Otto's Garage

Automator gives use so many ways to launch it: workflows, applications, contextual plug-ins, startup items etc. Well, here's another: With Spark you can set up hotkeys to launch apps. These can be single or multiple keys. It also offers the ability to program in AppleScripts to a key. I haven't played much yet, but it also looks like you can launch your Automator apps on waking from sleep, when you log out, and when the screensaver activates. You can also assign hotkeys so your apps can only be called up from within an app. I see a lot of use for setting up my TextEdit Automator Apps this way. Spark can also launch documents, so you can probably directly launch Automator workflows as well. The app is fairly intuitive. Double click on a list on the left and you can create a hotkey. Best to use hotkeys with multiple presses, since single presses are more likely to interfere with existing hotkeys. To make sure, just check the menu to see if a shortcut is already assigned.