Jul 2, 2018 - Apple's macOS Mojave has new “Quick Actions” that you can use to rotate images. You can create your own Quick Actions using Automator, too.
Automator is a great tool for automating basic tasks on your Mac, no scripting or programming required. By dragging prebuilt actions together, you can quickly and easily create countless workflows to do things you might otherwise have to do manually. Mac OS X comes with hundreds of Automator actions to get you started. These actions can handle basic tasks within the operating system itself, as well as in many of OS X's bundled applications, including Address Book, iCal, iTunes, Mail, and Safari.
But as useful as all of these built-in actions are, they can't do everything. Fortunately, third-party developers have been busy building Automator actions of their own. Like the built-in actions, these third-party actions work with OS X itself and its bundled applications, as well as with all kinds of other programs. Some of the actions come from big-name software companies (the latest version of Microsoft Office, for example, includes some handy actions of its own), and some come from individual programmers.
Wherever you get them, these third-party actions make Automator even more useful than it already is. Here are a few of my favorites. To install any of them, follow their Web links; you'll find installation instructions there. Dispense Items Incrementally Automator's new Loop action lets you repeat a section of your workflow over and over.
Unfortunately, it has a glitch: if your workflow passes multiple files or folders to a loop, Automator will send the entire batch through the loop all at once. That may be fine if you're working with a small number of items. But if your workflow generates a list of hundreds or even thousands of Finder items, and then sends them to an application, you could find yourself with hundreds of files open at one time. Nyhthawk Productions' fixes this problem by taking a batch of files as input and then releasing them to an Automator loop one at a time. Once all the items have been through the loop, the action stops the workflow. Download URLs as PDFs Saving Web pages in PDF format can be very useful. You can then share them with friends via e-mail, archive them for offline viewing, or integrate them into a document.
Scott Garner's action makes saving them simple. The action takes URLs from a previous action (such as Get Current Web Page from Safari or Get Specified URLs), downloads those Web pages in PDF format to a specified folder, and outputs the downloaded files for further processing by the workflow. Within the action's preferences, you can specify the PDF's orientation, whether it will include images and backgrounds, the file name, and more. Flickr Upload James Pitt's action makes sharing your photos easier than ever. Once you've authenticated the action with your Flickr account, you can use it to build workflows that upload photos directly from Aperture or iPhoto, or even as you're downloading them from your camera. The action not only handles the uploading, but can also apply a title, adescription, and tags to your photos, and specify who is allowed to view them. Maintenance Performing routine system maintenance, such as repairing disk permissions, can be tedious.
Automator's built-in actions won't make it any less tedious, but Jesse Hogue's can. It lets you initiate a variety of system maintenance routines, including repairing permissions, clearing cache files, and rebuilding the Spotlight index, from within an Automator workflow. Maintenance is not an Automator action per se. Rather, it's a customized version of Automator's Run AppleScript action, saved as an application. You run it by double-clicking on it in the Finder, by opening it in Automator, or by adjusting the workflow's AppleScript code and telling iCal to run it as an alarm, so it'll happen regularly with no intervention from you. Run Python Script Automator's built-in Run AppleScript and Run Shell Script actions let anyone who knows AppleScript or Unix do all kinds of cool stuff. Toxicsoftware.com's action extends these possibilities even further, allowing you to run Python scripts from within an Automator workflow.
Run Ruby Script Building on the success and popularity of the Run Python Script action, Jason Foreman has released a similar action, which lets you run Ruby code from Automator. Upload to FTP If you have to regularly upload files or folders to an FTP server, from Peter Dekkers will make it quicker and easier. You give it your FTP server address, user name, password, root directory, and other settings. When it receives files and folders as input in a workflow, it uploads them and provides their URLs as output. You can then insert those URLs into e-mails or text files, or whatever else you want your workflow to do. View with Quick Look Leopard's Quick Look is a fast, easy way to preview file contents without launching a full-blown application. Nyhthawk's action brings it to Automator, allowing you to create workflows that will preview folder contents, Mail attachments, and more, all within a Quick Look window.
The action itself has no settings to configure. Simply add it to a workflow, following an action that outputs Finder items.
The final word Those certainly aren't all the third-party Automator actions available online. Here are a few more Automator resources on the Web, where you'll find more actions, as well as downloadable workflows and Automator tutorials:. Ben Waldie is the author of Automator for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Visual QuickStart Guide (Peachpit Press, 2008) and the president of.
A front-end application is one that directly interacts with people or users. Marketing researchers often use a database as a front-end to a statistical analysis program. The researchers enter the results of market questionnaires or surveys into a database. Data is then transferred to a s tatistical analysis program to determine the potential for a new. Product or the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.
A back-end application interacts with. Other programs or applications; it only indirectly interacts with people or users. Request information from a Web site on the Internet, the Web site can interact with a database. (the back end) that supplies the desired information. For example, you can connect to a.
University Web site to find out whether the university's library has a book you want to read. The Web site then interacts with a database that contains a catalog of library books. Articles to determine whether the book you want is available. Reference: Reynolds/Stair. Fundamentals of Information Systems, 3e. Automation or automatic control, is the use of various control systems foroperating equipment such as machinery, processes in factories,boilers and heat treating ovens, switching in telephone networks,steering and stabilization of ships, aircraft and otherapplications with minimal or reduced huma n intervention. Someprocesses have been completely automated.
Automation has beenachieved by various means including mechanical, hydraulic,pneumatic, electrical, electronic and computers, usually incombination. A safer operating system.
A more efficient factory. Faster response time, at a Fire Station, or Ambulance Dispatch. Fewer workers on the actual production line. BUT in my experience, the company has required more workers overall because of the increase in productivity. Increase in Productiv ity. Improved record keeping. Better QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control).Less color & size variation.Ability to produce a similar item at a later date.
Faster Production - 100 Widgets/Hr -vs- 80 Widgets/Hr. It looks Awesome automation builds buildings, humen cannot do that because they cannot reach greater hights. NAutomator is a workflow application introduced as part of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
It leverages the power of AppleScript to provide a drag-and-drop workbench for streamlining repetitive tasks. Unlike traditional scripting solutions, you create workflows by organizing packages of code called actions. Automator comes with a set of actions you can use right away. Plus Apple provides links to third party actions that you can add to your collection.
Since you're working in a user interface, you don't need to know any programming to get started. Just arrange the actions in the order you want them executed and hit the run button. Those more comfortable with programming can, however, embed scripts inside workflows or develop new Automator actions. Once you've created a workflow, you can save and distribute it as a stand-alone application that can be used by others who have Mac OS X 10.4 or later.