An Experts Exchange Shortcut for the Truly Lazy

Martin LissKeep everyone healthy; Get Vaccinated
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Almost 50 years of programming experience. Click '+ More' in my "Full Biography" to see links to some articles I've written.
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Do you come here a lot? Are you lazy like me and don't want to go through the "trouble" of having to click your Dock's Safari icon and then having to click your Experts Exchange Favorites bookmark to get here? Well then this article is for you.
The picture above shows a portion of my Dock and you'll note that in the middle is an Experts Exchange icon. When I want to go to Experts Exchange all I need to do is click it and I'm taken directly there. If you'd like to be able to do the same then here's how.

Go to your Utilities folder and open the Script Editor. Once there create a new file and paste in this AppleScript code.
set theURL to "http://www.experts-exchange.com/searchResults.jsp?searchId=92962"

tell application "Safari"
	activate
	
	try
		tell window 1 to set current tab to make new tab with properties {URL:theURL}
	on error
		open location theURL
	end try
	
end tell

Select all Open in new window

The code tells Safari to activate and to create a tab for the URL that appears in the first line of the code. If Safari isn't open it will open it and create a tab for EE, otherwise it will just add a new tab for EE. It's important to note that the URL contains a reference to a searchId which, for me, opens EE to one of my saved searches. If you'd like to do the same thing, just change the searchId to one of yours. Otherwise just use "https://www.experts-exchange.com" as the URL.

Once you've tested the script and you're happy with it, give it a name like Open EE and then File|Export, set the File Format to Application and save it anywhere you like. You can now drag the application to your Dock and use it as is, but if you do what you get will not be visually meaningful.

If you'd like the application to show something that is visually meaningful you can use my image file or any picture file of appropriate size. I found that 207x207 pixels was about right.  To use mine, copy the following image.
To add the icon to your new application:
  1. Right click on it in Finder and then click Get Info. 
  2. If the displayed info is locked (you can tell by looking in the lower right-hand corner), click on the lock and enter your password. 
  3. Right-click on the file you saved and select Open With the Preview.app
    Select the entire image (Edit –> Select All or COMMAND + A)
  4. Copy it (Edit –> Copy or COMMAND + C)
  5. In the Get Info window, select the current icon (in the top left-hand corner) and paste the copied image into it (Edit –> Paste or COMMAND + V).
  6. Close the Get Info window, and you're done!

If you find that this article has been helpful, please click the “thumb’s up” button below. Doing so lets me know what is valuable for EE members and provides direction for future articles. It also provides me with positive feedback in the form of a few points. Thanks!
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Martin LissKeep everyone healthy; Get Vaccinated
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Almost 50 years of programming experience. Click '+ More' in my "Full Biography" to see links to some articles I've written.

Comments (1)

ADRIANA PACCOUNTING ASSISTANT

Commented:
Well it's not that me lazy but it's a great help in  moments     ;)

Thanks, it's a great article!

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