Save 35% on Peachpit Mac Automation Made Simple Videos

My 8 chapter Mac Automation Made Simple video series is 35% off through the end of the year if you use coupon code VIDEO12.

[Learn more here or visit the Peachpit website]

Adobe InDesign Automator Actions Released in the Mac App Store

I'm pleased to announce that my ID Automator Action Pack, which includes 20 actions for interacting with Adobe InDesign in Mac OS X Lion and Snow Leopard, has been released in the Mac App Store. It can be found here.

Information about my other Lion action packs can be found here.

-Ben

Now Available: New Mac Automation Made Simple Videos!

Peachpit has bundled a new series of my Mac Automation Made Simple videos on Automator.  They're now available for purchase as DRM-Free downloads, so you can play them on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.  Topics in this 8-part series include:

  • Automate generating job folders - If you use job folders for multiple projects to keep organized, learn how to save time and reduce errors by building workflows in Automator to create job folders consistently and quickly. You'll also learn the basics of actions and variables in Automator.
  • Batch-create folders from an Excel list - If your workflow ever requires you to create a large number of folders or sets of subfolders with specific naming conventions, Excel and Automator can work together to eliminate the manual creation of folders. By using the powerful features in Excel to build lists of file names in large numbers and use Automator to process those lists into hundreds of folders in minutes.
  • Display Growl notifications for new content - File sharing over a network is great for larger files that you wouldn't send via email, but how can you be sure that you're always notified when a new file lands in your folder? Learn how to team Automator with the popular notification software Growl to build a great workflow that eliminates the need for you to get an email or phone call notifying you of new files.
  • Schedule backups via a network - Do you manually back up your Mac to a server? If so, you've probably had to set up calendar reminders and run through the process on a regular basis or risk losing your data. In this lesson, learn how to make that process automatic and painless with Automator and iCal.
  • Share files via Dropbox - Take the powerful PDF tools offered in OS X a step further by building your own Print Plugin with Automator. You'll learn how to set up a Print Plugin that automatically posts any document you print to PDF to the online file sharing tool Dropbox. You'll also learn the basics of setting up actions to rename files to be friendly for upload tools by removing offending characters.
  • Batch-convert image files to PDF - If you've ever had the daunting task of scanning a book or a box of images with a flat bed scanner, you know that it isn't easy to combine all those files into a single PDF without some heavy-hitting applications like Photoshop and Acrobat Pro. But what if you don't have those applications or are just looking for an easier way? Learn how to set up a quick and easy way to combine multiple images into a single PDF without the hassle.
  • Batch-process images for iPhoto - If you're like most people with a smart phone, an amature photographer or have a large photo digitizing project on your plate, you'll import, manipulate and save hundreds to thousands of images a year. In this lesson, you'll learn how to unleash the power of Automator and free third-party tool to streamline your workflow and make importing images to your iPhoto library a snap.
  • Batch-process multiple InDesign files to PDF - Exporting multiple InDesign files to PDF can be as quick and easy as dragging and dropping your files. You'll learn how to create a drag-and-drop application with AppleScript and Automator that opens, exports, names, and saves PDFs from InDesign. You'll be able to use the same custom application for both InDesign CS4 and CS5.

Sold as a set, or individually, you can find them on Peachpit's website.

Mac Automation Made Simple Video Podcast > Extending Automator Workflows with Third-Party Actions

Episode 16
Date: 02.17.2009
Duration: 00:08:48
Extending Automator Workflows with Third-Party Actions
In this episode of Mac Automation Made Simple, Ben Waldie demonstrates how to extend the power of Automator with third-party actions, allowing you to build Web photo galleries, a birthday calendar in iCal, a photo contacts sheet in InDesign, and more..
[View in Tunes...] [View at Peachpit.com...]

MacTech AppleScript Essentials Column > Adobe CS3 and AppleScript

February, 2008 - Adobe CS3 and AppleScript.

Upgrading an application, despite giving you access to the latest and greatest features, tends to present some nagging questions. Will your existing documents still work with the new version of the application? Will any of your existing data, settings, or preferences be lost or overwritten? Will conflicts with other applications or software arise?

If you've incorporated the application into an AppleScript-based automated workflow, as is the case with many Adobe users, then some additional concerns may arise. Will your existing AppleScripts continue to work? If not, how long will it take to update them? The answers to these questions depend entirely on the changes made by the application developer. If the developer has changed the application significantly, then the AppleScript implementation may also have changed significantly too. If this is the case, then many changes to your existing scripts could be necessary. [Read more at MacTech.com...]

Apple.com Article > Individually Processing Files Through an Automator Workflow

Automator makes it easy to create drag-and-drop workflow applications to process batches of files all at once. Simply save any Automator workflow as an application, and it will automatically become a drag-and- drop application.

This method of processing may work fine for workflows that process only a handful of files. But what if you need to process hundreds or thousands of files? It may not be practical to process an entire set of files as a single batch. Instead, it may make more sense to process the files through the workflow individually, one after another. The Automator Multi-Item Processing Utility, available for free from Automated Workflows, LLC, makes this type of processing possible.

The following steps will walk you through the process of individually processing files through an Automator workflow using the Automator Multi-Item Processing Utility. This particular workflow will open InDesign documents and export them to an output folder in PDF format. [Read more...] (pdf)

MacTech AppleScript Essentials Column > Introduction to Scripting InDesign

November, 2006 - Introduction to Scripting InDesign.

In last month's column, we discussed scripting page layout applications in order to automate your desktop publishing workflow. Specifically, we focused on getting started with scripting QuarkXPress <http://www.quark.com>. This month, we will be discussing another popular and well-known page layout application, Adobe InDesign <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/>.

[Read more at MacTech.com...]