Applescript mail merge

AppleScript can be used to automate various tasks, including mail merges. Here's a basic example of how you can use AppleScript to perform a mail merge using Microsoft Word and a CSV file:

Prerequisites:

• Microsoft Word installed on your Mac
• A CSV file containing the data to be merged (e.g., names, addresses, etc.)
• AppleScript Editor (comes pre-installed with macOS)

Script:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
    activate
    set doc to make new document with properties {type:document type, content:""}
    set csvFile to "path/to/your/csvfile.csv"
    set csvData to read csvFile as list
    repeat with row in csvData
        set name to item 1 of row
        set address to item 2 of row
        set body to "Dear " & name & ",\r\n\r\n" & address & "\r\n\r\nBest regards,\r\n[Your Name]"
        tell doc
            make new paragraph at end of document with properties {text:body}
        end tell
    end repeat
    save doc in "path/to/your/output/document.docx"
end tell

How it works:

1. The script activates Microsoft Word and creates a new document.
2. It reads the CSV file using the read command and converts it to a list of rows.
3. The script loops through each row in the CSV file and extracts the name and address values.
4. It creates a new paragraph in the document for each row, using the extracted values to populate the body of the paragraph.
5. Finally, the script saves the document to a specified location.

Tips and Variations:

• You can customize the script to use different fields from the CSV file by modifying the set name and set address lines.
• You can also use AppleScript's tell command to interact with other applications, such as Mail or Pages, to perform more complex tasks.
• If you need to merge data from multiple CSV files, you can modify the script to loop through multiple files or use a single file with multiple sheets.
• You can also use AppleScript's do shell script command to run shell commands, such as csvkit or pandoc, to perform more advanced data manipulation and formatting.

Limitations:

• This script assumes that the CSV file has a simple structure with a single header row and no complex data types (e.g., dates, numbers).
• The script uses AppleScript's built-in read command to read the CSV file, which may not support all CSV file formats or encoding schemes.
• The script saves the output document in Word's .docx format, which may not be compatible with all applications or platforms.