“You may not know a lot about it yet, but trust me — Tiger’s new Automator feature will save you a lot of time. A huge amount of time. And it’ll do it by preventing you from performing dull, repetitive tasks on your Mac. Instead, the Automator will take care of those tasks for you,” Jason Snell writes for Macworld.
“In some ways, Automator is AppleScript for people who can’t even see the word AppleScript without having their eyes roll back up into the backs of their heads. AppleScript has always been a fantastic way to create little programs that perform repetitive tasks–say, downloading a gallery of images off the Web and using them to generate a DVD slideshow, or converting a bunch of image files to JPEG format and saving them with a standard series of file names. But to benefit from that automation, you had to write AppleScript code–too much to ask of most users,” Snell writes.
“With the Automator, you don’t have to write a single line of code; instead, you build a flow chart. On the left side of the Automator’s window, you can pick from a large collection of “actions” organized into 16 categories–Apple is supplying more than 100 actions, and developers can add even more for their own apps–which you drag into the Workflow area. As you drag items in, they connect to one another. By building up a series of actions, you can create a complex series of tasks that incorporate several different Mac programs,” Snell writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We can see the word AppleScript and our eyes don’t even twitch – not even a little bit – and we’re as excited about Automator’s promise as Steve Ballmer at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
We… love… this… company! (Apple, that is.) Come ON! GIVE IT UP!!! (Sorry. For some reason, we just watched MonkeyBoy dance again – compelled to do so by an uncontrollable urge to view complete and total idiocy wrapped in fat, drenched with sweat, and in serious need of about half a case of Ronco GLH Formula Number 9. And did you ever see this?)
Anyway, Automator might just be the fulfillment of AppleScript’s original promise and could, all by itself, justify the price of Mac OS X ‘Tiger.’
Find out more about Automator here.
I think Steve-O took some ecstasy before that little event
First Post!
I think everyone to says “first post” is on a little ecstasy
OMG, thanks for the Monkey Boy link — I hadn’t seen it. That is just the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like STEVE JOBS – SEX = MONKEY BOY. Who could get that excited about Microsoft?
I agree Kircle.
4th post
Honestly, even as much of a Mac fan as I am, if MS made me a billionaire, I might get up and dance like an ass too.
Yeah I’d love M$ too, and dance like a jack ass and become a fatass if I was a billionaire from M$
Does anyone else think Steve is handsome
I agree 100%. Automator will be worth the price of admission to Tigerland and Ballmer is a fat, sweaty, bald idiot.
He must have just seen his bonus check for that year or something. What a retard…
Typical Microsoft. All hype and no substance! Can you imagine the Apple|expo “Steve-note” beginning that way?
Vaporware. A year a way. Apple is doing a microsoft.
vaporware.. is that you thurrott?
apple wanted to get the dev kits into the developers hands.. while tweaking MS a little bit..
OMG! That dude in the video looks like a used car salesman. Must he sweat like that? Gross.
Mike, vaporware isn’t handed out on DVDs to developers.
Fool.
Mr. Ballmer is obviously confused who he works for. He is by far the most unprofessional PR rep (cause he obviously falls short as a chairman) and is dire need of a readjustment. I was disgusted with him and to think that he bombards people with his overinflated confidence and clearly flamboyant tendencies…lol. Poor diluted man.
Everyone here shouts Vaporware when referring to longhorn. Developers have it. Apple did a Micro$oft here. Next year???????? Maybe the year after????? We see how steve is with deadlines lately.
cpr86,
What is wrong with you, they always announce AT LEAST 90-120 days before it is released. It is not like they announce it and it is available the next day…. so what if it’s 9 months away? I would rather have an OS that is supported out of the box than having to wait for third parties to upgrade their shit. That is what happened with Panther and the other cat….
calm down… all good things in due time…. unless of course, you are waiting for longbore – then all good copies take time!
More on topic about AppleScripts and Automator…
Shamelessly taken from the excellent website [url=http://www.xvsxp.com]http://www.xvsxp.com,[/url] this is how you make your XP box speak (after you find, download and install the files for Microsoft Agent core components and text-to-speech engine)…
var vt = WScript.CreateObject(“Speech.VoiceText”);
vt.Register(“”, WScript.ScriptName);
var phrase = “Is there something I should say?”;
if ( WScript.Arguments.length )
phrase = WScript.Arguments(0);
vt.Speak(phrase, 1);
while ( vt.IsSpeaking )
WScript.Sleep(100);
WScript.Quit();
This is how you make Mac OSX speak the exact same thing…
say “Is there something I should say?”
…and I have no idea how you can possibly make XP do this…
say “This is cool” using “Kathy” saving to “someText.aiff”
[I use this to create audio files for Mail to speak when I get email from particular people, such as… say “That idiot Bill emailed you more crap.” using “Bruce” saving to “BillsEmailCrap.aiff”]
But, apparently AppleScript wasn’t easy enough so they GarageBandized it as you link and edit blocks to create an AppleScript. There is no way that Microsoft can do this on ANY OS they may create. There are no Windows aps that are so easily scriptable.
This is a huge leap in intelligent computing. For most companies, this single feature may be worth thousands of dollars in saved time.
Automator is insanely great to people who actually works with Mac.
It makes every day living insanely easy.
Pay me 40 million dollars a year and I’ll dance for you too MDN.
Now who really is the jealous fool around here?
I thought so.
Steve Balmer
CEO Microsoft
Can anyone tell me how close this is to QuicKeys? Does this compete or is this something different?
Poem of the Day.
Steve Balmer sees right through us.
The man is Out-to-Lunch!
A Windows saleman, with
Eyes double-glazed!
And leaky joints.
If anyone on stage has to beg the audience to give a standing ovation and say things like, “Give it up for me,” then that person is pathetically desperate for attention and acceptance.
Apple inspires people to give a standing ovation. Micro$oft forces people do it or bribe them.
When I see a commercial that is really really stupid, I take special precautions not to ever be seen buying that product for fear I would be associated with the IQ that the product was obviously intended for. After seeing that monkey movie stuff — well, if that isn’t enough to make a person switch then nothing will. (Except that my switch has been in the Mac position since Jan ’84 when I got my first one.)
Automator & Spotlight. These are the two new features that made me lust after Tiger the moment I saw them both.