Automator for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Visual QuickStart Guide

11. Using Variables

The way information passes through an Automator workflow is fairly simple: It passes in sequence from action to action. Sometimes, however, problems occur—actions don’t produce a result, or actions need information from an action much earlier in the workflow. Although such scenarios are less likely to occur in simple workflows, they can severely limit your ability to create complex workflows. Automator in Leopard’s introduction of workflow variables helps avoid this tremendously.

Variables allow you to store information (such as an action’s result) at one point in a workflow and then refer back to it at a later point. They also allow you to retrieve dynamic content (such as the current date or time, or the current user’s name) ...