with timeout [of] {integer} second[s] end [timeout]
The with timeout statement allows you to alter
AppleScript’s default 60-second time limit for the
Apple events that are sent to applications. Normally, if an
application fails to respond to an Apple event within 60 seconds,
AppleScript raises an “Apple event timed
out” error and stops running the script. You can
make this time limit shorter, say 30 seconds, by using the syntax:
with timeout of 30 seconds...end timeout
You enclose the with timeout structure in a
try block to trap and report any timeout errors
(see “try”). with timeout only applies to the following types of commands. In
other words, the with timeout limit is ignored
unless the command is one of these types:
Commands sent to applications targeted in tell
blocks
Scripting addition commands that have application objects as parameters (not too many osaxen have application objects as parameters)
Scripting addition commands that are called inside of
tell statements that target other applications
The following example times out if you just let the display
dialog dialog box sit there for over five seconds. This
happens because the display dialog scripting
addition is positioned inside the tell block
targeting the Finder. Pull the scripting-addition command outside the
tell block, and the script does not time out.
Again, with timeout does not work with
scripting-addition commands unless the command is part of a
tell block targeting another application, or it
takes an application object as a parameter:
try -- catch any timed out errors
with timeout of 5 seconds
tell application "Finder"
get version
display dialog "fast" (* let this sit for about 5 secs and raise
an error *)
end tell
end timeout
on error -- will be called if 'with timeout' block times out
display dialog "Sorry, the operation timed out"
end try