Poster disguised as a contact sheet.
11/29/05 06:52 AM
3 columns - 12 images
4 columns - 20 images
5 columns - 30 Images
6 columns - 48 images
The easiest way to layout your poster is to create a Poster album in iPhoto and drag the specified number of images there. Then change the width of the album window to match the column width. This shows you how your sheet will look. Just drag the images to rearrange them. Square format will fill the most whitespace, but original size can be fun to work with. When the workflow calls these images from iPhoto using the Ask for iPhoto Items action, they will remain in this order.
The downside is that the poster will have some edges at the right and bottom you'll have to trim. And you're stuck with the white background.
So what's the poster quality like? I'll report back as soon as I get this one from Kinko's.
I also should note that the net's current "life poster" frenzy was caused by Mike Mattas. Jim Heid has created an Automator action that does this as well. These posters hold more images than the one above and are printed through Mac's Kodak print service. Just thought I'd give you some more options.
UPDATE: Got the color poster back. It's about 18 by 24 and printed on a thin-but-sturdy polypropylene. The cost was $24 dollars at Kinkos. Result: Print quality is good. A few photos look a little grainy, but all are sharp. Looks like if you opt for the 4x5 layout, images should be at least 2mp and if you're opting for the 3x4 layout, images should be at least 3mp. The disappointing thing is the printed surface is a little more fragile than I hoped. Probably equivalent to a paper print, but still, it's waterproof.
Staples offers a similar service at about the same price.
Catch up on your SOAP.
11/21/05 09:15 AM
Here's something a little more practical. Change the action to these settings:
Don't worry about the Test field. Now click the Test button. (You'll need to be web-connected.) This gives you the current price of Coca-Cola stock. And since the true indicator of the status of life on Earth is the current price of Coke stock, this can be really useful. The number in the Test field is what the action passes to the next action.
How does it work? It's called SOAP. It's a Microsoft invention for Fetching web data. The action creates a request, sends it and returns the result.
What's the practical application? You could follow this with a New Message and Send Outgoing Message action to email data to your cell phone. If you save it as an iCal plugin, the process could be done automatically. This could also be used in a workflow to create a screensaver that changes hourly. Or hourly appended to a TextEdit document to keep a running track of data. Since you can do a lot more than just stock prices, I'm sure you'll com up with a few.
XMethods has more for you to play with. Please tell us at the Garage of your successes so we can share them.
Search added to Otto's Garage.
11/16/05 06:01 AM
Thanks to the folks at FreeFind, we've added a search feature to Otto's. It's updated daily, so you should get a very accurate return. As the information here grows it will make it a lot easier to find what you're looking for.Shared workflows: Troubleshooting.
11/14/05 05:32 AM
Sharing your workflows and apps is a kind thing to do. However, once an Automator project leaves your machine, a lot can go wrong. Here are the common culprits of workflows that don't work. Ask:1. Is Tiger installed? (10.4) Automator wasn't there on earlier OSs.
2. Is it the latest version? Many Automator fixes have taken place since the first version of Tiger.
3. Is the app the workflow needs installed? If QuickTime Pro is not there, the actions that come with QuickTime Pro will not work on QuickTime.
4. Is the app the workflow needs the latest version? Older versions will not have Automator actions. This includes apps from Apple, like the iLife suite (iPhoto, iTunes, etc).
5. Are all third party actions needed installed on their computer? If you've installed and have included the Convert Tracks action in your workflow, then they must install it on theirs too. If it's a workflow, they get a warning message telling them which action is missing. If an app, no such luck.
6. Does your workflow contain any AppleScriplets that require UI Scripting to be enabled? It will need to be enabled on their machine as well. An Automator helper app to do most of the process is here.
7. When the workflow is run, which step has the red x below it? This tells you where the workflow is failing.
8. When the workflow is run, have them check the Automator log for more details on what's going wrong. The red error message will be the most helpful to you.
Irritated by all the theme changes at Otto's?
11/11/05 02:01 PM
This one is tolerable. I think I leave it alone for a while.Workflow and app packager.
11/10/05 07:25 AM
TextEdit offers a great way to share apps with an interactive document. You can easily put images, icons, screenshots, documentation files, workflows and apps into a new TextEdit document just by dragging them where you want to appear in the document. The links feature in TextEdit allows you to add active Web links. And what's really cool is that the user can launch a workflow or app right from the document by clicking on it.
