Hi again,
I tried using Robert Collins English<->French Dictionary for Mac for definitions.
[After seeing belatedly knc1's message above: both Robert-Collins and Ultalingua are closed source programs. Please delete this post if inappropriate, then. I tried to make the script work in Dictionary.app --where one can use Stardict dictionaries -- yet to no avail.]
The following script will get each word from an Excel list (Column A) and append the first two lines of the definitions from the Robert Collins Dictionary to Column B. (TextEdit.app is used as an intermediary). Before running the script, in Excel: the first cell has to be selected; in the Dictionary: the text field has to be selected.
(Currently, the repeat times is set to 2. Change it to the number of the words in the Excel list.
Also: One can duplicate the line '"keystroke (ASCII character 31) using shift down"' in the script to increase the number of lines to be copied from the Robert-Collins Dictionary.)
I don't know how useful it may be to some of us. Since I am still at the newbie level in scripting, I prefer to believe that I "accomplished" something
Code:
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
repeat 2 times
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Microsoft Excel"
keystroke "c" using {command down}
end tell
tell application "Le Grand Robert & Collins"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "The Collins-Robert French Dictionary"
delay 0.5
keystroke "v" using {command down}
delay 0.1
keystroke return
delay 0.5
keystroke "a" using {command down}
delay 0.2
keystroke "c" using {command down}
keystroke tab
delay 0.1
keystroke tab
delay 0.1
keystroke tab
end tell
end tell
end tell
tell application "TextEdit"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "TextEdit"
keystroke "v" using {command down}
keystroke (ASCII character 30) using command down
delay 0.2
keystroke (ASCII character 31)
keystroke (ASCII character 31) using shift down
keystroke (ASCII character 31) using shift down
keystroke "x" using {command down}
keystroke "a" using {command down}
keystroke (ASCII character 8)
end tell
end tell
end tell
delay 0.2
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Microsoft Excel"
keystroke tab
delay 0.1
keystroke (ASCII character 32)
delay 0.1
keystroke "v" using {command down}
delay 0.2
keystroke return
end tell
end tell
end tell
delay 0.2
end tell
end repeat
end tell
And for the Ultralingua dictionary:
Code:
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
repeat 2 times
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Microsoft Excel"
keystroke "c" using {command down}
end tell
tell application "Ultralingua"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Ultralingua"
delay 0.5
keystroke "v" using {command down}
delay 0.3
keystroke tab
delay 0.1
keystroke tab
keystroke "a" using {command down}
delay 0.3
keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay 0.2
keystroke tab
end tell
end tell
end tell
tell application "TextEdit"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "TextEdit"
keystroke "v" using {command down}
delay 0.5
keystroke (ASCII character 30) using command down
delay 0.5
keystroke (ASCII character 31)
delay 0.5
keystroke (ASCII character 31) using shift down
delay 0.5
keystroke (ASCII character 31) using shift down
delay 0.5
keystroke "x" using {command down}
delay 0.3
keystroke "a" using {command down}
keystroke (ASCII character 8)
end tell
end tell
end tell
delay 0.2
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Microsoft Excel"
keystroke tab
delay 0.1
keystroke (ASCII character 32)
delay 0.1
keystroke "v" using {command down}
delay 0.2
keystroke return
end tell
end tell
end tell
delay 0.2
end tell
end repeat
end tell