(*
UPDATE:
This version of the script doesn't seem to work in 10.3. It has something to do with the way panther handles text, when values are passed, they can be unicode text, utf-8 text, plain text or some other type of text. the type 'text' or 'string' seems to have its type change during certain operations, and then applescript gets a "can't make data into the expected type" error. one way around that is this not very elegant solution i used in the new version of the file type creator type script which works in panther. that is to loop through each character and get the ascii number, then reconstruct the string by concatenating the ascii characters.
i used to use a utility called bunchtyper in os 7, os 8 and os 9 to check and change the mac file types and file creators. i wanted something quick and easy in mac os x, so i made this little droplet. the code could use some cleaning up, but who knows if i will ever do it. use this at your own risk.
you should be able to drop a file, a selection of files, or a folder onto the droplet once you paste the applescript below into your script editor and save as an application.
it will display the file type and creator of the first file in your selection, and display it asking what to change it to. if all you wanted to do is find out what type some file was, hit cancel. a lot of files in OS X will not have a file type and/or creator, so it will say "missing value" for those. if you enter file type and creator values (always four characters each), separated by a single space, it will change ALL FILES that you've dropped in to those values, so be careful which files you drop into it. here are some possible values:
PhotoShop JPEG:
JPEG 8BIM
PhotoShop GIF:
GIFf 8BIM
Simpletext Text:
TEXT ttxt
Picture Viewer JPEG:
JPEG ogle
BBEdit Text:
TEXT R*ch
*)
global folderList
on open fileList
-- display dialog (item 1 of fileList as string)
set folderList to {}
set typesReturn to typecreator(fileList) of me
set newFileType to text 1 through 4 of typesReturn
set newCreatorType to text -1 through -4 of typesReturn
activate
display dialog ("Will set all files to file type: '" & newFileType & "' creator type: '" & newCreatorType & "'")
stepthru(fileList, newFileType, newCreatorType) of me
repeat until folderList = {}
tell application "Finder"
set fileListfolders to every item of item 1 of folderList
end tell
set folderCount to the number of items in folderList
if folderCount < 2 then
set folderList to {}
else
set folderList to items 2 through folderCount of folderList
end if
stepthru(fileListfolders, newFileType, newCreatorType) of me
end repeat
delay 0.5
beep
say "ok"
end open
on stepthru(fileList, newFileType, newCreatorType)
repeat with iFile in fileList
tell application "Finder"
set iFileInfo to iFile as string
-- set iFileInfoFolder to file creator of iFileInfo
if the last character of iFileInfo = ":" then
set folderList to folderList & iFile
-- display dialog iFileInfo
else
set file type of iFile to newFileType
set creator type of iFile to newCreatorType
end if
end tell
end repeat
end stepthru
on typecreator(fileList)
repeat with iFile in fileList
tell application "Finder"
set iFile to iFile as alias
set iFileInfo to iFile as string
-- set iFileInfoFolder to file creator of iFileInfo
--display dialog iFileInfo
if the last character of iFileInfo = ":" then
set filesInFolder to files in (iFile)
--display dialog filesInFolder
set fileList2 to filesInFolder
-- display dialog iFileInfo
else
set theFIletype to file type of iFile
set theCreatortype to creator type of iFile
set typesReturn to text returned of (display dialog "Set File Type and Creator Type to:" default answer ((theFIletype & " " & theCreatortype) as string))
return typesReturn
end if
end tell
end repeat
set Type2 to typecreator(fileList2) of me
return Type2
end typecreator
-- applescript page