Set “Away” Status on Several Apps at Once

Question

This question is slightly born out of laziness, but here goes anyway.

I use the following apps on OSX:

• Skype
• Adium
• Linkinus

On each, I have an automated status change that triggers after being idle for 30 or so. However, if I'm leaving for an extended period of time, I want to go ahead and set the status on all three. It isn't a whole lot of work to do this manually on all three, but ideally I'd like to make this one keystroke.

What should I do to start this? Should I figure out how to manipulate each one using some applescript and then bind the resulting script to a key? Is there an easier way to do this?

Answer 1

Should I figure out how to manipulate each one using some applescript and then bind the resulting script to a key?

Yes.

Here's a start:

tell application "Adium"
   go away (every account)
end tell

tell application "Skype"
   send command "SET USERSTATUS AWAY" script name "My Script"
end tell