TextEdit offers some very capable layout options. You can use any font available on your system, color it and add shadow. You also now can create tables and lists in TextEdit and color the page. You have many tools that allow you to layout instruction with your app very logically. A lot more logically that many professional apps you download. This is especially useful if the user has to install more that one file. So instead of having some unknown files pop up on their desktop, those you share your workflows with will see the box above.
If you're including further documentation with your file, it's best to save it in TextEdit format, not PDF. TextEdit has a habit of opening PDFs within the page and not showing them as icons.
Can you create a workflow in the document that installs another workflow in the document to the users applications folder? This proves tricky, but I think it can be done. More after a little tinkering.
Buy our crap.
11/10/05 06:00 AM
If you think Otto's Garage is a slick looking and highly informative site, apparently (judging by the ranking in Google) you're not alone. But I have to come clean, it's not a massive effort of thousands of top coders and tech writers secretly funded by a huge grant from Steve Jobs. It's just me. I'm learning Automator by reading the Apple board, googling my fingertips off, and by writing my findings on the prestigious MacScripter. If the site looks slick, it's because it's developed with RapidWeaver, the first rapid development environment for Mac (or any OS for that matter). When I say this site's main purpose is for me to go to the Web and look up what I've forgotten from yesterday about Automator, that's the truth. If the writing is good, I'm glad you think so. I have been graced with the luck of being a full-time professional writer since I was asked to leave college. This labor of love has become a success in just over a month. A lot of hours go in. The response from readers is a wonderful reward. But it doesn't pay for the Turkish coffee I sip at 4 am while I obsessively writing this. I've decided not to put banner ads up on Otto's Garage. The reality is, they don't pay enough for readers to put up with their annoyance.
So I've added a "Buy Books" tab to the menu. I figure if you're going to buy books on Automator, AppleScript and UNIX, you may as well get steered towards the best titles. If you click on the book's icon to buy it, Amazon gives Otto's Garage a little kickback for it. Guess I should also mention I put a link to my eBook Serious Editing in iPhoto 5 there as well. Not that it has anything to do with Automator. I just want to sell eBooks.
By buying the book through this site, I get a little something, you get a good reading material that will further your Automating and most likely you will get it at a better price than you can anywhere else. Everybody wins. Okay, maybe your local bookstore looses out. If they're one of those big chains, who cares. But if it's a small place owned and run by an ex-hippie named Rainbow with a mood ring through her nose, at least keep buying your Feng Shui books there. We need to keep those places in business. And ask her if she has a daughter named Moonbeam and how she's doing. I think I dated her once.
Thanks for doing your business at Otto's,
J. Kevin Wolfe
Renaming Tricks
11/06/05 09:06 PM
The Rename Finder Items feature is very flexible. It seem like it only has a few options. But you just have to out-think its limitations. You can save most the following workflows to applications and you can just drop files onto the icons to change their names.Change Extension This changes both htm and html to txt. Useful for revealing html code. To change an xml extension, you only need one action and set Find field to "xml". Note this is just changes the extension, so a jpg is still a jpg, even if you name it tif.
Rename for Web This will turn file names websafe. The first Rename finds underscores and changes them to dashes. The second finds spaces and changes them to dashes. The third lowers the case of all letters, including the extension.
Deleting Extensions Deleting extensions sometimes reveals what's inside a package. This one is to reveal the images inside a TextEdit rtfd file. You can also delete ".app" to get access to the innerworkings of applications. The Copy Finder Actions is placed here to make sure you don't destroy working apps or files. Just make sure you don't drop a file already in the desktop. It needs to be in a different location so it doesn't overwrite the file.
Renaming a File You Don't Know the Name of This is more useful in a workflow when you don't know the name of the finder item. In these instances the Replace Text option will not work. The Make Sequential option will rename any file but will also but a "-1" after the name. The second Rename action will delete it by leaving the replace field untouched. This will only work on one file .
Congratulations, it's a domain.
11/06/05 09:05 PM
Nope. Site hasn't moved. But now you can access Otto's Garage through an easier-to-say url: ottosgarage.usWays to save your workflows.
