January 2011
Beginner to intermediate
368 pages
7h 13m
English
Content preview from Mac at Work
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 24
Mac Automation
When you need a new feature for your Mac, you usually go out and find the software that will do the job. Indeed, most of this book is about finding the right application. But what about making your own applications or enhancing the features of your existing applications?
Normally, creating an app or adding features to an application requires that you write your own software. Programming is not easy; it takes years of training and experience to do well. For those of us without the time and patience to learn how to program, Apple has created several tools to help us automate our Macs. These automation tools let you create a type of mini-program that performs specialized tasks and let you connect existing applications to make them work in new and better ways. This chapter covers the two primary automation tools on the Mac: Automator and AppleScript.
Automator
Automator is installed on all Macs for one purpose: to simplify repetitive tasks. Consider it your own personal robot. (Indeed, the Automator icon is a robot named Otto.) The idea behind Automator is to allow anyone, without a lick of programming experience, to create his or her Automator actions. Creating Automator workflows requires no computer programming whatsoever. With its drag-and-drop functionality, Automator lets you quickly create actions and start saving time. So let’s create an Automator ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.