automator
Latest
Found Footage: MacOSXTutorials explores Mac Dropbox tips
As a Dropbox fan, I am always looking for new uses for the ubiquitous cloud storage service. Matt Fisher, whose videos have been featured on TUAW before, has produced a new video chock-full of great Mac OS X Dropbox tips. In this 10-minute clip, Matt shows: How to copy the Mac clipboard to a Dropbox text file by creating an Automator service A demo of AirDropper, an excellent way of securely requesting files from others and having them delivered via Dropbox How to email files to Dropbox using Habilis A quick way to access your Dropbox using a Chrome Extension (also available for Firefox) Start torrents from any computer or device connected to Dropbox Add PDFs to iBooks Edit files from anywhere using Droptext Some of these tips are rather straightforward, while others are incredible "why didn't I think of that" ideas that can really help make you more productive. What are your favorite things to do with Dropbox and your Mac? Leave us a comment.
Apple patent details workflows, social networking links for iPhone
When we're working with our iPhones and sharing information with other people, it sometimes takes more steps than it should to perform a task. Patently Apple recently published information about an Apple patent application describing a new icon and process to make multi-step workflows easier to accomplish. In the patent description, each transaction takes place between an initiator and a target. While several examples are shown, the most interesting one deals with Facebook integration. As seen in the above diagram from Patently Apple, this workflow creates what appears to be a Wi-Fi Direct or Bluetooth connection to another iPhone, requests a vCard from the target, receives the information and allows you to either edit or accept it, adds a picture of the target person, and then sends a friend request to Facebook. Today's process requires several apps (Contacts and Facebook) and the target would have to send contact information via email or MMS, adding another app and more complexity. The ability to add workflows to the iPhone automates the process of adding information to Contacts and Facebook much in the manner that Automator on the Mac can be set up to integrate applications. There were rumors circulating last week about Apple integrating Facebook into iPhone OS 4; perhaps the workflow concept is a way of doing that and building an Automator-type functionality into iPhone OS. As always, applying for the patent doesn't necessarily mean that Apple will use this technology in a future product.
NTT DoCoMo shows off automatic email generator for mobiles (video)
Demonstrated at the Wireless Technology Park 2010 exhibition last week, this automatic email generator from NTT DoCoMo promises to take just three words' worth of input, whether spoken or typed in, and convert them into a fully fleshed out, anatomically correct email. An anthropomorphic genie creature serves as your guide on this journey into gimmick world, although some rather nice sophistication is also on the cards. The carrier's rep informs us that the composition of the missive will be dependent on the sort of person that you are and your relationship to the recipient. Thus, an email from a teenager to his parents will read quite differently to one from an employee to her boss, even if both believe they're writing to their draconian overlords. Check it out on video after the break.
Mac OS X's Automator: I learned it by watching you!
Mac OS X's Automator has the ability to perform specific tasks from its given set of actions. For example, with a Finder-based action, you can batch move copy, move or rename files that fit a certain criteria. Similarly, image-based actions allow you to batch edit images, be it resizing, rotating or changing their file type (i.e., from JPG to PNG or vice versa). However, there may be situations that call for more unique tasks to be performed. And this is where Automator's "Watch Me Do" feature may come in handy. It performs keyboard- and mouse-based actions based on your movements and inputs during a Watch Me Do session. To initiate a Watch Me Do session, launch Automator and choose a template (you can incorporate it into an existing Automator workflow, service or app as well). Then, click on the "Record" button in the upper right hand corner. A small grey translucent window with an Automator icon will now appear in the upper left hand corner indicating that your inputs and movements are being recorded; to stop recording, just click on the stop button. The whole concept is similar to how you'd record a macro in Microsoft Excel. [Whoops, bad example, as macro recording isn't in the VBA-free Excel 2008 version. How about QuicKeys instead? –Ed.] I've found Watch Me Do actions particularly handy, especially when I'm too lazy to figure out how to do something in AppleScript. Watch Me Do requires that you enable access for assistive devices, so you'll need to hop on over to the "Seeing" pane within the Universal Access section of Mac OS X's System Preferences. Yes, Automator really can learn by watching you.
