Mac Automation: Burn a backup disc of recent iPhotos

Time Machine is great way to backup your entire Mac, but what if you want to make a single backup of your recently imported photos in iPhoto? Well, Automator for Leopard is here to help with this task. In this how-to, I will show you how to find photos taken in the last 2 months and burn the resulting photos to a disc for safe keeping.

Continue reading to learn how to create this Automator workflow.

Creating the workflow
To create this workflow, just place the following Automator actions together (in the same order):

• Ask for Text

• Set Value of Variable

• Find Photos in iPhoto

• Burn a Disc

Creating a variable
Let's now create the variables for this. Variables allow you to change, for instance, the file name based on a user's text input. To create this simple variable, just click View > Variables. Right-clicking in the resulting pane that shows up at the bottom of the window and selecting "New Variable" will do just that -- create a new variable. Supply the text "Disc Name" for the "Name" section; leave the "Value" section blank.

Once you create the variable, drag it to the "Disc Name:" text field in the "Burn a Disc" action; then set the "Variable" in the "Set Value of Variable" action to "Disc Name" -- this will link the variable's value to the text supplied by the user in the "Ask for text" action.

Adjusting some settings
Lets adjust some of the action's settings. In the "Find Photos in iPhoto" action change the first drop-down box in the "Whose" section to "Date" and the second drop-down box to "Within last 2 months." This will find photos whose date is set within the last 2 months.

In the "Burn a Disc" drag the newly created variable from the variable's panel to the "Disc Name:" text field. Be sure to un-check the "Erase first" box unless you're using re-writables. You can also choose either to eject the disc or mount it on the desktop when finished.

Running the workflow
When you first run the workflow, you will be presented with a dialog asking you to name the finished backup disc. When you type in a name (most likely the name/date/time of the burned photos) and click OK, iPhoto will begin searching for photos from the past 2 months. When the pictures are gathered up, the disc will be burned and finalized using the settings you supplied in the "Burn a Disc" action.