creatiing new document in TextEdit and saving it to a folder

Hi Ariadne and welcome to Apple Discussions!

Your script works fine for me, so I wonder if you have the path set correctly.

Try it this way:

tell application "TextEdit"
activate
make new document
set fileSpec to (path to documents folder from user domain as string) & "Barbara"
save document 1 in fileSpec
close window 1 with saving
end tell

This will create a TextEdit file in your home Documents folder.

If you want a more fruitful environment than TextEdit for learning AppleScript, you might want to try Tex-Edit Plus. It's far more scriptable than TextEdit.

(Incidentally, if you just want to create text files and fill them with data, you don't need to use a separate application. You can use the file read/write commands in Standard Additions. See page 343 of AppleScript the Definitive Guide for a brief description, and post back here if you need more help.)

HTH

H

Not all Macintosh e-Mail'er applications are scripted the same; thus, Apple's 'Mail' e-Mail'er application is assumed.

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-- Create dynamic path to the desired folder.
tell application "Finder" to set dFolder to ((startup disk) as string) & "Documents:Barbara:"

tell application "Mail" -- Utilize 'Mail's AppleScript dictionary.
set selected_Messages to selection -- Obtain a list of selected e-Mail messages.

repeat with i in selected_Messages -- Cycle through the selected e-Mail messages.
set tSubject to my Clean_String((subject of i) as string) -- Obtain each e-Mail message's 'Subject' line.
set tContent to (content of i) as string -- Obtain each e-Mail message's contents.

set fRef to open for access file (dFolder & tSubject) with write permission -- Create a new file at dFolder.
write tContent to fRef -- Write the e-Mail message to the new file.
close access fRef -- Close the new file.
end repeat
end tell

on Clean String(localString) -- 'Macintosh file names cannot contain a ':'. Here it is replaced by '_'.

if (local_String contains ":") then -- Check for presence of ':" in local_String
-- Standard 'AppleScript's text item delimiters' preparation.
set {oAStid, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, ":"}
set local_String to text items of local_String -- Creates a list of items separated by ":'.
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "_" -- Set a new delimiter character.
set local_String to local_String as string -- Creates a string from created list with '_' as the new delimiter.
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oAStid -- Restore 'AppleScript's text item delimiters'.
end if

return local_String -- Return modified / non-modified string.
end Clean_String

-----

The created generic text file can be viewed and edited with any text editor.

Also, the 'repeat ... end repeat' portion can be rewritten as ...

-----

repeat with i in selected_Messages -- Cycle through the selected e-Mail messages.
set fRef to open for access file (dFolder & (my Clean_String((subject of i) as string))) with write permission -- Create a new file at dFolder.
write ((content of i) as string) to fRef -- Write the e-Mail message to the new file.
close access fRef -- Close the new file.
end repeatf

-----

Mac OS X (10.4.4)

'end repeatf' is a typographical error. It should be 'end repeat'.

Thus, the optional code is:

repeat with i in selected_Messages -- Cycle through the selected e-Mail messages.
set fRef to open for access file (dFolder & (my Clean_String((subject of i) as string))) with write permission -- Create a new file at dFolder.
write ((content of i) as string) to fRef -- Write the e-Mail message to the new file.
close access fRef -- Close the new file.
end repeat

Mac OS X (10.4.4)

If folder "Barbara" exists in Document folder and file extension ".txt" is default to TextEdit, then you can simply do:

tell application "Finder"
make new file at folder ((path to documents folder from user domain as string) & "Barbara") with properties {name:"Testfile.txt"}
end tell