Caffeine is a tiny little app that keeps your Mac awake when needed; be it when you’re watching a video (for some reason, Adobe Flash doesn’t keep your Mac awake), reading something off your screen, or anything else.

It sits in the menu bar waiting to be summoned when needed, and dismissed just as easily.

Being the lazy type I am (thanks to the inevitable Quicksilver), dragging the mouse over to click the icon is just too much work. Below is an applescript which I run from Quicksilver with 3 key presses (I could set it as a trigger if I really wanted) and it switches it on or off, or even opens it if it’s not running.

tell application "System Events"
if exists (process "Caffeine") then
tell application "Caffeine"
if active is false then
turn on
else
turn off
end if
end tell
else
tell application "Caffeine" to activate
end if
end tell

This will launch the app if it’s not running. If it is running it’ll check to see if your Mac is on Caffeine (i.e. if it’s turned on) and carry out the required action.

This is all possible thanks to Caffeine being scriptable. It’s always great when developers add applescript support as well as others to their apps – it makes the Mac experience that bit more cosy.

You can download the applescript here
I’ve even added the right icon to the script

All that needs doing is setting up a trigger in Quicksilver, or placing it in
~/Library/Scripts/.

Done!

Once that’s downloaded and installed (you need to go into terminal and move it, or just navigate to /usr/local/bin/ and paste it there), you can then use the applescript listed on the App’s homepage to get it working in applescript.

tell application "System Events"
if exists (process "Keyboard Viewer") then
click process "Keyboard Viewer"'s window 1's buttons whose subrole is "AXCloseButton"
else
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/keyboardViewer"
end if
end tell


I have modified this slightly, as the ‘click process’ part of the applescript uses a deprecated method (Apple’s own fault) and could become obsolete at any point. I just used a simple killall command in its place


tell application "System Events"
if exists (process "Keyboard Viewer") then
do shell script "killall KeyboardViewer"
else
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/keyboardViewer"
end if
end tell


And now, my trusty Cmd + Optn + Ctrl + K Quicksilver trigger is back!

Recently, I’ve been looking for a script to toggle my screen-saver password for my MacBook.
While out and about I want to make sure my Mac is safe from stray fingers by making sure a password is required before waking, but when at home or in university there’s no need for this extra layer of protection.

Searching the web I found absolutely nothing, except a few scripts that were old and broken.

The only solution; I decided to write my own. You can download the applescript here in zip form (10.6 – Snow Leopard compatible version here), or view the script in your browser here (10.6 – Snow Leopard compatible version here). (Warning – it’s not the easiest thing to read!)

This applescript toggles the screen-saver password, and then displays a growl notification telling you whether the password has been enabled or disabled – handy if you’ve pressed it one time too many and you’re not sure if your screen is locked or not!


If you don’t have growl installed I suggest you download it now from here!

If you’d prefer not to use growl, then just delete the two blocks of code between the
tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
and the next
end tell


I used quicksilver (download it here if you haven’t already!) to create a trigger that means I only have to press a few keys to toggle the password. Works great!

*** Update ***

If you’ve downloaded this script and it isn’t working, it’s probably because you have different settings in your system preferences to me. To find out what yours are open up script editor (found in Applications/Applescript) and run this script

tell application "System Events"
tell security preferences
get properties
end tell
end tell

Hopefully you’ll get a message in the ‘result’ log at the bottom of the script editor. The details in here should match the details on the 3rd line which starts with
if get properties is {require....
except for the first item which should stay as
require password to wake:true,


Enjoy

*** Note ***

If you’re logged into a non-admin account, this will ask you for the password every time. Annoying, but hopefully bearable!