Five customized Automator services to help save you time
One gem in Mac OS X that sometimes gets glanced over is the Services menu. Lots of readers may not know yet that Snow Leopard brought with it the ability to create your own customized service in Automator -- in other words, you can get additional selections on a contextual menu when right-clicking within a certain context, say a file within a Finder window. To create a customized service, all you have to do is launch Automator and select "Services" from the "Choose a template for your workflow" window, and then insert your own service from there. Here are five customized services for you to install on your own Mac.
Ask TUAW: Automatic file sorting, Disk Utility, iPod battery replacement, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about automatically sorting downloaded files, using Disk Utility to change partitions and format external drives, using a KVM in a multi-platform environment, replacing an iPod touch battery, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Sal Soghoian talks Automator use in education
Total Apps has published a nice guest post from Sal Soghoian, Apple's Production Manager for Automator, intended for teachers. He describes how educators have a limited amount of instruction time with the kids, and even less for maintenance tasks like making sure the proper software is installed, that students are on the proper web page, and so on. Sal wants to help, and points out a number of links useful to anyone (not just teachers) who wants to automate these repetitive and often time-consuming tasks. Best of all, he shares a link to The Teacher's Helpers (scroll down a bit), which is a free collection of Automator actions specifically written to assist teachers with Macs in their classrooms. If you've been put off by AppleScript, give Automator a try. Its drag-and-drop interface is much easier to use.
Ask TUAW: Target disk mode, energy saver prefs, iTunes sharing and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about target disk mode, energy saver prefs, Safari file issues, iTunes album artwork, iTunes sharing and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.computergeeksjw asks:I have an old iMac Blue G3. The fliesystem failed, but I can't reformat because there is a disc in the slot-loading drive. I tried the tricks I know like Open Firmware (gives me a weird error) and holding in the mouse button (I hear the drive spin up but nothing else happens). I have a newer G4 Quicksilver. Will it be able to boot up into Target Disk Mode even though the filesystem is damaged? (Then I can try to repair with Disk Utility or reinstall from there) or will it fail like a normal boot does?
Ask TUAW: Making contact sheets, adjusting multiple files' properties, using network locations, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about making photo contact sheets, adjusting properties for multiple files at the same time in the Finder, automatically managing settings based on location, changing the spell check language in iWork and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Found Footage: The do-it-yourself wedding photo booth
What do you get when you mix a MacBook, a US$99 printer, some Ikea shower curtains, and lot of wedding guests? In the case of Mac user David Cline, you end up with a very happy sister! During planning for his sister Helen's recent wedding, Cline looked into renting a wedding photo booth that would take pictures of guests, save a digital copy, and then print out a strip of photos for the guests to take home as a keepsake. The cost for the rental was prohibitively expensive -- about US$2,000 a day. David quickly decided that by combining his Mac, a special Automator workflow that he created, an Epson PictureMate Dash printer, an old wardrobe frame, and colorful shower curtains from Ikea, he could inexpensively re-create the functionality of the expensive rental. His Automator script prompted wedding guests for their names, took 3 photos, arranged the photos in a vertical strip, displayed the photos on the screen for the guests to view, printed out the photo strip, and then saved the individual photos and photo strips in digital form onto the Mac. After the wedding, the photos were uploaded to an online photo album. From the looks of the happy wedding guests, the Do-It-Yourself Photo Booth was a success. I'd venture to say that David Cline is ranking high in the standings for the "Brother of the Year Award."