11/06/05 09:01 PM
Apple has set up workflows to launch in many different ways. This gives us a lot of flexibility in crafting workflows for many different uses. Here's a quick list of the ways you can save your workflows. (If ya got any other bright ideas, email them my way. It would be nice to figure out how to do one when Mac quits.)as a Workflow This is the basic Automator script that calls up Automator when it's double clicked. This is the easiest and best while developing and for on-the-fly creation. When saved, you can click on the workflow's icon on the desktop or from any folder and it launches in Automator. You press the run button and you're off.
as a Finder Plugin Puts your workflow on the contextual menu. Control click on a file or folder and call up your workflow from the Automator option. Your file will be processed by the workflow. Makes your workflow available for launch at any time without having to click the workflow's icon. ex: Change a file name to Web compatible.
as an iCal Plugin Launches your workflow via a calendar event. ex: clean desktop and empty trash every morning at 3 am.
as a Folder Action The workflow processes any file moved to the folder. ex: copy file to public folder on iDisk
as an Image Capture Plugin Launches when a camera is connected to the Mac. Useful for your own photo downloads routine. ex: burn raw files to disk and save them in iPhoto on import.
as a Print Workflow Plugin The workflow will reside in the PDF menu of the Print window. When launched the files to print are converted to PDF and then sent to the workflow. ex: compile iPhotos into a single PDF and email it.
as a Script Menu Plugin The workflow will appear as a menu item under the Script menu which will appear on your toolbar. Makes your workflow available for launch at any time without having to click the workflow's icon. ex: Change the desktop picture quickly.
as an App The workflow becomes a standard Mac app. Can be kept on the dock and launched with a Mighty Mouse button. It will launch from the desktop or any folder it's in. Also allows you to drag and drop files onto it for processing. ex: convert JPEGs dropped onto the app to TIFFs.
as a Startup App Workflow is saved as an App and then set to run when the computer is turned on or when the user logs in. This is set in Preferences/Users/Startup. ex: get inbox mail and combine text into one file and save to iDisk.
as a Mail Rule (thx to Ric Latham) Workflow is saved as an app. An new mail rules is set to Run Applescript with the following script:
tell application "your workflow.app"
activate
end tell
The app is triggered by a qualifying email. ex: Received email with keyword in subject line starts app that mails set images to a set address.
The 2 confirmation icons.
11/05/05 05:07 AM
The confirmation screen offers you a choice of icons. Two is still considered a choice, isn't it? Click on the icon and it changes. Might be a way to modify this to custom icons, but realize that it would only work on your computer and not when your workflow is shared.
Saving as PDF
11/02/05 05:29 AM
Save your workflow as a Printer plugin. Your workflow will appear on the Print page of every app that allows printing, most notably TextEdit, Preview and iPhoto.
Fixes for Automator in 10.4.3
11/02/05 05:24 AM
Posted these on MacScripter yesterday. I'm not sure how complete the list is. Found them on a Brazilian Website. I used Automator to filter every paragraph with the word "Automator" in it:- Ask for Confirmation Automator fix
- Fixed issue with Create Archive Automator action
- Fixed issue with Import Audio File Automator action
- Fixed issue with Automator and Workflow documents saved as a plug-in
- Fixed Automator 'Show Action When Run' and clipped win??@$!! issue
- Improvements to Automator Framework
- Fixed Automator issue where missing actions may cause a problem
- Fixed issue with 'New QuickTime Slideshow' Automator action
- Fixed issue with 'Find Finder' Automator action
- Fixed issue with Automator and Spotlight action Show When Run window
- Fixed issue with the Automator action, Copy Finder Items
- Fixed issue where Automator may not find GIF or PNG file types
- Fixed Automator issue where Rename Finder Items may not rename non-ASCII
- Fixed Automator action issue when downloading files from a web page
- Fixed problem where Automator action Scale Images may not scale to correct
- Improvements to Automator Converter
- Improvements to Automator action - New iCal Events
- Improvements to Automator action - Create Archive
- Improvements to Automator action - Build Xcode Project Automator
- Improvements to Automator action - Connect To Server
- Fixed Automator issue where Rename Finder Items did not prepend '0'
- Improvements to Automator action - Import Audio File
- Corrected issue with sorting and viewing Automator actions
- Fixed issue where deleted Workflows in Automator would still appear
- Fixed problem with Automator and one step workflows
- Automator Cocoa Action improvements
- Fixed issues with the Automator ColorSync profile action
- Fixed Automator action - Print Keynote Presentation
Find and Filter Fixed?
11/01/05 07:02 AM
Tiger 10.4.3 was released about 2pm Cupertino time yesterday afternoon. It appears that the Find and Filter actions now work correctly in Apps as they do in workflows. Tests on the Find Finder Items and Find Mail items work fine in apps now. Filter Finder Items works as well. Haven't tested all Find and Filter actions yet. Keep you posted.