Language Guide

CHAPTER 5

Objects and References

124 References

You can also use the possessive form ('s) to specify containers. If you use the

possessive form, list the container before the object it contains. For example, in

first window's name

the container is first window. The object it contains is a Name property.

All properties and elements have containers. The previous example

speciﬁed the Name property of a window, which is contained in a window

object. Similarly, the following example speciﬁes the Style property, which

is contained in a character object.

style of first character

Complete and Partial References 5

A complete reference has enough information to identify an object or objects

uniquely. For a reference to an application object to be complete, its outermost

container must be the application itself, as in

paragraph 10 of document "Report" of application 

"Scriptable Text Editor"

In contrast, partial references do not specify enough information to identify an

object or objects uniquely; for example:

word 1 of paragraph 10

When AppleScript encounters a partial reference, it attempts to use the default

target speciﬁed in the Tell statement to complete the reference. The default

target of a Tell statement is the object that receives commands if no other object

is speciﬁed. For example, the following Tell statement tells the Scriptable Text

Editor to delete the ﬁrst paragraph of the front document.

tell paragraph 1 of front document of application 

"Scriptable Text Editor"

delete

end tell