applescript to hide/reveal hidden files

By cjgammon Last updated:

There are certain things I find I do now and again which would be nice to automate. One of them is revealing hidden files, on a mac that means the file name begins with a period, like a .htaccess file. Typically I would go into terminal, write a little shell command and then I'd have a messy desktop and file browsing until I got around to hiding hidden files again. So I wrote the below shell script which will do this switch for me. I've even set it up as a trigger in Quicksilver so I can toggle it on and off with a keyboard shortcut. Pretty simple!

[code]

on run

	set hiddenState to (do shell script "/usr/bin/defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles")


	try

		tell application "Finder" to quit


		if (hiddenState is "ON") then

			do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles OFF"

			delay 3

		else if (hiddenState is "OFF") then

			do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles ON"

			delay 3

		end if


	on error myError

		display dialog "problem:" & myError

	end try


	FinderCheck()

end run


on FinderCheck()

	tell application "System Events"

		if (name of every process) does not contain "Finder" then

			tell application "Finder" to launch

		end if

	end tell

end FinderCheck

[/code]