Applescript: Read contents from text file, copy contents to clipboard

applescript dropbox automator plaintext
user2690304 picture user2690304 · Aug 16, 2013 · Viewed 8.3k times · Source

I am incredibly new to Applescript, first of all, so bear with me.

I currently have a plain-text file in a Dropbox folder. The file is set to be filled with text (and only text). I am trying to create an Automator workflow (or an Applescript script) that will read the contents from the text file, and write the contents to the clipboard. This way, I can copy text on my iOS devices, paste them into the plain-text file in Dropbox, and then use my mac (and this script), to paste the text to the mac. Basically, using Dropbox to sync clipboards between OS X and iOS.

I imagine the Applescript can't be more than a few lines, but I haven't found the proper way to write it. Any help is appreciated!

Answer

scohe001 picture scohe001 · Aug 16, 2013 
set the_file to choose file
set the_text to (do shell script "cat " & quoted form of (POSIX path of the_file))
set the clipboard to the_text

or alternately using only AS:

set the_file to choose file
set the clipboard to (read the_file)

(This second piece of code throws an End of file error for me for certain files and I'm not sure why, so I'd use the first one)

Related questions

Sending commands and strings to Terminal.app with Applescript

I want to do something like this: tell application "Terminal" activate do script "ssh [email protected]" -- // write user's password -- // write some linux commands to remote server end tell For example to log in to the server, enter …

Read More
How do I make a Mac Terminal pop-up/alert? Applescript?

I want to be able to have my program display an alert, notice, whatever that displays my custom text. How is this done? Also, is it possible to make one with several buttons that sets a variable? Similar to batch's: …

Read More
Open an .html file with default browser using Bash on Mac

So, this is what I need : Let's say I have an index.html file. How do I tell the terminal to open it using the default browser? (Using AppleScript, BASH,...?)

Read More