“Open As” Pseudo-Stationery Finder AppleScript

Update: Now located at https://github.com/anoved/Finder-Scripts/tree/master/Open%20As

Use this AppleScript to create and open an explicitly named copy of the selected file or folder. You will be prompted to specify the name and location of the new copy. Clicking “Save” will duplicate the item and open the new duplicate.

Open As screenshot

This script is the result of dissatisfaction with some applications’ lack of support for Stationery Pad files. Specifically, the default behavior appears to be for the Finder to create and open a generic duplicate with “copy [#]” appended to the original base filename. I find it more convenient to name the new instance directly, so that is the functionality this script provides. Stationery pads are not required as it works with regular files.

Rigorous testing has not been performed. Be advised that duplication is performed with cp, which ignored the resource fork in early versions of Mac OS X. Therefore, Mac OS X 10.4 is strongly recommended for compatibility with all files.

Download FinderOpenAs.scpt.zip 3.4K

I suggest saving the script in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder and assigning it the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-O via FastScripts.

Posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007. Tags: applescript, finder, mac.