Jun 11th, 2007
Automator for OS X 10.5 Leopard Revealed
Today at WWDC 07, Apple revealed a host of new features for Leopard (some cool, some sorta stupid– do we really want reflections in our Dock?). Not mentioned in the keynote but up at the website are a few details on the forthcoming new version of Automator.
The highlights:
- UI update. Automator now sports a cleaner interface, bringing it up to the new consistency promised for the whole OS.
- Recording. At long last, Automator will record manual steps, as macro recorders have done for years. QuicKeys, watch your back.
- Variables. While there are a number of actions and hacks for achieving pseudo variable functionality, the lack of real variable support has been very limiting for Automator users. No more.
- Wizardry. Mostly for newer users, Automator will sport a helper to set up common automation tasks.
Of course most Automator users would trade these features for stability and speed– hopefully that will come to pass, too.
Automator for Leopard is a significant update and includes: Starting Points templates for assisting those new to Auomator; Streamlined UI with Smart Groups, new inline data views, and a built-in media picker; Workflow Variables for storing, retrieving, and generating data throughout the workdlow; UI Recording for automating applications and situations where built-in automation is not available; Workflow Looping for repeating workflows; dozens of new actions, including RSS, PDF, and Quartz Composer actions; and much, much more. If you like Automator, Leopard is a must have release!
Comment by Sal Soghoian — June 16, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
Thanks for the additional info, Sal
Comment by Steve — June 21, 2007 @ 8:09 am