Mac20Q Podcast – Automator, AppleScript doing things automagically

This week I have been getting stuck into the programming and learning about things like the if else , for and while loops and I dare say that for most listeners it would not be that interesting.

I have though during the last couple of days been trying to work out how to do for free – what I demonstrated in the last quick tips video screencast – In which I was using Hazel – A paid app – I made an automation of separating audio tracks and converting to AIFF ready for Amadeus Pro – I want to do as a free option as in using the tools we get free with Mac OSX.
That means Automator or AppleScript

With these there a few flavours of automation. You have folder actions, services, workflows, automator actions and the ability to save workflows as Applications.

The folder action is good when you want to drop files in folder and things will happen to them as if by magic. The Applications obviously can be used to open a file and do something with it
Services are workflows that you can get to from an application such as with finder with a right click on a file and the contextual menu will have the services that are applicable to that file or files.
You can also get to the services from the application menu item and again it give you the services that are available to that application.

Services was a new concept with Snow leopard and is trying to make automation all the more accessible. Then there is AppleScript – which can be run separate or can be included in an automator work flow or runs as an application.