02-18-2007, 08:40 AM

Can anyone you you help me. I have downloaded some Automator actions and workflows But being new to Mac I don't know where to put them. The read me say this

To install simply drag the Resize iPhoto Pictures 1.4.app to your desired location (or open it with Automator to edit it.)

Where should be my "desired location" ?

What is the difference between the icons in this picture ?

One I know is a workflow.
Are the others Actions which make up the work flow ? If not where should they be put ?

Thanks in advance

02-18-2007, 09:00 AM

A Spotlight search on my hard drive brought up an Automator folder here:

Macintosh HD ---> Library ---> Application Support ---> Apple ---> Automator

I would drop them in there, personally. It looks logical to me.

Although it might be better if you used your own user account for this: in which case you would have to create an Automator folder in your home library. Something like this:

Macintosh HD ---> Users ---> Your user account ---> Library ---> Application Support ---> Apple ---> Automator

That way if ever one of those Automator actions is wonky, it will at least be localized in your home account instead of being available for all accounts. If ever your user account starts going crazy, you can always create a new user account and the problem will be only in your old account.

02-18-2007, 09:37 AM

Thanks Headcase. I think I'm going to like Automator

02-18-2007, 09:44 AM

Ok Hope you do, then you can upload plenty of nifty Automator actions for us Mac-Forums-ers to use! :girl:

Oh and come to think of it, do put the stuff in your user account instead of the first place I told you. The reason is that it will isolate a flaky action, if ever you have one, in your user account instead of make the whole OS fragile for all accounts.

You will need to create an Apple folder and an Automator folder in there I believe. Then from Automator you can tell it where to navigate and load the action you just dropped in your hard drive.

Edited to add:

On weekends I try to drink green tea instead of coffee so my brain cells don't always talk to each other like they do under the influence of strong java... So let me go through this again!

You will need to create an Apple folder and an Automator folder in your home's Application Support folder, I believe. (Just follow this hierarchy: Macintosh HD ---> Users ---> Your user account ---> Library ---> Application Support ---> Apple ---> Automator) Then from Automator you can tell it where to navigate and load the action you just dropped in your hard drive.

Does that make better sense? *Phew* That was a hard one! :^P

02-18-2007, 10:39 AM

Thanks once again.
But can you please tell me, a new Mac User what's the difference in the icons ? I presume a workflow is made up of the actions are the others Actions ?
How do I utilise them?
they don't appear when I right click (On desktop) under the Automator menu. So how do I use "resize and mail" Automator ?
Do I have to add it somwhere in iPhoto ?

02-18-2007, 11:06 AM

For the icons... The first one on the left is a text file. The last one on the bottom is a workflow action for Automator. As for the other three, they seem to be a triplicate of Automator's icon?

I really don't want to lead you on erroneous paths here, I don't use Automator at all.

I'm sure other members here do though, so I will bow out of this thread and let them talk instead. :girl:

02-18-2007, 11:28 AM

Thanks so far. I'm just trying to get my head around what I'm doing or not s the case maybe

02-19-2007, 01:32 PM

I feel really stupid .The work flow I can just import using that command in Autmator the others are of course Applications........Sorry Headcase

On the brighter side I made my first Automator Workflow
From the desktop i can choose a picture from iphoto(without launching iPhoto( and then change it to jPeg and resize it with the result being put in a folder I Specify..
Ok, not much but I did it myself :lol:

02-20-2007, 09:09 AM

Well done Kilted1! I'm not sure if I'll ever get my head around the possibilities of Automator .... or AppleScript for that matter .... but I'm slowly getting there ....

02-21-2007, 03:40 AM

Thank you Pulse-8 . Now I have got started with Automator I think it's a real cool feature of the Mac OS . However I get the feeling it is a little forgotten by the many Mac users out there.

My problem to start was finding a use for it . Having to resize a load Of pictures and converting them soon solved that question.

It's very early days for me . But it doesn't put me off looking for other uses for Otto.

02-21-2007, 05:56 AM

Automator can do lots of little things that help. For example, I've created a text file called To-Do (it's purpose is obvious). I can append text to this using Quicksilver by hitting F2, so it's great for anything that pops into my head during the day. In Automator I created a little workflow that I linked to iCal. This opens my To-Do file at 9.25am every day, thus reminding what's in there.

I sell a guide I wrote on eBay. Every time I receive an email telling me someone's bought one, I simply copy their address and instigate a workflow. The workflow creates two new email messages; the first already contains text - "Thanks for buying the guide, I'll send it along in a separate message in a few moments. If it doesn't arrive please let me know." The second contains similar text, but has the guide attached. I just paste the buyer's email address and hit send.

Boom.

I do writing work for a company in London. When I've finished a report I instigate a workflow that creates a new email message with the file attached and moves that file to an archives folder. I then hit send, and it's gone.

Boom.

When I want to send an invoice I instigate the "Send latest invoice" workflow, which pulls the file with the most recent date from my Invoices folder and attaches it to an email addressed to the person in question. I just hit send and...

boom.

Before I had my firewire backup drive I created one that archived all my email once a month. (This is available from automatorworld.com.)

Most of these are email related, but that's just because that's where I do most of my dragging, dropping, file selections, etc.

Think about what you want to do, and work out if it can be done in Automator. It's not perfect – ie, I'd love to be able to move downloaded files from a specified contact to a specific folder automatically without even having to implement a workflow – but even in its current form it can save a lot of time.