Macworld Article > 5 Automator workflows everyone should have

automator-icon_580-100036496-largeI meet a lot of people with Automator anxiety: they think using OS X’s built-in workflow-maker is a lot more complex than it really is. The truth is that Automator workflows are (a) pretty simple to assemble and (b) great for simple but repetitive tasks that you do all the time anyway.

To show you what I mean here are five workflows that I think pretty much every Mac user should have. They do things we all need to do: Wrap text in quotation marks, for example, or count the number of words in a selection of text. There might be other ways of doing the same things, but Automator is built into your Mac and you can implement them yourself for free in a couple of minutes.

[Read more on Macworld.com...]

TUAW Post > AppleScripting Email > Developing a Quoted Reply Service

outlook_autoA reader recently wrote to me with a problem. Apparently, Microsoft Outlook no longer contains the ability to create quote level chunks of text when replying to messages in plain text format. Why this functionality was removed, I can't say. But, with a little help from AppleScript and Automator, I was able to help the reader to add this functionality back via a Service. Better yet, the Service can be set up to work in any email client, or even systemwide in any app. Here's how you can do it...

[Read more on TUAW...]

Macworld > Ask the Script Doctor: Working with Text

Ask the Script Doctor is a regular column in which we solve real-world Mac problems using AppleScript and Automator. If you have a problem you’d like us to solve, send an email to the Script Doctor for consideration.

Whether we’re writing novels or email, we all use text all the time. AppleScript is a great tool for making text-focused work easier and more efficient. For that reason, I get a lot of questions about how to simplify common text tasks. Here are a few of those questions and my answers.

[Read more at Macworld.com, subscribe to the print edition, or get Macworld on your iPad...]

Do you have a scripting problem or a question for the Script Doctor? Send it to scriptdoctor@macworld.com.

Text Automator Action Pack Updated to 4.0.5

The Text Automator Action Pack has been updated to version 4.0.5. Changes include:

  • Read Text File Action - Updated to include a popup menu to specify the encoding type of file to be read. Options include Plain Text, Unicode (UTF-8), and Unicode (UTF-16).

This action pack extends the power of Automator with 30 actions for performing text manipulation functions in Mac OS X.

The new version is available in the Mac App Store.

Text Automator Action Pack Updated to 4.0.4

The Text Automator Action Pack has been updated to version 4.0.4. Changes include:

  • Find and Replace in Text Action - Updated to support finding/replacing certain unicode characters
  • Remove Duplicate Paragraphs From Text Action - Added an option to ignore empty paragraphs

This action pack extends the power of Automator with 30 actions for performing text manipulation functions in Mac OS X.

The new version is available in the Mac App Store.

Mac Productivity: Quick Scripts and Workflows – Convert Rich Text to Image

Your wife’s surprise birthday party is tomorrow.  You’ve prepared a top notch slideshow on your Mac using Keynote, and transferred it to your iPad.  Great!  Now you can present directly from the iPad.  There’s only one problem.  The fonts in your presentation are no longer appearing properly because the iPad doesn’t have all the same fonts your Mac does.  It looks like you might have to lug your Mac along too.  No, with Automator’s help, you can just replace the problem text with images.  Here’s how... [Read more on the Peachpit blog...]

Text Automator Action Pack Updated to 4.0.3 – Includes 2 New Actions

The Text Automator Action Pack has been updated to version 4.0.3. Changes include:

  • Added a new 'Add Prefix to Text' action
  • Added a new 'Add Suffix to Text' action

This action pack extends the power of Automator with 30 actions for performing text manipulation functions in Mac OS X.

The new version is available in the Mac App Store.

Peachpit Blog Post > Automator Services: Read Summary of Selected Text

12.07.09 - Automator Services: Read Summary of Selected Text.

Each day this week, I'll be providing tips for creating Service workflows with Automator in Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard. Today’s workflow will receive selected text in an application, summarize it as a single sentence, and speak the summary aloud for you to hear. [Read more at Peachpit.com...]

Mac Automation Made Simple Video Podcast > Building Automator Service Workflows in Snow Leopard

Episode 26
Date: 10.27.2009
Duration: 00:09:44
Building Automator Service Workflows in Snow Leopard
In this episode of Mac Automation Made Simple, Ben Waldie demonstrates how to build Service workflows with Automator in Snow Leopard. Become more efficient by creating workflows that process files, folders, and text, and even ones that run AppleScripts!.
[View in iTunes...] [View at Peachpit.com...]

X-Ray Magazine Scripting Quark Article > Scripting Text (Part 2)

Vol. 3, Num. 5 - Scripting Text (Part 2).

In my last article, I began a discussion about interacting with text in QuarkXPress documents with the use of AppleScript. Much of what you will do with AppleScript and QuarkXPress will involve working with text. This is obviously a fairly complex topic, and it can’t possibly be covered in a single article. Therefore, for this issue, I would like to expand on the previous article and explore text interaction in greater detail. [Read more at X-Ray Magazine online...]