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Change desktop wallpaper with an Automator action

by David Chartier Jul 28th 2006 at 2:00PM

Sometimes randomly rotating your desktop wallpaper through the Desktop System Preferences pane is just a little overkill. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a simple drag-and-drop Automator action for setting your own wallpaper whenever your heart desired a change of pace? Then why not use this macosxhints post to make one. A few simple steps creates an action that you save as an app somewhere (I named my action 'Wallpaper') and simply link to in your Dock. For added convenience I saved it as a Finder plugin so I can right-click any picture I find to quickly chose Automator > Wallpaper from the context menu. Handy.

As an extra tip: make sure you turn off automatic wallpaper rotation in the Desktop Preferences pane if it's on. Otherwise, at least from my testing, this action won't work.

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Sometimes randomly rotating your desktop wallpaper through the Desktop System Preferences pane is just a little overkill. Wouldn't it be...
 

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james

I use DesktopControl, a free app. I include it in my Finder window and simply drag any image file onto it. It is certainly simpler than using an automator action

July 30 2006 at 6:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DJ

Oooh. I like this tip. Mainly because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to open Sys Pref... go to Desktop & Screen Saver... blah blah blah so on and so forth... Ouch. my wrist hurts just thinking about it.

July 30 2006 at 6:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Darkshadow

I wrote a little app for switching the desktop picture fairly quickly. It puts an item up in the menu bar, and you use the menu to switch between pictures. You can also set the various options (fill screen, etc) and the rotation period from there. There's also an option to view the pictures.

It's a free app (all of mine are).

Picture Switcher:
http://homepage.mac.com/darkshadow02/apps.htm#picswitch

July 29 2006 at 2:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Chartier

#11: That's the same trick I added in the post itself Steve. Were you possibly thinking of something different?

July 29 2006 at 12:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve Troughton-Smith

Make this automator action even cooler by adding it to the Finder as a plugin (File->Save As Plugin). Then you can right-click any image and click "Automator -> Set as Desktop". I've been using this since before Tiger GMed.

July 29 2006 at 3:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay Serna

Does anyone have an Applescript to disable the Change Picture feature that I can add in Automator?

July 29 2006 at 3:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

I like this a lot!

July 29 2006 at 12:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay Serna

Is there a Automator script/action to deactivate the desktop picture rotation? I like this workflow if I want a particular image as the desktop picture now, but I want to keep my normal picture rotation.

July 29 2006 at 12:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shaaheen

Interesting, so you all have "Wallpapers" on your desktops? Wallpapers used to be on the walls, before Windows misuses the correct "Desktop Picture" name.

July 28 2006 at 6:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tice

Much easier: Try my free drag'n'drop app Desky. Just drag an image file on it - boom - a desktop image!

http://blog.tice.de/software.php?page=Desky%20engl

July 28 2006 at 6:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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