title: Applescript: How to search for and record the path of every file of a given kind in a given location
body: <p>I'm sure this is very easy, and very simple, but I'm a complete AppleScript noob.
  The script must:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Search through a volume for every <code>item</code> whose <code>kind</code> is <code>AppleWorks document</code> (file extensions <em>will not</em> suffice, as prior to OS X AppleWorks documents with imbedded media were effectively packages, not documents).</p></li>
  <li><p>Record the path and filename (<em>without</em> an extension) of each document for later. </p></li>
  <li><p>Copy each document to a different volume.</p></li>
  <li><p>Manually update each document in various, non-programmatic ways, don't ask, I just really do have to do this.</p></li>
  <li><p>Replace each original file with the updated version of itself (probably in a iWork format, now) using the original file names (extension notwithstanding) and original paths.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I'm starting with:</p>
  
  <pre><code>tell application "Finder" to get the path of every item in startup disk
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But am immediately presented with:</p>
  
  <pre><code>error "Finder got an error: Can’t get directory of startup disk." number -1728 from directory of startup disk
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm fairly savvy in a few programming languages, but I know literally nothing about AppleScript. Even some basic pointers on how to collect information (ie. should I use <code>path</code> or <code>directory</code>?) about <code>items</code>, etc. would be appreciated. I've got a couple of thousand files in a near-random distribution on my boss's computer to manage!</p>