• Open Menu Close Menu
  • Apple
  • Shopping Bag
  • Apple
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Watch
  • TV
  • Music
  • Support
  • Search apple.com
  • Shopping Bag

Lists

Open Menu Close Menu
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Lists hosted on this site
  • Email the Postmaster
  • Tips for posting to public mailing lists
Re: Word scripting?
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Word scripting?


  • Subject: Re: Word scripting?
  • From: Paul Berkowitz <email@hidden>
  • Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:13:00 -0800

On 3/24/03 1:35 PM, "Shane Stanley" <email@hidden> wrote:

> On 25/3/03 5:14 AM +1000, Paul Berkowitz, email@hidden, wrote:
>
>> The scripting of Word is notoriously unreliable precisely for things like
>> this. It starts out OK, once you get your head around its 'text from 12 to
>> 25'
>> terminology, but then it goes all wrong.
>>
> Yep. And with system errors that make trial and error a very tedious
> business.
>
>> This is likely because Word is not a text editor but a complex word
>> processor,
>> and has lots and lots of invisible characters which control paragraph style,
>> etc. It was never properly translated for AppleScript, and probably can't be
>> in the simple text-editor way we'd like.
>>
> Sorry, but this just sounds like excuse-making. The complexity of text
> handling in apps like QuarkXPress and InDesign probably exceeds that in
> Word, and they manage to make it scriptable quite nicely.
>
> The "likely" reason, IMO, is that it was a low priority.

I'm sure that's correct.

>The technical
> issues are a red herring.

I very much doubt that. My impression is that trying to squeeze Word's
object model into the basic Standard and Text Suites is a hopeless task, and
that to implement scripting properly for Word would require a more direct
match from its actual object model to commands in its scripting suite.

--
Paul Berkowitz
_______________________________________________
applescript-users mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives: http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/applescript-users
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.

  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: Word scripting?
      • From: Shane Stanley <email@hidden>
References: 
 >Re: Word scripting? (From: Shane Stanley <email@hidden>)

  • Prev by Date: RE: Mount Volume bugs?
  • Next by Date: Re: Word scripting?
  • Previous by thread: Re: Word scripting?
  • Next by thread: Re: Word scripting?
  • Index(es):
    • Date
    • Thread