Bdtjtk

I open a lot of new documents in Textwrangler/BBedit and I would like them to always have the date printed at the top. I would like this to be automatic so that I don't have to remember to run a script each time.

I'm new to BBEdit but I really like Textwrangler and have used it for years. I read some of the documentation on BB and I think that attaching some Applescript to an event might be the way to go. However, none of the listed events seem quite right, and I don't really want to add dates to existing documents.

I found the following page which was a good starting point:
http://bbeditextras.org/wiki/index.php?title=Scripting_and_Automation

I also found these relevant hooks from the BB docs:
App attachment points

• applicationDidFinishLaunching: called when the application has completed
  startup.


• applicationShouldQuit: called when you choose the Quit (or the application
  receives a ‘quit’ event for any other reason).


• applicationDidQuit: called when the application has finished shutting down and is about to exit.


• applicationDidSwitchIn: called when BBEdit has been brought to the foreground.


• applicationWillSwitchOut: called when BBEdit is being put into the background.

Document attachment points

• documentDidOpen: called when a document has been opened and is ready for use. (Since BBEdit supports multiple types of documents, your script should allow for the argument to be a document of any type.)


• documentShouldClose: called when the application is preparing to close a
  document.


• documentDidClose: called when the application has closed a document.


• documentShouldSave: called when the application is trying to determine whether a given document should be saved.


• documentWillSave: called when the application is about to begin saving a
  document. (note that this will only be called after a successful return from a
  ‘documentShouldSave’.


• documentDidSave: called after a document has been saved successfully.


• documentWillUnlock: called when BBEdit is going to make a document writeable. (For example, when you click the pencil to unlock a document)


• documentDidUnlock: called when BBEdit has successfully made a document
  writeable.


• documentWillLock: called when BBEdit is going to make a document read-only.


• documentDidLock: called when BBEdit has successfully made a document readonly.

I don't know if any of those really fit, though. I could also try adding some scripts into the startup folder, but I'm not sure how I would go about say, adding a date to all open documents. I've never done applescript before so it's a little trial and error.

I have this code that I've tried running by itself, and it works fine:

tell application "BBEdit"

tell text window 1

select insertion point after (last character)

set selection to ((current date) as string)

end tell

end tell

I'm just a little lost as to how to get the above code to execute on file creation.

Open Script Editor and paste the following code in a new script document:

use BBEdit : application "BBEdit"

use scripting additions



on documentDidOpen(doc)

    set n to the doc's name

    set t to the doc's text as string



    if n does not start with "untitled text" then return

    if t's length > 0 then return



    set the contents of the doc to (the (current date) as text) ¬

        & linefeed & linefeed

end documentDidOpen

Save it as type script (extension .scpt), and name it Document.documentDidOpen.scpt. Either save it directly, or move it subsequently, to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Attachment Scripts/; if the folder doesn't exist, create it.

Restarting BBEdit ought not to be necessary, but also couldn't hurt. Now, whenever you create a new document (of any type), it will be headed with the current date and time.