If you’re interested in learning more about AppleScript, be sure to check out the AppleScript and Automator Resources Page. It’s filled with links to books, videos, tools, and websites that’ll help you get started!
-Justin.
A reader sent me a message because she was having a hard time setting up a keyboard shortcut to run an AppleScript. She wasn’t a new Mac user by any stretch — in fact, she’s a tech professional! So I went back and re-read my own previous descriptions of how to assign a keyboard shortcut to a script.
Looking at it with fresh eyes, I realized that I could do better… and that it was important to do so. Proper use of keyboard shortcuts can have a massively positive impact on making your computer a lot easier to use!
In the same way, AppleScripts are designed to speed up the way you use your Mac. When people understand how they can use both scripts and shortcuts together — invoking complex actions with the same ease as cutting-and-pasting inside a document — they tend to become really enthusiastic about using them. For a “utility script” that you only use occasionally, it’s no problem to manually run it. But for the scripts you want to use repeatedly throughout the day, keyboard shortcuts aren’t just desirable — they’re essential!
So let’s take another pass at this and walk through two ways you can set up a keyboard shortcut to run an AppleScript.
