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Intro
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I read about some cool new additions in Automator in Lion and so decided to dive in a bit
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Quick Automator recap
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One of the best analogies I've heard is the concept of a 'recipe'
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An Automator workflow is the recipe and the actions are ingredients.
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How you combine the different ingredients determines the outcome
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Most actions have inputs and results (outputs) and they types are important.
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These can be viewed in the info area when you select the item in the Library or from the 'Description' tab if you select the item in the workflow
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Building a Workflow
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Launch Automator (Applications-->Automator)
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When you choose 'File --> New…' you'll get a panel with several types of documents
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Workflow - Workflows can be run from within Automator.
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Application - Applications are self-running workflows. Any files or folders dropped onto an Application will be used as input to the workflow.
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Service - Services are contextual workflows available throughout Mac OS X. They accept text or files from the current application or the Finder. Services appear in the Services menu.
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Print Plugin - Print plugins are workflows that are available in the print dialog. They accept PDF versions of the document being printed.
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Folder Action - Folder Actions are workflows that are attached to a folder in the Finder. Items added to the folder cause the workflow to run and are used as input to the workflow.
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iCal Alarm - iCal Alarms are workflows that are run when triggered by an event in iCal. They receive no input.
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Image Capture Plugin - Image Capture plugins are workflows that are available in Image Capture. They receive image files as input.
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Selecting the type will determine in Lion where and how it's saved by Version. Most of the time you'll probably create Applications or Services.
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One of the features new to Lion is a 'Duplicate to…' option which lets you take an existing Workflow and convert it to a different type.
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New to Automator in Lion
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Already mentioned Duplicating Workflows
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Easy install of Actions or Services
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You can download 3rd party Actions (ingredients) to be used in Automator workflows
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Just double click and you will get a dialog
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Services are installed to '~/Library/Services' and Actions to '~/Library/Actions'
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Versions support
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New Actions
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Text To EPUB File
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Website PopUp
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Create Banner Image from Text
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Get Contents of Webpages (Webarchive type)
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Save Images from Web Content
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Encode to MPEG Audio
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Encode Media
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Create Annotated Media File (add metadata)
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Enhanced RTF Support, better support for the RTF format in text
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New Filtering Options for Text Input in Services, better use of Data Detectors. URLs, dates, or phone numbers, can now be both detected and filtered from selected text.
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Text to ePub
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File New…, select the Service type
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At the top of the Workflow
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Service receives selected: 'Text' in 'Any application'
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Input is: 'Entire selection' (default) and 'Output replaces selected text' is unchecked.
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From the Actions List:
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If it's not visible Click the 'Show Library' button in the toolbar
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In the 'Text' library add the 'New Text File' action
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File format: 'Plain text'
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Save as: 'temporary.txt'
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Where: Desktop (I create a 'Temporary Items' folder in my Documents folder and set it to that) Check the 'Replace existing files' option
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Encoding: Default is fine (mine is Western (Mac OS Roman) )
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In the 'Text' section add the 'Text to EPUB File' action
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You can set a default Author, Title, and Save As (filename)
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Set the save location under 'Where:'. I created a My EPUBs folder in my Documents folder
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You can also set a default cover image. Apple automatically sets a generic brown cover in iBooks
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Chances are though you'll want to set the Title, etc at runtime
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Enable this by going under the 'Options' section at the bottom of the 'Text to EPUB File' action block
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Check the 'Show this action when the workflow runs' option.
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Save the Service.
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Name will be what is displayed when you see it in the 'Services' menu.
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I named mine 'Text to EPUB'
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To use it, not you can go to any app, make a selection, control+click (right-click), choose Services-->Text to EPUB.
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Once selected the dialog should pop up
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Set the Title, Author, filename, etc.
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Then the ePUB should generate and save to the location you specified.
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Now you can drag that .epub file to iTunes and it will be added to iBooks and you can sync.
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Some other things you can do:
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You could adjust the workflow to use RichText selections
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You can start with a set of selected TXT or RTF files instead of a selection (or a folder of files)
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Each TXT file will become a chapter and I think gets loaded in order by filename.
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Create EPUB Book with Contents of Clipboard
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Add media. Images, audio, or video (m4v or m4a) in the Text to EPUB action settings
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Added as 1 item per chapter at the beginning or end
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again these go in order by filename I believe
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Extra elements get added in a separate chapter
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Save Emails from URL
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File New…, select the Service type
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At the top of the Workflow
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Service receives selected: 'URLs' in 'Any application'
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Input is: 'Only URLs'
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From the 'Internet' actions add the 'Get text from webpage' action
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Set the 'Get' value to 'Plain Text'
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From the 'Text' actions add the 'Extract Data from Text' action (new in Lion)
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Set the 'Extract' datatype to 'Email addresses'
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From the 'Text' actions add the 'New Text File' action
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File Format: Plain Text
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Save as: 'Emails.txt'. I also set the 'Replace existing file' option
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Where: Desktop
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Encoding: Western (Mac OS Roman) (default)
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Save the Service
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I named mine 'Save Emails from Web Page'
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To use
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Select any URL that goes to a page that contains email addresses on it. A club directory for example.
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Control+Click (Right+Click) on the URL
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Under Services-->Save Emails from Web Page
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Should generate a TXT file on the desktop with only the email addresses that appear on the web page. One email address per line.
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Make stand alone web app widget
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File New…, select the Application type
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From the 'Internet' actions add the 'Get Specified URLs' action
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Add the Url for your widget. I used 'arstechnica.com'
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Tip: you can drag a URL into the Automator Workflow section and it will automatically add this action with the URL set.
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From the 'Internet' actions add the 'Website Popup' action
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Site Size: iPhone (Large, Medium, iPad, iPhone, and Custom option)
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User Agent: iPhone (Safari, iPhone, iPad)
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Position: Centered
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Output: Input URL
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Save the app. Name it whatever you'd like.
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Double click and you'll get an iPhone sized app window with the site loaded
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If you choose a site that has an iOS formatted version it will fit perfectly in the window
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Techinca, Macworld, Apple Insider, Twitter, Google
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Right+Click or use the Command + Left Arrow to go back
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You'll notice the "Automator" cog running in the menubar until you click OK or Cancel at the bottom of the app to exit the automator action.
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Automator Resources
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Mac OS X Automation
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Automated Workflows, Ben Waldie - Books, Blog, tutorials
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Automator World
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