PreFab UI Actions

PreFab UI Actions brings "universal attachability" to AppleScript, greatly enhancing your control over applications running on your computer. Attach a UI Action script to any standard native Mac OS X application, and UI Actions will automatically run the script whenever you perform specified user actions in the target application. You select the user actions that trigger a UI Action script, such as choosing a menu item, changing the value of a text field, opening a drawer or window, and activating an application.

UI Actions is a scriptable faceless background application. It is placed in your user Scripting Additions folder at installation, enabling you to use AppleScript commands to attach and detach UI Action scripts, to export and import sets of UI actions, to enable and disable them, and to get a reference to the affected UI element for use in your UI Action scripts.

The included UI Actions Setup application works with UI Actions. It provides a convenient graphical user interface to attach UI Action scripts to applications and to manage all of your UI Action scripts.

UI Actions is based on Apple's "accessibility" technology, and it fully supports the new GUI Scripting feature of AppleScript introduced in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and enhanced in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. You can write and distribute UI Action scripts that will run on all Macintosh computers equipped with Panther or Tiger where UI Actions is installed!

Download (1.5 MB) the 30-day trial version of PreFab UI Actions 1.1.1, released on May 30, 2005 -- now supports Tiger.

UI Actions runs on Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or newer. See the Requirements section below for details.

A registration key to unlock the trial version and remove its time limitation can be purchased through eSellerate, either by choosing Purchase Key Online from the Registration item in the UI Actions Setup application menu or by going to the PreFab Online Store:

eSellerate is a software commerce provider specializing in the sale and delivery of digital goods. Purchasing online through the eSellerate system is fast, easy and completely secure.

Current customers: this version is a free upgrade from earlier versions of UI Actions.

If clicking the download link returns a page of garbled text instead of beginning the download, come back here, hold down Control to access the contextual menu, press on the download link, and choose "Download Link to Disk". (This problem sometimes happens with Internet Explorer.)

NEW! Download Automator Actions for UI Actions. These four Automator actions are free, but they require UI Actions to work. They let you add steps to an Automator workflow to attach and detach your UI Action scripts automatically, in case you prefer not to write AppleScript scripts or use UI Actions Setup to do it. Although UI Actions runs under Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or newer, Automator requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or newer.

UI Actions is covered during the

Applescript Pro Sessions (most recently in Monterey, California on May 2-6, 2005).

UI Actions 1.1.1 requires Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or newer, and it is optimized for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

UI Actions 1.1.1 is optimized to take full advantage of many new features of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. It also runs under Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, but with some limitations. (UI Actions does not run under Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar.) This version is a recommended upgrade for all users, and especially for all users of Tiger. As of this writing, version 1.1.1 has been tested through Mac OS X 10.4.3 Tiger.

UI Action scripts will be triggered by user actions only if PreFab UI Actions is installed.

Apple's GUI Scripting technology was officially introduced in Panther as a standard feature of Mac OS X. Scripts written using the GUI Scripting technology will run on all computers equipped with Panther or newer. (Apple successfully concluded the GUI Scripting public beta test on Jaguar, and the beta version of the underlying GUI Scripting software for Jaguar is no longer available.)

Looking for more information on scripting the Macintosh? Start at

ScriptWeb for links to MacScripter.net, The AppleScript Sourcebook and other great sites.

UI Actions is commercial software. It is not shareware or freeware, and may not be distributed without written permission.

Copyright 1993-2005, PreFab Software, Inc. UI Actions is Copyright 2004-2005 by PreFab Software, Inc. and Bill Cheeseman. All Rights Reserved.

PreFab UI Actions, PreFab UI Browser, PreFab Player, Player Runtime, PreFab Software and the PreFab logo are trademarks of PreFab Software, Inc. Mac is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

PreFab UI Actions

The "Universal Attachability" Utility -- now supports Tiger