As mentioned on my previous post, I began an effort to write some AppleScript to help me with some auto file naming on scanning I was doing. The general method I decided to employ was to build a Folder Action that would watch for new files to be added to the Desktop, and then if a file matching a certain obscure name existed, rename it automatically.

So I would make Image Capture write its output to a file called “scan_to_auto_rename.pdf” in the Desktop folder. The new folder action would see this file appear, then rename it to something like this: scan_yyyymmdd_hhmmss.pdf. In human that’s “scan_” plus the year, month, day, hours, minutes, and seconds.

To accomplish this, I had to write an AppleScript, drop it into /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/, then add the Folder Action via the UI. To add the action (assuming the script is written (correctly and located in the right place), go into Finder and right click the folder to which you want to add the action.

So I went to my home directory, right clicked on the Desktop folder, and selected “Folder Actions Setup…”. That popped up a dialog with a list of available scripts I could add. I scrolled down and found mine, aptly named “rename_scan_file.scpt”, selected it, and clicked Attach. That applied my script to the folder, and assuming my script was written correctly it would do something useful based on events taking place within/on that folder.

See next post for a look at the script itself.