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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-26T09:34:07+00:00

Using AppleScript I would like to automate the creation of a new user accounts

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Using AppleScript I would like to automate the creation of a new user accounts on multiple machines. I’m trying to use UI Scripting and cannot seem to be able to do a click command on the “Add Account” (+) button in the iChat Accounts Preference window. I’ve tried to use the Accessibility Inspector.app to infer the name of the button but I still cannot seem to access it via AppleScript.

According to Accessibility Inspector.app the button has the following attributes:

AXRole: AXButton
AXRoleDescription: button
AXHelp: <nil>
AXEnabled: YES
AXFocused (W): NO
AXParent: <AXGroup>
AXWindow: <AXWindow:AXStandardWindow>
AXTopLevelUIElement: <AXWindow:AXStandardWindow>
AXPosition: x=225.00 y=462.00
AXSize: w=23.00 h=22.00
AXTitle: <empty string>
AXIdentifier: _NS:27
AXDescription: Add Account

Here is a sample starter AppleScript that will get you to the Accounts Preference window:

tell application "iChat"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "iChat"
            tell menu bar 1
                click menu item "Preferences…" of menu "iChat"
            end tell
            click button "Accounts" of tool bar 1 of window 1
            click button "Add Account" of window "Accounts"
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

Please note that line 9 is what I’m trying to get working. Below you will find a link to a screenshot of the iChat Accounts Preference window with an arrow pointing to the button that I’m trying to access. Also note that I know that I can just use “keystroke tab” to get to the (+) button, but this will not always work as the number of times you must press tab changes depending on the type of accounts that you already created in iChat.

iChat Account Preferences Window

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Not every Ui object has a title, so in those cases you can just use the item number – note that you need to include the entire hierarchy shown in the Inspector window.

    tell application "iChat"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "iChat"
            tell menu bar 1 to click menu item "Preferences…" of menu "iChat"
            delay 0.5
            tell window 1
                click button "Accounts" of tool bar 1
                delay 0.5
                click button 1 of group 1 of group 1
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell
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