I copied this from an answer I got from another thread. I am trying to convert ~300 .xls and .xlsx files to tab delimited. They are all in the same folder. If anyone knows a better way, please let me know.
property type_list : {"XLS6", "XLS7", "XLS8", "XLSX"}
property extension_list : {"xls", "xlsx"}
on open these_workbooks
repeat with k from 1 to the count of these_workbooks
set this_item to item k of these_workbooks
set the item_info to info for this_item
--this if statement tests to make sure the items you're converting are Excel spreadsheets and not folders or aliases
if (folder of the item_info is false) and (alias of the item_info is false) and ((the file type of the item_info is in the type_list) or the name extension of the item_info is in the extension_list) then
tell application "Finder" to open this_item
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
--this just tacks on ".txt" to your file name
set workbookName to (name of active workbook & ".txt")
--save the current open workbook as a tab-delimited text file
tell active workbook to save workbook as filename workbookName file format text Mac file format
close active workbook saving no
end tell
end if
end repeat
end open
on run
display dialog "Drop Excel files onto this icon."
end run
All this does is open a dialog box and does nothing. Even though it’s meant to be a droplet, nothing happens when I drag a file to it.
In Applescript the run handler gets run when the script or application is run normally. Meanwhile, the open VarName handler gets run when some file or files are dropped onto the icon of the application and the files get set to the variable VarName. The script you posted cleverly places that display dialog in the on run handler to try to help you understand this usage. Instead, save the script as an application and then drop your files onto it.
EDIT:
After a quick test on a Mountain Lion machine that finally has Excel 2011 (I didn’t realize how much I’d been overcomplicating):
property type_list : {"XLS6", "XLS7", "XLS8", "XLSX"}
property extension_list : {"xls", "xlsx"}
on open these_workbooks
repeat with k from 1 to the count of these_workbooks
set this_item to item k of these_workbooks
set the item_info to info for this_item
--this if statement tests to make sure the items you're converting are Excel spreadsheets and not folders or aliases
if (folder of the item_info is false) and (alias of the item_info is false) and ((the file type of the item_info is in the type_list) or the name extension of the item_info is in the extension_list) then
tell application "Finder" to open this_item
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
--this just tacks on ".txt" to your file name
set workbookName to (path to desktop as string) & "After:" & (name of active workbook & ".txt")
display dialog workbookName
--save the current open workbook as a tab-delimited text file
tell active workbook to save workbook as filename workbookName file format text Mac file format
close active workbook saving no
end tell
end if
end repeat
end open
on run
display dialog "Drop Excel files onto this icon."
end run
Tags: excelexcel
