Scripting for Lawyers > Tools

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So, what tools will you need to get started? Because we’ll mostly concentrate on AppleScript, you’ll need a Mac. Every Mac comes with an application named “Script Editor” which looks like this:

You can find Script Editor in your Application folder under “AppleScript”.

In the toolbar, you can see buttons for “Record”, “Stop”, “Run”, and “Compile”. We’ll discuss those buttons later, but you might want to practice pressing Command+R, the shortcut for the “Run” command and Command+K, the shortcut for the “Compile” command.

You can also write AppleScripts in a text editor such as TextMate or TextEdit, although I’d advise against TextEdit. TextMate has some cool customization features if you like to dawdle with text. TextMate can also run scripts directly from TextMate or you can ask TextMate to compile the script in Script Editor. I highly recommend TextMate.

Another option is Xcode, Apple’s free integrated development environment (IDE) for writing Mac apps. You can use Xcode to write regular AppleScripts. You can also use Xcode to write AppleScript Studio applications, which are Mac apps written in AppleScript. We’ll discuss AppleScript Studio in a separate post. You can find Xcode on your install DVD that shipped with Leopard or your Mac. You can also download Xcode from the Apple Developer Connection, but, beware, it’s a large download.

So that’s it? Just a Mac and Script Editor and maybe TextMate? Well, that’s all you need to get started. We’ll discuss some other applications that you may want to use when writing AppleScripts in a later post. In our next post, we’ll write our first AppleScript!