Ask TUAW: OpenCL support in Snow Leopard, Boot Camp, automatic importing into iPhoto, and more
Wednesday means it's time for another Ask TUAW! For this edition we've got questions about what Macs will support Snow Leopard's forthcoming OpenCL acceleration, using Boot Camp with multiple partitions, connecting a Mac mini to HDMI, automatically importing images into iPhoto, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Snow Leopard offers more Automator "purrfection"
If you know me, then you know that I love Automator and scripting things on the Mac. I believe that Automator should be something that everyone can take advantage of, not just the select few that already know how to use it well. That's why I've been working on the TUAW Mac Automation and AppleScript series for over a year now (we're going to have more coming soon, so stay tuned). I was watching the WWDC '09 keynote, desperately waiting to see if anything new was announced for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in regards to automation, and specifically Automator.app. Nothing was said at the keynote, but when I looked on the newly updated Snow Leopard page on Apple's site, I was ecstatic. One of the refinements listed was that Mac OS X Services would now be a feature of Automator. Services let you use features of one application while you are inside of another. In the Automator instance, you would be able to use workflows while you are inside of any Mac OS X application that supports the use of Services. In addition to updating Automator for Services, Apple has also added more starting points for workflows. You can now choose between a standard workflow, application, service, folder action, print plugin, iCal alarm, or an image capture plugin. We will have more information about Automator and Services in Snow Leopard when it launches in September.
Mac Automation: Make your text speak its mind
Have you ever wanted to type something into your Mac and have it record what you typed audibly using any one of the Mac OS X voices? It's easily done with a few Automator actions, and in this Mac Automation post, I'll show you how. Open Automator and find the following actions, then drag them to the workflow area (in the same order): Get Specified Text Text to Audio File Running the workflowWith these two actions in place, you can enter text into the Get Specified Text action, and a file name in the Text to Audio File action, and run it with great results. The text that you enter will be magically encoded into audio using the specified voice in the audio file action. Read on to learn more about saving the workflow, and adding additional options.
Mac Automation: Integrating Spotlight searches with your workflows
We've discussed some pretty neat uses for Automator workflows in the past, but did you know you can easily integrate Spotlight searches into your automation workflows? Well, you can, and it might be easier than you think. In this Mac Automation post, I'm going to show you how you can integrate it into a workflow that will burn the resulting files to a CD or DVD. Creating the workflowTo create this simple workflow, you'll need to use two actions. Find the "Spotlight" action and drag it to your workflow section; then, find the "Burn a Disc" action and drag it below the newly added Spotlight action. That's it; your workflow is now completed, but we need to tweak the actions. Using the workflowTo test the workflow, you can enter a search term in the Spotlight action, and a Disc name in the Burn a Disc action. Insert a rewritable disc, or a regular CD/DVD, and click the "Run" button in the upper right corner of the Automator window. Automator will then go to work finding all of the search terms that matched files, then will then burn all found items to the disc. This could take a while to burn, depending on the resulting files. Remember that all of the Spotlight tricks, such as exclusion, denoting kind, etc. are still available even though you're using the Automator action.
Mac Automation: Creating Watch Me Do workflows
Do you want to use Automator's powerful features, but don't want to worry with "programming" the usefulness each and every time you wish to perform an action? With Automator for Leopard, you have the ability to easily record mouse moves/clicks and keyboard input with a feature called "Watch Me Do." Initial SetupBefore using this Automator feature, you will need to turn on "Access for assistive devices." So head over to System Preferences > Universal Access. Make sure the checkbox is checked beside "Enable access for assistive devices." This allows Automator to control your mouse and keyboard movements/clicks/key presses. Watch Me Do will not work unless this box is checked. Recording an Action in AutomatorYou are now ready to start recording your first Watch Me Do action in Automator. This feature gives Automator additional functionality if a prebuilt action is not readily available. So, before you go creating your own Watch Me Do action, look through the action list to make sure the functionality doesn't already exist. When you are ready to record, press the "Record" button in the top-right corner of the window. The main Automator window will disappear, and you will see a heads-up display on the screen showing that Automator is recording; this display will also have a stop button -- when you are done recording your actions, you press this to return to the main Automator window. While recording, any mouse movements/clicks and key presses will be captured and added to your workflow. Managing your recorded eventsEach time you click, press a key, or move the mouse, you create an "event." Once you have recorded your Watch Me Do actions, you can reorder the specific events of the action. Just click and drag in the "Events" section. Be careful though, as some rearrangements can render the action workflow useless (i.e. reordering a click of a button before a specific dialog is displayed). In the Watch Me Do action, you can also select a Timeout in seconds, and set the playback speed. Before changing these settings, note the defaults: Timeout is set to 0 seconds, and Playback Speed is set to 1x. Read on to learn about running, saving, and get some tips about recording.
