Applescript Copying a table between documents

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Level 1

13 points

Applescript Copying a table between documents

Hi All,

SG was so kind to help out with a script that opened 2 documents and copied/pasted a table from one to the other document.

I wanted to modify the script to work with both documents already opened.

I have modified (possibly broken) SGs script to this:

tell application "System Events"

tell process "Numbers"

set frontmost to true

-- Selects Document1

click (first menu item whose name contains "Document1") of menu "Window" of menu bar 1

end tell

tell application "Numbers"

set t to table 1 of sheet 1 of front document -- selects the table

tell application "Numbers" to activate

delay 0.4

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}

end tell

tell application "System Events"

tell process "Numbers"

set frontmost to true

-- Selects Document2

click (first menu item whose name contains "Document2") of menu "Window" of menu bar 1

end tell

tell application "Numbers"

tell application "Numbers" to activate

delay 0.4

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using {command down}

end tell

Its seems to work, but it does not paste the copied table, but this:

What am I doing wrong here?

Best...Jan

Posted on Jan 5, 2022 11:12 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

SGIII

Level 8

35,348 points

Jan 6, 2022 7:28 AM in response to jklarsen

This seems to be working reliably on my machine. You may need to vary the "delays" to get it to work on yours. Both Doc 1 and Doc 2 are assumed to be already open. If you rename to match your setup be sure to include the .numbers file extension.

set sourceDocName to "Doc 1.numbers"
set targetDocName to "Doc 2.numbers"

tell application "Numbers"
	-- put focus on source document and copy table to clipboard
	set t to table 1 of sheet 1 of document sourceDocName
	-- select all the cells in the table for copying
	tell t to set its selection range to range (name of its cell range)
	activate -- return the focus to Numbers before copying
	delay 2 -- vary as needed to give UI time to catch up
	tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
	
	-- "opening" an already open document puts the focus on it for pasting
	open (POSIX path of (file of document targetDocName as alias) as text)
	delay 1.5 -- vary as needed to give UI time to catch up
	tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using {command down}
end tell

SG

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Answer 2

SGIII

Level 8

35,348 points

Jan 6, 2022 4:37 AM in response to jklarsen

You're not doing anything wrong! My script is misbehaving, though. Gui-scripting is fussy and I don't fully understand what it happening here. Will experiment a little and see if can find a way.

SG

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Answer 3

jklarsen Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 6, 2022 11:22 PM in response to SGIII

Thank you so much for you efforts!!!!!!

I think the delay might have been contributing factor, so "2" is a good setting.

I could not get the paste part working, and since I work with .csv I changed the numbers document part of your script, and now this works for me.

tell application "System Events"

tell process "Numbers"

set frontmost to true

click (first menu item whose name contains "Document1") of menu "Window" of menu bar 1

end tell

tell application "Numbers"

-- put focus on source document and copy table to clipboard

set t to table 1 of sheet 1 of front document

-- select all the cells in the table for copying

tell t to set its selection range to range (name of its cell range)

activate -- return the focus to Numbers before copying

delay 2 -- vary as needed to give UI time to catch up

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}

end tell

tell application "System Events"

tell process "Numbers"

set frontmost to true

click (first menu item whose name contains "Document2") of menu "Window" of menu bar 1

end tell

tell application "Numbers"

activate -- return the focus to Numbers before copying

delay 2 -- vary as needed to give UI time to catch up

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using {command down}

end tell

Thank you so very much!!!!!

Best...Jan

Reply

Answer 4

jklarsen Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 6, 2022 5:08 AM in response to SGIII

Excellent - and thanks, I will standby.

Many thanks!

Best...Jan

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Applescript Copying a table between documents

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