Script that opens a pdf

[jdonahue]

I am trying to create a script that does the following

1) copies a serial number contained in a field in a FMP table

2) opens spotlight, pastes the copied serial number and searches for that serial number (which is the name of a pdf file

3) opens the top hit in spotlight which will be the pdf file

I assume I need to use either Applescript or Automator to get this done. I have played around with it with no luck. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[bcooney]

Why not just store a ref to the pdf in the respective FM record and open it from there?

[jdonahue]

I thought of that, but I have over 5000 pdf's that I would need to insert into a container field. I thought using spotlight to find the pdf might be less work. I got a script working that finds a specific file. It is

tell application "Finder"

set the search_string to "46280"

end tell

tell application "System Events"

keystroke " " using {option down, command down}

delay 1

keystroke search_string

delay 1

end tell

What I want to do is instead of searching for "46280" I want to paste the contents of the clipboard into spotlight.

[bcooney]

Oh, so this is catching up after the PDFs exist and they are scattered all over? Because if they're in one folder and named with a field value, then calc'ing the path and setting the reference is fairly straightforward.

I'm not an AppleScripter, so I'll leave this to someone else.

[comment]

If they're in one folder and named consistently, then calculating the path is all it takes. No need for "setting the reference" or an Applescript.

[jdonahue]

How would I set up the ref that you are referring to? I have all the files in about 20 different folders but I can easily put them all together. Thanks for the help.

[bcooney]

See this thread, Link