Action Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Send Backpack pages to your iPod with Automator

by David Chartier (Jan 26th, 2007)

We sure have gone kookoo for iPod syncing lately - what with tips and scripts for syncing GTD info, Yojimbo and now even the TUAW-approved online PIM, Backpack. I honestly don't remember how I stumbled across this tip, but it hails from - of all places - a public page of Backpack user dchadwick. ...

TUAW Automator Action: Mail Man - attach to email and automatically send

by David Chartier (Jan 18th, 2007)

A while ago I had to help the TV Squad crew cover an award ceremony by snapping screenshots with my Eye TV. I needed a way to fire these shots off to members of the team with the least amount of effort, so I put together a few Automator droplets that could take whatever files I drop on them, attach ...

Automator Action: Upload to Box.net

by David Chartier (Jan 14th, 2007)

We mentioned Box.net, an iDisk-like online hard drive service, back when we could begin mounting them on our Macs. To simplify uploading files to your Box.net account, Daniel Ryan has created an Automator action that not only lets you upload with a simple right click, but it also takes care of ...

Automator Action: PDF Confidential - compress, encrypt and email your documents

by David Chartier (Jan 5th, 2007)

It's been a while since I've paid attention to Automator actions, and I'm beginning to realize that I never quite worked them into my daily habits. Since I'm making more of a conscious effort to fit some handy actions into my workflow, I stumbled across PDF Confidential at Apple's Automator Actions ...

Change desktop wallpaper with an Automator action

by David Chartier (Jul 28th, 2006)

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 ...

Location Switch Automator action

by David Chartier (Jul 17th, 2006)

Location Switch is an Automator action that adds some painfully missing features to Mac OS X's built-in Locations option (y'know, that feature you never touch in the Apple menu?). Location Switch can a whole host of application preferences and settings based on which location you chose, such as ...

Automator Action Packs galore

by David Chartier (Jun 20th, 2006)

In my newsreader today I saw an 'iPhoto Action Pack' from Automator World that adds a handy action for workflows involving iPhoto: "Find iPhoto Item Path". While debating whether that was TUAW-worthy, my newsreader became bombarded with more headlines like System Action Pack, TextEdit Action Pack, ...

Yojimbo plugin for Quicksilver (or: My heart just skipped a beat)

by David Chartier (Jun 13th, 2006)

I need to make more of a habit of rooting around in Quicksilver's plugin pane, as I almost always find stellar new tools each and every time I open it. This time around I stumbled on a Yojimbo plugin for Quicksilver that seems to do a better job of adding items to the Yojimbo database than the ...

WidgetKiller: stop Dashboard dead in its tracks

by David Chartier (Jun 7th, 2006)

WidgetKiller, as its oh-so-deceptive name might betray, is a simple Automator action with one purpose in life: turning on and off Dashboard. If you've been counting every bit and megabyte of RAM that your widgets quietly eat up, this action is for you. WidgetKiller is free and available from ...

Photoshop Automator Action Pack 2.2

by David Chartier (May 31st, 2006)

Ben Long has released a v2.2 update to his most excellent set of Photoshop Automator Actions, a collection of over 70 workflow-enhancing actions for automating everything from switching color modes to cropping images and even archiving them to a disc. New in v2.2 is Intel Mac compatibility (some ...

Access iPhoto and iTunes libraries with a simple Automator action

by David Chartier (May 3rd, 2006)

You could also file this under "fantastic Automator actions that Apple should've advertised when Tiger was being released." A post at macosxhints has discovered a simple Automator action you can use to open panel containing your entire iPhoto or iTunes library (pictured), complete ...

Make a Delivery Automator app

by David Chartier (Apr 7th, 2006)

I haven't tested this yet, but Make a Delivery sounds like a handy little Automator action that will create a .dmg file from the Finder items you have selected, then attach that .dmg to an email. One quirky thing, however, is that you have to move a resource folder into your Applications directory; ...

Backup files to Backpack with Automator

by David Chartier (Apr 4th, 2006)

Non Stop Mac has put together an ingenious how-to on creating an Automator action to backup files to Backpack. It's a simple process that uses the genius of Backpack's page-specific email addresses to email files that are sitting in a specific folder. Head over and check out their post for the ...

Automator action for encrypting/decrypting files

by David Chartier (Mar 23rd, 2006)

Interested in beefing up security on some of your files or folders, but wary of the consequences if FileVault takes on a mind of its own? This Encrypt and Decrypt Files Automator action might be right up your alley, as it allows you to perform these actions with an algorithm and password. Perfect ...

Getting started with Quicksilver: understanding the basics

by David Chartier (Mar 11th, 2006)

Prompted by a TUAW reader comment on my post the other day about some Quicksilver fundamentals, I thought I would take a crack at posting some short tutorials on what Quicksilver actually does, and how to get started with it. I'm talking about the most basic of the basics here for anyone who is ...