Automator is an application developed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, which can be used to automate repetitive tasks through point-and-click or

drag and drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user (computing), user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, i ...

. Automator enables the repetition of tasks across a wide variety of programs, including Finder,

Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

, Contacts and others. It can also work with third-party applications including

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at CO ...

and

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

. The icon features a robot holding a pipe, a reference to

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

s, a

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

term for connected data workflows. Automator was first released with

Mac OS X Tiger Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4) is the 5th major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005, for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Inc ...

(10.4).

Features

Automator documents are called ''workflows'', and are made up of ''actions''. Workflows are run sequentially, with each action being given the previous action's output, which it can then process or act upon. Variables can be specified, which can be modified or processed by subsequent actions. Workflows can also incorporate loops and variables. Automator comes with a library of actions (file renaming, finding linked images, creating a new mail message, etc.). Actions can also run custom scripts, including

AppleScript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control of Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in macOS in a package of automation tools. The term ''AppleScript'' may ...

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

, or

shell script A shell script is a computer program designed to be run by a Unix shell, a command-line interpreter. The various dialects of shell scripts are considered to be command languages. Typical operations performed by shell scripts include file manipu ...

s. Workflow documents can be run directly in Automator or saved as applications that run the workflow when launched. Workflows can also be added to the contextual menu, to process any selected text or file. , Microsoft has bundled Automator actions with

, which can be used to automate Outlook,

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...

, Excel, or PowerPoint. The following is a non-exhaustive list of Automator's features: * General ** Simulate the pressing of any key on the keyboard at specified intervals ** Run

, Python,

Ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...

scripts, or

s ** Create Folder Actions, a Finder feature that applies certain workflows to all files in a folder ** Create Services, which can be started in the Services menu ** Automator can integrate with

, to launch workflows at a Calendar event's specified time and date (and the event can be set to repeat automatically) ** Automator can also launch workflows with programmable voice commands (called Dictation Commands, added in

OS X Yosemite OS X Yosemite ( ; version 10.10) is the eleventh major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Yosemite was announced and released to developers on June 2, 2014, at WWDC 2014 and re ...

) * Internet ** Download webpages as PDF ** Extract an RSS feed from a given URL, and extract article text contents from that feed ** Compose new emails, with specified subject line and attachments (which can be an output from a previous Action) ** Upload files to FTP servers * Multimedia ** Control USB-connected cameras to take pictures at regular intervals ** Perform Finder actions on images, including rotation, applying

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

filters (like black & white), and converting audio and video files to different formats ** Batch resize photos ** Import audio files to iTunes, and add them to playlists ** Play an iTunes playlist * Text and documents ** Turn text files to audio files, using the Mac's built-in text-to-speech feature ** Extract text from PDF files ** Combine PDF documents ** Extract annotations from PDFs ** Move files across folders, into folders, or out of subfolders ** Process strings text, including adding quotations around text or outputting word count ** Print files; and when combined with the "Get Folder Contents" action, it can print all files in a "drop box" folder

Interface

Automator provides a

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

for automating tasks without knowledge of programming or scripting languages. Tasks can be recorded as they are performed by the user or can be selected from a list. The output of the previous action can become the input to the next action. The icon for Automator features a robot, known as Otto the Automator.

History

Starting in macOS Monterey, Automator exists alongside Shortcuts.

References

External links

Apple's official Automator pageApple's official Automator developer documentation
*Automator.us, a site with examples and tools, by Sal Soghoian (AppleScript Product Manager at Apple) and others
Automator.us for Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) and newer

{{DEFAULTSORT:Automator (Software) MacOS Automation software Proprietary software Visual programming languages 2005 software

Features

Interface

History

See also

References

External links