Automator Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Snow Leopard offers more Automator "purrfection"

by Cory Bohon (Jun 11th, 2009)

If you know me, then you know that I love Automator and scripting things on the Mac. I believe that Automator should be something that everyone can take advantage of, not just the select few that already know how to use it well. That's why I've been working on the TUAW Mac Automation and ...

Mac Automation: Make your text speak its mind

by Cory Bohon (Apr 13th, 2009)

Have you ever wanted to type something into your Mac and have it record what you typed audibly using any one of the Mac OS X voices? It's easily done with a few Automator actions, and in this Mac Automation post, I'll show you how. Open Automator and find the following actions, then drag them to ...

Mac Automation: Integrating Spotlight searches with your workflows

by Cory Bohon (Mar 30th, 2009)

We've discussed some pretty neat uses for Automator workflows in the past, but did you know you can easily integrate Spotlight searches into your automation workflows? Well, you can, and it might be easier than you think. In this Mac Automation post, I'm going to show you how you can integrate it ...

Mac Automation: Creating Watch Me Do workflows

by Cory Bohon (Jan 19th, 2009)

Do you want to use Automator's powerful features, but don't want to worry with "programming" the usefulness each and every time you wish to perform an action? With Automator for Leopard, you have the ability to easily record mouse moves/clicks and keyboard input with a feature called "Watch Me Do." ...

Mac Automation: Get to-dos sent to your mobile from iCal upon request

by Cory Bohon (Sep 30th, 2008)

Say you're out and about and realize that your iPhone doesn't display iCal to-dos. What do you do? You've got two options: (1) Panic, (2) Use this Automator workflow. With this workflow, you will have access to all of your to-dos, even if you are not at your computer -- you just need access to your ...

Mac Automation: Quickly add to-dos/events to iCal

by Cory Bohon (Sep 29th, 2008)

How many times have you been watching TV and wanted to quickly add a to-do or event (maybe both) to iCal? In this Mac Automation post, I'm going to show you how to create both a to-do and an iCal event from within Automator. You will be able to add new items to iCal without ever having to open it. ...

Mac Automation: Burn a backup disc of recent iPhotos

by Cory Bohon (Jun 17th, 2008)

Time Machine is great way to backup your entire Mac, but what if you want to make a single backup of your recently imported photos in iPhoto? Well, Automator for Leopard is here to help with this task. In this how-to, I will show you how to find photos taken in the last 2 months and burn the ...

Mac Automation: Using variables in Automator

by Cory Bohon (Jun 11th, 2008)

Last week I showed you how to use Automator to make a workflow that took photos from your Mac with an iSight and sent them to your Apple TV. That how-to featured one way of using a variable in Automator to let the user name the photo themselves. In this week's Mac Automation post, I want to go into ...

Mac Automation: take and sync pictures to Apple TV

by Cory Bohon (Jun 2nd, 2008)

Parties can sometimes be boring, but with a Mac with an iSight and an Apple TV, you can liven up any party! In this how-to, I am going to show you how to create an Automator workflow that will take pictures at specified times and sync them over to your Apple TV, all without you ever lifting a ...

Mac Automation: E-mail songs from iTunes

by Cory Bohon (May 27th, 2008)

What do you do if you need to email a song from iTunes to your work computer, or to another machine you own? If you have one machine where you do all your CD imports, you might want to send a track to the office; maybe you've got your GarageBand compositions in iTunes and you want to send one to a ...

Mac Automation: Get remote screenshots via Mail

by Cory Bohon (May 19th, 2008)

I've talked about getting your Mac to shutdown via an e-mail (or even take a picture from your iSight and e-mail it back to you), but I have received some comments and e-mails about using this script to send a snap of your computer screen when you want to "check up." So, in this Automator tutorial, ...

Mac Automation: create a Mail-triggered "spy cam"

by Cory Bohon (Apr 22nd, 2008)

Have you ever been away from your Mac, then come back only to find that your co-worker has stolen your favorite Apple pen? Well, I am going to show you how to catch them in the act by creating a Mac "spy cam." For this how-to, you will need to create an Automator workflow, AppleScript, and some Mail ...

Create a PDF of newspaper headlines with Automator

by Dave Caolo (Apr 17th, 2008)

Some of you news hounds may be aware of Newseum, the "interactive museum of news." Every day, they publish the front pages of over 600 newspapers from several companies. Wouldn't it be cool to get just the ones you like delivered to your (virtual) door as a single PDF? Automator to the rescue! Dave ...

Mac Automation: automating Microsoft PowerPoint 2008

by Cory Bohon (Mar 26th, 2008)

Welcome to the 3rd Microsoft Office 2008 automation post. Previously we covered automating Excel 2008 and Word 2008, now we shine the spotlight on PowerPoint 2008. In this how-to, I will show you how to create an Automator workflow to automate the daunting task of applying animations to the slides ...

Mac Automation: automating Microsoft Excel 2008

by Cory Bohon (Mar 17th, 2008)

This is the second part of Mac Automation: automating Microsoft Office 2008. In this how-to, I will show you how to create an importer for Microsoft Excel 2008. This importer will allow you to type text in TextEdit.app (or other text editor) and import it into an Excel file. For this automation, you ...