This & That: Mac Automator - why didn't I discover this before?

This & That

Mac Automator - why didn't I discover this before?

I only watch a moderate amount of TV, and most of that I watch on my iPod. Until recently, in order to transfer programs to the iPod I carried out the various steps manually:

download the program from the BBC via iPlayer Downloader or iDownload
convert downloaded file (.mp4) to iPod-compatible format (.m4v)
import converted file into iTunes

Whilst this was not particularly hard work, I wondered whether it might be possible to automate the various steps. I knew that Automator, a program which can automate repetitive actions, was built in to the Mac OS and decided to take a look.

It turns out that using Automator is just so damned easy! In this particular case:

I created two new folders on the desktop called From iPlayer and Converted
in Automator I selected 'Folder Action' from the dialog which opens with the program
Automator automatically adds a first step to the process where you should select the folder you have just created
you then drag predefined actions from the lefthand side of the screen to the righthand side to build the workflow
from the selection of 'Movies' actions I chose 'Export movies', selecting 'iPod' as the output format and Converted as the destination
also from the selection of 'Movies' actions I chose 'Add any file to iTunes'
since that was all the actions required, I clicked on File/Save and called the workflow ConvertMoviesForiPod

Automator now watches the From iPlayer folder, and any new file appearing in that folder is automatically converted to iPod-compatible format and added to iTunes.

There is a screenshot of the Automator GUI here:

'Simple' (as the meerkat would say!) but it gets better: I have recently downloaded a large number of PDFs, many of which need printing, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to open and print PDFs without doing it on an individual file-by-file basis.

create a new folder on the desktop called Print These
open Automator and choose to create a new folder action, just as we did above
select your newly-created Print These folder as the folder to be watched
from the select of 'Utilities' actions drag 'Print Finder Items' to the righthand side of the page and select the printer you want your documents printed to
save your newly-created action as PrintTheseDocuments

Any documents dragged/dropped to the Print These folder on the desktop are now automatically printed. If you drag/drop multiple files, they are all printed.

More Automator goodness follows! Let me know if the above worked for you.