Issues with applescript

Question

Hello,

I'm having issues with Applescript working properly for a number of commands...

Here are some examples:

tell application "Microsoft Word"

execute find find text "hello"

end tell

The resulting response is: 

error "Microsoft Word got an error: Can’t continue execute find." number -1708

Another example:

tell application "Microsoft Word" to page scroll down 1

And the result:

error "Microsoft Word got an error: Can’t continue page scroll." number -1708

Does anyone have an idea what is going on? Is my applescript incorrect or am I missing something else?

Thank you,

Harold

Answer 1

Hi Hpimentel,

Thanks for your update.

Based on our initial troubleshooting, the issue may be related to the argument when calling AppleScriptTask from VB.

Since you have posted to “Office/Word/Mac/Office 2016 for mac” category which mainly focuses on general Word functional use related queries, I’m going to move this thread to the “Office /Word /Microsoft Office programming  /Office 2016” category for proper handing.

We appreciate your understanding.

Sky

Answer 2

Hello Sky,

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, I still get the same result after fixing that variable.

I'm fairly certain the error is in the call to 'tell application "Microsoft Word"...' as when I remove that call, the script runs correctly. However, after looking at the Applescript dictionary, that looks like the correct call.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you,

Harold

Answer 3

Hi Hpimentel,

Regarding "Dim myScriptResult as string" ,  the string should be replaced by Boolean.  Please  edit your code as the following format to see the result.

Thanks,

Sky

Answer 4

Thank you very much Rich.

If I understand correctly, in order to call some of the commands from the Microsoft Word applescript dictionary (such as page scroll), I need to do the following:

• Create a applescript and place it in ~/Library/Application\ Scripts/com.microsoft.Word Here is where I would have 1 of the scripts that I posted in the initial question.
• Create a new macro within Word that calls that specific script using AppleScriptTask such as the following:

Sub hello()

    Dim myScriptResult As String

    myScriptResult = AppleScriptTask("pagescroll.scpt", "myapplescripthandler", "my parameter string")

End Sub

Now, I should be able to in principle call this macro within Word and it should just work...

However, when calling with the following applescript:

on myapplescripthandler(paramString)

#do something with paramString 

tell application "Microsoft Word" to page scroll down 1

display notification paramString

return "You told me " & paramString

end myapplescripthandler

I get the following error in the image attached:

If I remove the page scroll command, then I can successfully get the notification to show up. Otherwise, I get the previous error.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Harold

Answer 5

With Mac Office 2016 a new problem has been introduced called "Sandboxing" and this directly effects how and what former AppleScripts can and will work now.

From the link I have provided, take a look at Ron's website for information on how to deal with this... Ron is and Excel MVP but the methods he shares apply to Microsoft Word as well.

http://www.rondebruin.nl/mac/applescripttask.htm

Hope this helps