The code to make a new, blank document is different in AppleScript than it is in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Compare the following examples:

Application.Documents.Add

make new document

In AppleScript, you generally specify most of a document's properties at creation time, using a with properties parameter. Any elements, if needed, are added afterwards.

However, that is not the case in AppleScript with Microsoft Word.

You cannot specify properties when creating a document. You have to create it first, and then you can alter it. The process is the same in VBA: You create a document, using the Add method, and then you can alter it. So VBA scripters will be familiar with this process.

In VBA, the only arguments that you can specify with Documents.Add are Template, NewTemplate, DocumentType, and Visible. The 50+ properties for Document have to be specified later. It is the same in AppleScript.

For example, in VBA, you can set the font and a bit of content with the following code:

Set NewDoc = Documents.Add
With NewDoc.Content
	.Font.Name = "Arial"
	.Text = "Here is some Text."
End With

Meanwhile, an AppleScripter would expect to do the same thing with the following code:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
	set newDoc to make new document with properties ¬
		{text object: {font object:{name:"Arial"},¬
		content:¬ "Here is some text."}}
end tell

However, if you use the code above, all you get is a blank new document. Instead, you have to create the document first, and then set the document's text object properties afterwards, as shown in the following example:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
	set newDoc to make new document
	tell newDoc's text object
		set name of font object to "Arial"
		set content to "Here is some text."
	end tell
end tell

Can you use the four arguments that you can set with VBA's Documents.Add statement in AppleScript?

It is unlikely that you will use .Visible = False in a macro; nonetheless, even if you wanted to, you can't use it in AppleScript to make an invisible document. However, you can set the collapsed property of the document's window 1 to true, which minimizes it after you create it.

In VBA, if you set the NewTemplate argument to True, you can preset a new document to be a template. However, you can't do this in AppleScript. That said, you can save a new document as a template later. When you use the save as command, set its file format parameter to template.

If you need to convert a VBA macro that uses NewTemplate:=True, ignore that statement in AppleScript and use save as file format format template when you save.

Similarly, the only value for DocumentType that works on the Macintosh, other than the default value, wdNewBlankDocument, is wdNewWebPage. Again, if you convert a VBA macro that uses the statement DocumentType:= wdNewWebPage, ignore it, and use file format format HTML when saving.

You can also set view to online view after you create a document, as shown in the following example:

set view type of view of window 1 of newDoc to online view