursor to indicate it's gonna reveal it in Finder...

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/Marook



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