On 9/27/06 7:34 AM, "Ulf Dahlén" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> At "AppleScript Resources for Office 2004" (http://www.microsoft.com/ > mac/resources/resources.aspx?pid=asforoffice), there are some great > reference guides for Applescript in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. How > come there isn't a guide for Entourage? I really would like one! Good question. The answer is lies in the fact that the Entourage wing of Mac Office is quite separate from the Word-Excel-PowerPoint branches. Entourage has had a good AppleScript model from the very beginning, inherited from Outlook Express Mac and added to. By and large, it's a clear and orthodox AppleScript implementation based on structures recommended by Apple going back to OS 7 (when Apple itself followed such guidelines, no longer true with OS X iApps). It _does_ have several quirks which would benefit from a Reference Guide, for sure, and the new features for Exchange and calendar script especially in 11.2 and later could benefit from explication. But, by and large, if you know AppleScript language and how it works, 90-95% of Entourage's scripting just makes good sense by checking its dictionary. If it still seems unfamiliar, chances are you need to learn or brush up on your AppleScript syntax rather than Entourage specifically. There are now about 5 or 6 good books: the best on AppleScript as a language is "AppleScript: The Definitive Guide" by Matt Neuburg, published by O'Reilly. By contrast, the AppleScript implementation in Office 2004 for Word, excel and PowerPoint is new, enormous, and very unorthodox. That's because it "plugs into" the same underlying structure that the previous VBA model used, with some alterations. It has a huge collection of application-specific "enumerations" that wouldn't make much sense without some explication, and some very strange structures. As it happens, the AppleScript References for these apps are all, basically, slightly modified "translations" of already-existing Help pages for VBA. Somebody had to go to some trouble to do the "translation", but basically, it was all there already, aside form the the first, introductory, sections for each Reference (which are the best part: make sure you read and understand those, especially the one in Word). There is no such pre-existing Help for Entourage, so it would be a bigger deal to start a Reference from scratch there. (Sometimes I wonder if there's anyone in MacBU who even knows about the older "quirks" in Entourage's scripting since the original developer has left. I might be the only person who keeps track of this stuff.) And I also fear that the newer developers don't always realize that they are introducing some new quirks, though I and others do try to keep them on their toes and get any real oddities fixed before they become permanent. This list, and the Entourage news group, is your best Reference. -- Paul Berkowitz -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