Mac Automation: Get to-dos sent to your mobile from iCal upon request
Say you're out and about and realize that your iPhone doesn't display iCal to-dos. What do you do? You've got two options: (1) Panic, (2) Use this Automator workflow. With this workflow, you will have access to all of your to-dos, even if you are not at your computer -- you just need access to your main email account. When you send an email to your email account, this script will run, sending you back your ToDo list from iCal.Creating the Automator WorkflowTo create the Automator workflow, you need to find the following Automator actions and drag them into the workflow area of Automator (in the same order): Find iCal Items New Mail Message Send Outgoing Messages Tweaking the workflow settingsIn the "Find iCal Items" action, select "To Dos" from the "Find" drop-down menu. In the "Whose" section, select "Due Date" from the "From" box and "Today" from the second box. You can deviate from the instructions on this step and use the settings that allow you get the most use out of this workflow (for instance, you can select any interval of time you want, etc.). In the "New Mail Message" action, enter your email address in the "To" field -- this is the address that your ToDo list will be sent to. Fill in a descriptive subject line like "My ToDo Items for Today" or something similar. Be sure to select an email account that your remote Mac can utilize. Continue reading to learn how to complete this workflow and create the Mail rules.
Mac Automation: Quickly add to-dos/events to iCal
How many times have you been watching TV and wanted to quickly add a to-do or event (maybe both) to iCal? In this Mac Automation post, I'm going to show you how to create both a to-do and an iCal event from within Automator. You will be able to add new items to iCal without ever having to open it. Let's begin. Creating the Automator Workflow (New iCal Event)First we need to create an Automator workflow that will add the to-do and event to iCal. To create the workflow, just add the "New iCal Events" action to the workflow area. Before you continue, be sure to click the "Options" button at the bottom of the action and select the "Show this action when the workflow runs" checkbox. Saving the Automator WorkflowTo give you quick and easy access to the creation of iCal events, you can choose the Save As method of your choice. Running the WorkflowTo run the workflow, click the "Run" button in the top-right corner of Automator (or launch it as an application). When you run the workflow, you will be presented with a dialog that will ask you to specify a Name, Date, Time, and other information. When you press "Continue," the workflow will create the event in iCal. Keep reading to learn how to quickly create to-dos in iCal.
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.
Mac Automation: Using variables in Automator
Last week I showed you how to use Automator to make a workflow that took photos from your Mac with an iSight and sent them to your Apple TV. That how-to featured one way of using a variable in Automator to let the user name the photo themselves. In this week's Mac Automation post, I want to go into a little more detail on what variables are and what they can do for your Automator workflows. Continue reading to learn more about using variables in Automator.
Mac Automation: take and sync pictures to Apple TV
Parties can sometimes be boring, but with a Mac with an iSight and an Apple TV, you can liven up any party! In this how-to, I am going to show you how to create an Automator workflow that will take pictures at specified times and sync them over to your Apple TV, all without you ever lifting a finger. This Automator workflow is fantastic when you have people over for a party they can head over to your Mac, take a crazy picture of themselves and have it synced over to the Apple TV in the living room. Continue reading to learn how to make this Automator workflow.
