macOS Automator / AppleScript Question - TextEdit

[larrytate]

Hello All.

I'm very new to scripting in macOS. I was wondering if there is any way, either within automator or with AppleScript, to check if there is any text inside an open TextEdit document? Any ideas? It's part of a larger automation but the only aspect of it I can't seem to find. Thanks

 

[superscape]

Sure. Assuming you have a TextEdit document then:

--define the text to find
set theTextToFind to "foo"

tell application "TextEdit"
 
   --grab the contents of the frontmost document
   set theDocText to (every paragraph of front document) as text
 
   --set our dialog accoordingly
   if theDocText contains theTextToFind then
       set theDialogText to "Found it!"
   else
       set theDialogText to "Didn't find it!"
   end if

end tell

--display the dialog
display dialog theDialogText