**Function:** Reads text from a web page, converts to audio, imports into iTunes and updates to iPod (if present).
**Author**: [Justin Commu](mailto:justin@compsci.ca)
**Notes**: This nifty workflow is essentially a personal Podcaster. The version here connects to [this](http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,67387,00.html) Wired news page and converts it to audio using the "Fred" voice (personally I would have used a female one ;)). Modify it for the webpage and voice of your choice (tip: set it to the current webpage for maximum flexibility).
Really enjoyed this feed and went “Woow” when it worked so well!! Cheers very useful for a dyslexic. How can I change the default voice tho?!! ;)
Cheers
Comment by Alix — October 31, 2005 @ 11:48 am
How do I modify the web page and voice. Thanks
Comment by Matt — November 30, 2005 @ 4:28 pm
Idiotic question. Why won’t Automator import this action? I’ve downloaded and saved it in a folder on my hard drive, but Automator grey’s it out in the finder list after telling it to import?
Comment by Leon — December 1, 2005 @ 4:15 am
It’s a workflow, not an action. You double-click it as an application.
Comment by Steve — December 1, 2005 @ 7:09 am
I have provided the workflow and application.
so you can either use it in Automator or
Under OSX directly.
Comment by Justin Commu — December 1, 2005 @ 12:15 pm
Any addons to wait for to make this Automator even more powerful? )
Thanks.
Comment by Paul — December 16, 2005 @ 10:06 pm
Well , hopefully next week i will be releasing v2.0 that is much more powerful. Look forward to choosing the filename , the location , the audio encoder and also album art. Ie getting news from BBC then you can attach a BBC logo to hte audio file. I will also be adding a function that will detect Ipod or not. that way its fully automated.
Regards
Justin
Comment by Justin Commu — December 17, 2005 @ 12:43 am
I can’t seem to get this ti work, the second part of the workflow, ‘Get text from webpage,’ fails every time. I haven’t been able to get it to work in any of my workflows, has anyone experienced this before? Are there any knows cures?
Comment by Terry — January 31, 2006 @ 9:24 pm
The Workflow fails for me on the second action also
Comment by Bobby — February 28, 2006 @ 8:14 pm
i believe this only works exclusively for MAC OS right? :)
Comment by roanne — September 22, 2006 @ 12:53 am
Hey this is pretty cool. I made a similar one to this in automator that will get my new mail, and make event summaries from iCal, put it into text and then turn that into an audio file for my iPod.
What I’m wondering is if there is anyway to tell automator WHEN to run certain actions?
Are there system triggers available.
i.e.
WHEN iPod is detected by system, run this action.
I could save it as an automator app and make it ‘run at login’ but that doesn’t help unless my iPod is always connected at login. I would like to just plug in the iPod, and it will go do the work for me, and then unplug the iPod. :)
Comment by Rob B — December 24, 2006 @ 1:08 am
Do Something When will give you the ipod trigger you seek…
G
Comment by Guck — April 24, 2007 @ 5:59 pm
The Workflow fails for me on the second action also
Comment by Joe — April 16, 2010 @ 1:58 pm