FolderActions
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Share links between Mac and iOS with Dropbox trickery
It's beginning to look like the holy grail for any Mac user that also totes around an iPhone or iPod touch -- being able to open URLs remotely so that one can view them later from the comfort of their big, delicious Mac screen. Thanks to MacStories and their readers, we now have a workaround that fits the bill quite nicely. There are a number of apps and services that let one send links to the iPhone easily, but no one seems to have truly mastered sending links the other way. For that, you'll need a Dropbox account, some knowledge of Folder Actions on OS X and at least one cup of coffee. In the end, you'll be using Dropbox as a middleman between your iOS devices and your Mac, which monitors the Dropbox folders for URLs using Folder Actions. The point is, this is a very doable and very effective workaround for the time being. I'm still waiting for a single service that will streamline the way we send content between desktop Macs and their touch-based brethren, but I'm never one to turn down a fun afternoon of desktop tweaking. You can find the full set of instructions over at MacStories.
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.
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.
AppleScript: Exploring the power of Folder Actions, part III
So far in this AppleScript feature we've covered what folder actions are and how to create them. In this AppleScript post, I'm going to tell you how to create your own custom scripts and add them to your folder actions list. If you work with file permissions a lot, then you know how crazy it can get when you need to change a ton of files to their correct permission types. With this AppleScript folder action, you can easily change the permissions just by dragging and dropping files in their correct folder. Creating the Script To get started, we'll open the Script Editor (located in /Applications/Utilities). Once you have the editor opened, copy/paste the following script: on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items tell application "Finder" set fold_name to the name of this_folder try repeat with i from 1 to number of items in added_items set new_item to item i of added_items set the item_path to the quoted form of the POSIX path of new_item do shell script ("/bin/chmod -R +r " & item_path) end repeat end try end tellend adding folder items toThis script will change the dropped files to a permission of "0644" meaning that everyone can read the file. For information about chmod and command line permissions strings, visit the Wikipedia page. Continue reading to learn more about this AppleScript and folder actions.
AppleScript: Exploring the power of Folder Actions, part II
In the last AppleScript post, I mentioned some of the useful ways to create Folder Actions, and showed you how to use one of the built-in scripts to perform a pretty useful action. In this AppleScript post, we'll dive into the built-in scripts in more detail, and I will tell you how each of them works. Once you create a new folder action (as we did in the last tutorial), you will have a pop-up dialog asking if you would like to attach an Apple-created script. There should be around 13 preinstalled on your Mac. Now let's go through each of them, and see what they will do when attached: Add-new item alert.scpt - This included script, which we covered in the last post, allows you to get a pop-up dialog upon dropping files in the attached folder. So, if you were to drop file x into the folder, a dialog would display a message that file x was just dropped in there. This script is great for networked folders, as you get a dialog when someone drops something in there. Close-close sub-folders.scpt - This script will, when a file is dropped in the attached folder, close all opened Finder windows associated with that folder and subfolders. So, if you have that folder opened, or another subfolder within that folder, when you drop a file into it the script will close those opened Finder windows. You can use this script to tidy up your screen. Convert-PostScript to PDF.scpt - If you have a PostScript file type (i.e. eps or ps files), then you can enable this folder action. When you drop a PostScript file on it there will be two folders created, one called "Original" and the other called "PDF." This folder action will take those PS files and turn them into PDFs for your instant viewing pleasure. You can use it in your workflow to easily convert from PS to PDF. Read on to learn about even more built-in folder action scripts.
AppleScript: Exploring the power of Folder Actions, part I
Welcome to Part I of this mini AppleScript feature on creating useful folder actions. We'll have more posts on this topic coming up, but for now, let's introduce what a folder action is. Have you ever wanted to just drop a file into a folder and have something magically happen? Say, have a file printed, whisked to a remote site via FTP, or perhaps have an image be automatically flipped from horizontal to vertical? With Mac OS X's built-in folder actions, you can easily do this with a simple drag and drop. Creating the folder First, let's talk about how we can enable these "magical folders" that perform actions on files dropped within them. For this example, I'll show you how to make a folder on your desktop that, when a file gets dropped into it, will display a dialog letting your know that the file was placed there.
Mac Automation: saving Automator workflows
Now that you've been introduced to Automator, let's let's get into the "nitty-gritty." In the previous Automator post, we learned how to make a workflow that would take photos from your camera, import them into iPhoto, then allow you to e-mail them. Let's look at the three ways in which you can save this workflow for later reference. Workflow File You can save the workflow as an actual Automator workflow file by clicking File > Save; choose "workflow" from the format drop-down menu. By saving as an Automator workflow all of your actions are preserved, and when you re-open the file, you will be presented with your workflow just as you left it. This is a great way to save your workflow for editing later on.
