applescript for address book

Question

Level 1

9 points

applescript for address book

Is there a way to click on a contact name, have apple script capture first name, last name, address, then print these in a document? I know I can use mail merge in Pages, but can't in other text editors

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 28, 2009 8:54 AM

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Answer 1

jamesabomb Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 1, 2009 4:25 PM in response to twtwtw

Unfortunately it does the same thing in text edit. I'm mystified, but other than multi-line street address it works fine, so I'll probably just put up with it the way it is. Thanks so much for your help

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Answer 2

twtwtw

Level 5

4,948 points

Nov 1, 2009 6:10 PM in response to jamesabomb

I'm looking at this you posted:

new guy
1234 1st St.Apt. 2234
blah, ks, 66220

is your concern that the 'Apt. 2234' is on the same line as the '1234 1st St.' bit? I don't think there's any way around that - AB is formatting the address correctly according to standard mail conventions by placing name, street address and city/state/zip on three separate lines. if you edit the address in address book, you'll see that even there the entire street address is considered as a single text block. you can add extra whitespace, but AB strips it out (assuming that that is a typo). This is a deeper issue having to do with system-wide data formating (google 'os x data detectors'): it's what allows you (for instance) to import a contact's name, email, address and phone number to address book from an email with a single click.

I know you can disable data detectors in Mail; you can probably do the same for address book (or maybe disabling it in Mail disables it in address book as well). that might fix the problem you're having (assuming I've understood your problem correctly, above). that seems a bit like cutting off your hand to cure a hangnail, though.

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Answer 3

jamesabomb Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 1, 2009 7:11 PM in response to twtwtw

Ok, here's the new script (I know I could have made it simpler):


tell application "Address Book"
 set theContacts to the selection
 repeat with thisPerson in theContacts
 set theStreet to the street of first address of thisPerson
 end repeat
 set theStreet1 to the character 1 of theStreet
 set theStreet2 to character 2 of theStreet
 set theStreet3 to character 3 of theStreet
 set theStreet4 to character 4 of theStreet
 set theStreet5 to character 5 of theStreet
 set theStreet6 to character 6 of theStreet
 set theStreet7 to character 7 of theStreet
 set theStreet8 to character 8 of theStreet
 set theStreet9 to character 9 of theStreet
 set theStreet10 to character 10 of theStreet
 set theStreet to "1: " & theStreet1 & return & "2: " & theStreet2 & return & "3: " & theStreet3 & return & "4: " & theStreet4 & return & "5: " & theStreet5 & return & "6: " & theStreet6 & return & "7: " & theStreet7 & return & "8: " & theStreet8 & return & "9: " & theStreet9 & return & "10: " & theStreet10 & return
end tell
tell application "TextEdit"
 set theNewDoc to make new document
 set text of theNewDoc to theStreet
end tell

the script takes this 2-line street address in my Address Book:
12 1st
apt.1234

and the result is:


1: 1
2: 2
3: 
4: 1
5: s
6: t
7: 
8: a
9: p
10: t

AHA, character 7 is a RETURN and the applescript "sees it," but the "street" property for scripting the Address Book isn't picking it up. I think we're done, until Apple makes the script for Address Book live up to the promise in its dictionary!

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Answer 4

twtwtw

Level 5

4,948 points

Nov 2, 2009 7:11 AM in response to jamesabomb

ah, sorry, I dropped a word. should be:

set theStreetArray to paragraphs of (get street of first address of thisPerson)

that will work, and it won't fail if you have street addresses that are more than three lines. but that's a minor thing, really. glad you have something you can use.

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Answer 5

jamesabomb Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 28, 2009 1:09 PM in response to jamesabomb

Thanks, that was great, and quick too!

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Answer 6

jamesabomb Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 29, 2009 11:11 AM in response to jamesabomb

see post above

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Answer 7

jamesabomb Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 30, 2009 8:35 PM in response to twtwtw

it works OK as I modified it in the script I posted, but the only bug is that it doesn't recognize multi-line street addresses. Any ideas on that?

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Answer 8

jamesabomb Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 31, 2009 5:17 PM in response to twtwtw

Sorry, still not formatting the 2-line street address. I changed "new guy's" street and made sure there were hard returns in it.

still getting:

new guy
1234 1st St.Apt. 2234
blah, ks, 66220

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Answer 9

jamesabomb Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 31, 2009 5:19 PM in response to jamesabomb

at least it's putting commas in instead of "a's" but, of course, there shouldn't be a comma or an "a" between state & zip. Must be some system error on my end?

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