Setting position of desktop window

Question

Hello,
I'm probably dreaming, but seems to me I've done this before; no success now.
This works:
Tell app "Finder"
open startup disk
set position of container window of startup disk to {50,50}
end tell
This doesn't:
Tell app "Finder"
open file "PT.rtf" of startup disk --this opens properly
set position of (?) to {50,50} --*
end tell
* The goal is to position the window of "PT.rtf"; have tried several things for ?, including a window ID approach, but always get error
An unrelated (I think) TextEdit question:
I've created a formatted TextEdit file with AS, setting font characteristics, bounds, etc. -- and then saved it to be called by another script at another time (that works). Is there any way to edit the properties of that file without editing and rerunning the script that originally created it? For example, just changing the bounds? If there is, I haven't found it.
Thanks

Answer 1

> The primary question had to do with setting the POSITION (not the bounds) of a TextEdit window on the desktop. This seems to me to be a Finder task
Why do you think the Finder has anything to do with what another application does with its windows? It sounds like you're confusing desktop with screen. The Finder manages the desktop (disk icons, files on the desktop, etc.), but has no control over what any other application does with its windows.
If you want to control ApplicationX's windows then you need to tell ApplicationX what to do with them, not the Finder.
If I dissect your script:
Tell app "Finder"
now we're talking to the Finder
open file "PT.rtf" of startup disk
This opens the file, as you expect. The Finder uses the system directory to work out which application should handle .rtf files.
set position of container window of file "PT.rtf" of startup disk to {50,50}
'container' is a Finder object that relates to the item (folder, disk, etc.) that the target file is in. In this case the 'container' of the PT.rtf file is 'startup disk'
--or of "window 1 of app "TextEdit"
This is getting closer, but the Finder can't manipulate other application's objects
Kel's earlier suggestion is the right approach - once you've opened the document (which, incidentally, doesn't need the Finder at all), you tell TextEdit to set the window position as required. However, the kicker is that you didn't look at TextEdit's dictionary - if you did you'd notice that there isn't any position property for a window in TextEdit - you have to use bounds:
<pre class=command>tell application "Finder"
open file "PT.rtf" of startup disk
end tell
tell application "TextEdit"
set {l, t, r, b} to bounds of window 1
set bounds of window 1 to {50, 50, 50 + (r - l), 50 + (b - t)}
end tell</pre>
To explain, 'bounds' represents the four corners of the window - left, top, right, bottom. To reposition the window you provide four new coordinates. In my example, I set the top and left coordinates to 50 and calculate new bottom/right coordinates by adding 50 to the current window height (b-t) and width (r-l).
Incidentally, this is why I recommend not using the Finder to open the document. While it may be true that on your machine, today, TextEdit is the default application for .rtf files, it might not be true tomorrow, or on someone else's machine - you could change to SuperDuperText.app as your preferred .rtf application, so now you're asking the Finder to open the document (which will use SuperDuperText.app), then telling TextEdit to set the window bounds, even though it has no idea that you've just opened a document in some other application.
A better approach is to do it all in one tell block, targetting the specific application you want:
<pre class=command>tell application "TextEdit"
open file (path to startup disk as text) & "PT.rtf"
set {l, t, r, b} to bounds of window 1
set bounds of window 1 to {50, 50, 50 + (r - l), 50 + (b - t)}
end tell</pre>
>When the script which created the TextEdit document is run, the window position does get set properly, but in accordance with the bounds. When the document is saved and then opened, however, the positioning appears random (although the bounds remain correct).
This may be the crux of the problem - TextEdit documents do not save any position information. Because plain text and .rtf documents are expected to be portable (cross-platform), they don't store any position information since it may not be relevant to the target application. In this case, TextEdit is using its own algoritm to work out where to open the window, typically based on some offset from the last opened window.
In short there just isn't any way to store a window position in a plain text document.