Applescript Clipboard Confusion

Question

Level 1

0 points

Applescript Clipboard Confusion

Hi,
I am trying to write a simple applescript that allows you to see the clipboard as a dialog and set it to " " (clear it).
So far I have:

set theText to (the clipboard)
display dialog theText buttons {"Clear Clipboard", "Ok"} default button 2
if button returned of the result = "button 1" then tell application "Finder" to set (the clipboard) to " "

but the script doesn't set the clipboard to " " at all - it just leaves it alone,
Help wanted for confused amateur!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 23, 2009 3:27 PM

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Answer 1

Budgie

Level 4

1,121 points

Nov 23, 2009 3:40 PM in response to Mr BlobE

Hi Mr BlobE

try something like this:

set theText to the clipboard as text
display dialog theText buttons {"Clear Clipboard", "Ok"} default button 2
if button returned of the result = "Clear Clipboard" then set the clipboard to ""

Budgie

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Answer 2

Nov 23, 2009 4:23 PM in response to Mr BlobE

set {valbut, valtxt} to {button returned, text returned} of (display dialog "The clipboard:" default answer (the clipboard as string) buttons {"Clear", "Edit", "Finish"})
if valbut is "Edit" then
set the clipboard to valtxt
else if valbut is "Clear" then
set the clipboard to ""
end if

That help?

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Answer 3

red_menace

Level 6

17,066 points

Nov 23, 2009 4:58 PM in response to Mr BlobE

Basically "the clipboard" is one of those artifacts of an earlier age that had a reason at the time but now is just weird. This item includes the (normally optional) "the" keyword, so sometimes AppleScript just gets confused when using the parenthesis.

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Answer 4

twtwtw

Level 5

4,948 points

Nov 24, 2009 9:51 AM in response to red_menace

red_menace wrote:
Basically "the clipboard" is one of those artifacts of an earlier age that had a reason at the time but now is just weird.

what you meant to say, I think, was {color:blue}Basically "the clipboard" is one of those artifacts +of applescript nomenclature+ of an earlier age...{color}. some version of clipboard functionality is (of course) fundamental to any kind of copy/paste operation.

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Answer 5

Mr BlobE Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2009 4:09 PM in response to Budgie

Thanks, this is just what I needed. : )

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Answer 6

red_menace

Level 6

17,066 points

Nov 25, 2009 12:59 PM in response to twtwtw

You are correct.

I think there was some other third party scripting item way back when that was already using the "clipboard" term, so "the" was added.

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