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More on how Apple's 'Tiger' version of OS X can automate tasks


Dec. 7, 2005


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, The Post-Standard

   If you're as busy as I am, you probably don't have time to learn something new every two or three days. You like the tried and true.
   But that doesn't always hold true with computers and software. Sometimes we have to handle the most boring tasks day after day. You've probably felt the same way I do: I've often wondered why my computer can't figure out that every Monday I copy the same dozen files and every Tuesday I send an e-mail to my office mail account reminding myself of a meeting.
   And I've sometimes wished my computer could simply repeat the tedious steps I just went through to create a cropped photo ready for framing. Can't it learn do do these things itself?
   In Tiger, Apple's current version of OS X, that's just what the computer can do. It can learn to automate many different tasks. The software that makes this possible is called Automator.
   Last week I explained the essentials of Automator. If you missed last week's column, be sure to read it before you try any of the steps I will be recommending this week. You'll find it at www.technofileonline.com/texts/mac113005.html.
   First, make sure Automator is running. It's in the Applications folder. (Use the technique I described last week to keep it in your dock if you didn't see it there already.)
   Automator opens to show you a three-paned window, with a Library of "automatable" applications and workflows in the leftmost pane. The next pane, also at the left, shows actions ready to be used, and the large pane at the right is blank until you create or change an action or workflow. Drag an item from the left to the large pane to change it. (Double click on any item to open everything in a new window.)
   Clicking once on an application in the far left pane shows the available actions in the next pane over. These actions are supplied by the programmers and usually work well. But all of them can be altered for your own special use.
   Some seem ridiculously simple, such as "Set iTunes Equalizer" in the iTunes actions -- after all, how hard is it to do this manually? -- but you'll probably catch the real purpose of such simple actions after a while. You can create as many "Set iTunes Equalizer" actions as you want, changing each one so that the overall sound is changed in different ways -- with one set of EQ sliders for your fancy new headphones, maybe, and another set for the cheap earbuds you wear to listen to your iPod while jogging.
   Notice that you can build workflows easily. All you do is combine actions. Sticking with the iTunes actions, you could build a workflow from these actions: Start iTunes Playing, Set iTunes Equalizer, Set iTunes Volume and Start iTunes Visuals.
   A workflow could be much more complicated. Use your imagination and see where it takes you.
   Actions and workflows normally can be saved either as workflows (instructions that require Automator to be running) or as applications (programs that run on their own). But don't miss out on another way you can use them. If you save them as plugins, you'll be inserting them into the software they're designed to augment.
   Here's an easy example. Customize the pre-built "Move Finder items" actions so that items are moved to a specific location, then save it as a plugin. You'll find your plugin in the "Automator" menu that shows up when you right click an item in the Finder. (If you don't yet have a multi-button mouse, use Ctl-click instead.) This is a great way of adding a "Move To" function to OS X like the one in Windows. It's so cool, in fact, that I'm going to write a separate column about it early next year.