Paste text with AppleScript without simulating cmd-v with System Events

applescriptcopy/paste

I would like to be able to use AppleScript to paste the clipboard's text into the foreground application. Every solution I can find online uses tell app "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down. However, I am running this script with a keyboard shortcut, so I may already be holding down keys when this command fires, which makes the paste fail because more keys are pressed than just cmd and v. I know that I can use delay to give myself time to release the keys, but that feels like a hack (and ideally the paste would be instantaneous).

Is there a way to use AppleScript to paste without simulating the shortcut cmd-v? Thanks.

Edit: Also, if there is a way to use AppleScript to copy selected text without simulating cmd-c, that would be much appreciated as well.

Best Answer

I managed to find the following solution.

tell application "System Events" to tell process (name of current application)
    tell menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1
        click menu item "Paste" of menu 1
    end tell
end tell

delay 0.1

The delay is there to give the system time to copy before using the clipboard.

Related Solutions

AppleScript: Check if “System Events” has loaded

The System Events process does not start at login, so the delay might be needed for some other reason. System Events also teriminates automatically if it is not used for a few minutes.

It probably won't help, but you could try launching System Events at the start of the script:

launch application "System Events"

You could also try using a launchd agent like this to launch a System Events process at login:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>test</string>
  <key>Program</key>
  <string>/System/Library/CoreServices/System Events.app/Contents/MacOS/System Events</string>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key> <!-- run at login -->
  <true/>
  <key>KeepAlive</key> <!-- run the program again if the previous program terminates -->
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

You can normally use something like tell application "System Events" to exists process "Finder" to check if a process exists, but it obviously requires talking to System Events. In this case you might also use a shell script like this:

repeat 100 times
    do shell script "ps -eco comm= | grep -x 'System Events'; exit 0"
    if result is not "" then exit repeat
    delay 0.1
end repeat

ps -e is identical to -ax (include processes from all users and processes without a controlling terminals), -c prints command names instead of absolute paths in OS X, and -o comm= prints only command names without the header row. You can replace the shell command with pgrep -x 'System Events'; exit 0 in 10.8 and later.

Setting a clipboard kind without setting “styled Clipboard text”

After some investigation I found that you can manipulate the Pasteboard from Python, without having it introduce the styled Clipboard text entry. I reimplemented the ruby/applescript module in Python, so now I can copy syntax highlighted text from Emacs and paste it either into dumb applications like the terminal window or applications that can handle formatted text, like Pages.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

AppleScript: Check if “System Events” has loaded

Setting a clipboard kind without setting “styled Clipboard text”

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