This got me to thinking and I knocked this out. It generates a file  
named "(originalFilename)_Italicized.rtf" right next to the source  
file you choose. Let me know how this does on you r large text file,  
I'm curious.


try
	set head to "{\\rtf1\\ansi\\ansicpg1252\\cocoartf949\\cocoasubrtf350
{\\fonttbl\\f0\\fswiss\\fcharset0 Helvetica;}
{\\colortbl;\\red255\\green255\\blue255;}
\\margl1440\\margr1440\\vieww12240\\viewh15840\\viewkind1
\\pard\\tx720\\tx1440\\tx2160\\tx2880\\tx3600\\tx4320\\tx5040\\tx5760\ 
\tx6480\\tx7200\\tx7920\\tx8640\\ql\\qnatural\\pardirnatural

\\f0\\fs24 \\cf0 "
	set tail to "}"
	
	try
		tell application "Finder"
			activate
			set fileRef to choose file with prompt "Choose an underscore  
delimited plaintext file for input."
			set fileRefName to name of fileRef
			set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
			copy text item 1 of fileRefName to fileRefName
			set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
			set fileRefPath to ((container of fileRef) as alias) as text
		end tell
		
		set fileRefHandle to open for access fileRef
		set outFileHandle to open for access file (fileRefPath & fileRefName  
& "_Italicized.rtf") with write permission
	on error e number n
		display dialog "Error: " & (n as text) & return & e
	end try
	
	set textoutput to {}
	
	set evenOddOpenCloseItalicsToggle to 0
	repeat
		try
			set currentChunk to read fileRefHandle until "_"
			if evenOddOpenCloseItalicsToggle is 0 then
				if currentChunk is "_" then
					set the end of textoutput to (ASCII character 32) & "\\i " as text
				else
					set the end of textoutput to (text 1 thru -2 of currentChunk) &  
(ASCII character 32) & "\\i " as text
				end if
				set evenOddOpenCloseItalicsToggle to 1
			else
				set the end of textoutput to (text 1 thru -2 of currentChunk) &  
(ASCII character 32) & "\\i0" as text
				set evenOddOpenCloseItalicsToggle to 0
			end if
		on error
			set thischunk to (read fileRefHandle until end)
			set the end of textoutput to thischunk as text
			exit repeat
		end try
	end repeat
	try
		display dialog "Error: " & (n as text) & return & e
	end try
on error e number n
	display dialog "Error: " & (n as text) & return & e
end try
write head & (textoutput as text) & tail to outFileHandle as text
try
	close access fileRefHandle
	close access outFileHandle
end try





On Oct 2, 2008, at 4:36 PM, RJay Hansen wrote:

> On Oct 2, 2008, at 1:59 PM, Bill Steele wrote:
>
>> Unless you need this to happen in front of people's eyes, you don't  
>> have to do it in Tex-Edit. You can operate on an Applescript string  
>> variable with the search features in the ACME Script Widgets or  
>> Satimage OSAXen.
>
> Can you do the text styling though? From what I've been able to  
> determine, you can't although I'd be happy to be shown I'm wrong.
>
>> Finding what's between two underscores also could be a regular  
>> expression job.
>
> I actually thought of this yesterday when someone on the A.S.S. list  
> mentioned regular expressions. However, I've got that part of the  
> script working fine. I suspect using regular expressions to do that  
> would be quicker, but what I've got goes pretty fast.
>
> RJay