Rob Mayoff ([info]mayoff) wrote,
@ 2005-10-14 00:57:00
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Full screen QuickTime Player for free
It's fairly easy to make QuickTime Player go full screen, even if you don't want to pay for "QuickTime Pro". You can do it with a small AppleScript and the Script Menu. (This was inspired by QuikTimeFS, but that requires running an extra little application every time you want to go full screen.)

Instead of walking you through the process of enabling the Script Menu, creating the necessary folders, and using the Script Editor to create the one-line AppleScript, I've written an AppleScript that does all of those steps for you: Setup Full Screen.

After you download and run that, you'll have the Script Menu toward the right end of your menu bar. It looks like this: Script Menu icon.

If you launch QuickTime Player, you'll find a Full Screen script in the script menu:

Full Screen Menu Item

When you select that menu item, if you have a movie open, the movie will play full screen. You can press the Escape key (labelled "esc" at the upper left corner of your keyboard) to get back out of full screen mode.

If you don't trust me, you can inspect the Setup Full Screen script by opening it with Applications > AppleScript > Script Editor.

Update: It turns out I'm not the only one to think of this. QT Full Screen does roughly the same thing, but uses an Installer package to install the full-screen script instead of doing it in an AppleScript.

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[info]dixie
2006-06-28 07:25 pm UTC (link)
Thank you! Very punk rock. :)

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Bug in QT Full Screen Script?
(Anonymous)
2007-01-23 03:17 am UTC (link)
I couldn't get this script to show up in my Script Menu under Tiger v10.4.8.

The AppleScript Installer on this web site creates a folder Applications in the Script Folder. But for some reason, my Script Menu will not display the "Applications" folder inside the Script Folder. If you rename the Applications Folder to anything else such as "Applications2", it does show up in the Scipts Menu.

It looks like Tiger v10.4.8 will not let you create a folder called "Applications" inside the Script Folder and make it visible in the Script Menu.

I just changed the Installer Script as follows and now it works fine:

set menuExtrasFolder to alias (((path to "dlib" from system domain) as string) & "CoreServices:Menu Extras:")
set scriptMenuExtraName to "Script Menu.menu"
try
tell application "Finder"
open item scriptMenuExtraName of menuExtrasFolder
end tell
on error
error "I could not run the Script Menu installer. I looked for it as " & (menuExtrasFolder as string) & scriptMenuExtraName
end try

to makeAndGetFolder(folderName, parentFolder)
tell application "Finder"
if not (exists folder folderName of parentFolder) then
make new folder at parentFolder with properties {name:folderName}
end if
return folder folderName of parentFolder
end tell
end makeAndGetFolder

tell application "Finder"
set scriptsFolder to (path to scripts folder from user domain)
end tell

set f to makeAndGetFolder("QuickTime Player", scriptsFolder)

script s
tell application "QuickTime Player" to present front window's movie
end script

store script s in file ((f as string) & "Full Screen.scpt")

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Bug in QT Full Screen Script?
[info]mayoff
2007-01-23 05:41 am UTC (link)
The Applications folder inside the Scripts folder is special. It contains application-specific scripts. A script in Library:Scripts:Applications:XXX will only show up in the script menu for application XXX. So by placing the "Full Screen" script in Library:Scripts:Applications:QuickTime Player, I arranged for that script to only appear in the script menu when QuickTime Player is the active application.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Bug in QT Full Screen Script?
(Anonymous)
2007-01-24 01:04 am UTC (link)
Thanks for the Info about the "Applications" Folder. I learned something new about AppleScript today! Thanks again.

Rob

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(Reply from suspended user)
Another Way to Get Out of Full Screen Mode
(Anonymous)
2007-01-24 03:36 am UTC (link)
FYI - There is another way to get out of Full Screen Mode if you want to use the mouse.

Just click on View then Full Screen. Even though Full Screen is greyed out, it works when you try to toggle back to regular non Full Screen Mode.

It would be great if your Script did the same thing. i.e. the Script would check to see if QT was already in Full Screen Mode. If it was then clicking Full Screen in the Script Menu would toggle QT back to the regular view mode.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]morrisricchiaz
2008-08-11 02:43 pm UTC (link)
If you view a message and then click and hold the "Save" button, then you get a "Add to iPhoto" menu item.

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(Anonymous)
2007-05-13 04:15 pm UTC (link)
neat

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(Anonymous)
2007-05-13 04:21 pm UTC (link)
my school used this because they didn't have QT pro. it worked

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(Anonymous)
2008-04-04 04:04 am UTC (link)
cool, thanks very much

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]rupertpenyngto
2008-08-11 07:28 pm UTC (link)
They have gotten used to moving things around, deleting things they thought they didn't need, adding things to Menu Bars and all those kinds of things.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Quicktime "Full Screen" Script
(Anonymous)
2008-09-01 04:39 pm UTC (link)
Thanks a million for this script! I installed it and it worked like a charm. It's nice to be able to improve the functionality of one's computer without the capitulation to Apple's demands for additional $$ for QT Pro! Thanks again. - Satisfied in San Francisco

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