This version should be able to handle any filesize that the read  
command can handle. No text accumulation, it writes as it reads. I  
think this is pretty solid; I'll stop now.


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 inputFile to choose file with prompt "Choose an underscore  
delimited plaintext file for input."
			set inputFileName to name of inputFile
			set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
			copy text item 1 of inputFileName to inputFileName
			set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
			set inputFilePath to ((container of inputFile) as alias) as text
		end tell
		
		set inputFileHandle to open for access inputFile
		set outputFileHandle to open for access file (inputFilePath &  
inputFileName & "_Italicized.rtf") with write permission
		write head to outputFileHandle as text
	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 inputFileHandle until "_"
			if evenOddOpenCloseItalicsToggle is 0 then
				if currentChunk is "_" then
					write ((ASCII character 32) & "\\i " as text) to outputFileHandle  
as text
				else
					write (text 1 thru -2 of currentChunk) & (ASCII character 32) & "\ 
\i " to outputFileHandle as text
				end if
				set evenOddOpenCloseItalicsToggle to 1
			else
				write ((text 1 thru -2 of currentChunk) & (ASCII character 32) & "\ 
\i0" as text) to outputFileHandle as text
				set evenOddOpenCloseItalicsToggle to 0
			end if
		on error e number n
			if n is not -39 then display dialog "Error: " & (n as text) &  
return & e
			exit repeat
		end try
	end repeat
	write tail to outputFileHandle as text
	try
		close access inputFileHandle
		close access outputFileHandle
	end try
on error e number n
	display dialog "Error: " & (n as text) & return & e
end try




On Oct 2, 2008, at 5:40 PM, Paul Skinner wrote:

> 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.
...
>
>
> 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