I didn't realize that I had given up on something like Automator a long time ago. Now that it is here, I see how much I've missed a simple, programming-free automation tool like this. Automator might be my favorite Tiger feature. Apple calls it "your very own robot."
There are a whole bunch of cool little actions that are represented as modular chunks (boxes) with various options for each.
Today I made my first little Automator workflow to name photos and also sequentially number them. With two Actions tied together, my workflow lets me enter the name I want, the starting number and how many digits I want for the number. Do I want two digits like 01, 02, 03 or three digits like 001, 002, 003.
Here's how I used it: I went through my unsorted photos folders and started finding groups of photos. I had about 25 of Burlington, Vermont from January. So, I just selected those photos that had names like Pict001, Pictoo2 etc and Typed Burlington into the New Name entry field, left the starting number at 1 and checked the box and entered a 2 to make all numbers 2 digits long.
Automator showed me I would get something like this: Burlington_01.xxx. Perfect! Then I just clicked the Play button and it renamed the photos in 3 or 4 seconds. I proceeded through several other photo sets to give them more descriptive names. Fantastic. I thought of doing this before but never had a tool this cool and easy to do it with. Yay! These are my kind of legos.
In the Automator window, you can select the Finder application and then see all sorts of actions you can take in the Finder. Here are a few favorite actions that look promising:
Add Spotlight Comments to Finder Items
New Text File
Create Archive
Get Specified Finder Items
Label Finder Items
Set the Desktop Picture
Rename Finder Items
Here's a sample: a single action box for Get Contact Information:
Then there are other items for different applications. Here are some interesting ones for a start:
New iCal Events
Get Contact Information (shown above)
Take Picture (Image Capture)
New mail Message
Group mailer
New iPod Note
Set Info of iTunes Songs
Play iTunes Playlist
Subscribe to Feeds with URLs (NetNewsWire)
Add Grid to PDF files
Copy to Clipboard
Set Computer Volume
Text to Audio File
Get Text from Webpage (Safari)
This should give you some idea that there is a ton of possibility in here that will be accessible to those of us who have only a little bit of inclination or time for this sort of thing.
This is perfect for me. I can program if absolutely necessary, but I don't have the time. That's why I've used FileMaker Pro to develop systems rather than a lower level programming language. I would rather use a tool that eliminates the fussiness of programming and helps me get the job done in a hurry. A tool that is a lot more accessible than a programming or even scripting language.
I won't be giving up FileMaker, but Automator will be a first-rate addition without me having to take specialized training to use it (FileMaker Inc. announced today that they "are planning on leveraging Automator's approach to streamlining repetitive tasks"). I'll just play with Automator, get results, experiment and see what others have done and use the stuff I like that is out there for me and customize it. Like that.
By the way, you can combine workflows calling an individual workflow by a larger workflow and you can call AppleScripts for any heavy lifting you might need. I'll leave the AppleScripting to those who enjoy that sort of thing but my guess is that since Automator can take advantage of AppleScript, there will be more demand for good AppleScripts for specific needs since they can be embedded into simple workflows.
Well worth the wait. And fun!
Links:
- Engadget has a great little instructional post showing how to create a simple Automator workflow that takes a selection of news and blogs and outputs them as audio to an iPod. If any of this sounds interesting, check it out.
- Doug Adams has Volume 1 of his iTunes Automator Actions available. His Make AAC tracks bookmarkable action is a must.
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