How to use Automator or Apple script?

LeandrodaFL · Feb 28, 2012

Iheard you may use one or maybe these 2 applications to do things automatically and save time.

For example, everyday when I turn on the computer, the first thing I do is check messages and therefore I open 7 tabs and go to my email webpage, ebay, facebook, forums, and I also check some news webpages.

I dont want to have to type everyday anymore, I want my mac to automatically go to them when it start ups. how do I do that?

Angelo95210 · Feb 28, 2012

So Automator is for you. AppleScript is a bit more advanced and complicated. Just program your actions in Automator with drag and drop and this should do it.

Ccrew · Feb 28, 2012

Might want to look at an app called Alfred, with the available powerpack. It will do a lot of what you're asking, without having to write scripts...

http://www.alfredapp.com/powerpack/

GGJstudios · Feb 28, 2012

LeandrodaFL said:
For example, everyday when I turn on the computer, the first thing I do is check messages and therefore I open 7 tabs and go to my email webpage, ebay, facebook, forums, and I also check some news webpages.

I dont want to have to type everyday anymore, I want my mac to automatically go to them when it start ups. how do I do that?

Simple. When you have those 7 tabs open, click Bookmarks > Add Bookmark for These 7 Tabs and save the folder to your Bookmarks Bar. Then when you launch Safari, right-click on that folder and select "Open in tabs".

LeandrodaFL · Feb 28, 2012

Automator is Korean to me

I use firefox, hate safari. I also need to open some open office files, so makiing everything automatic would be great.

Can anyone give me some explanation on how to use it? Are there videos from apple?

Weaselboy · Feb 28, 2012

LeandrodaFL said:
Automator is Korean to me

I use firefox, hate safari. I also need to open some open office files, so makiing everything automatic would be great.

Can anyone give me some explanation on how to use it? Are there videos from apple?

You can use Applescript to do this.

Open the Applescript Editor and paste in the below code. Substitute/add whatever web sites you want to visit each morning. Then click save in the menu and save the Applescript as an application in your Applications folder. Then you can put the app in your dock and just click it when you want to open the web pages. Or you could add the new app to your login items and it would open on its own when you login.

Code:

open location "http://www.cnn.com/"
open location "http://www.google.com/"

LeandrodaFL · Feb 29, 2012

Weaselboy said:
You can use Applescript to do this.

Open the Applescript Editor and paste in the below code. Substitute/add whatever web sites you want to visit each morning. Then click save in the menu and save the Applescript as an application in your Applications folder. Then you can put the app in your dock and just click it when you want to open the web pages. Or you could add the new app to your login items and it would open on its own when you login.

Code:

open location "http://www.cnn.com/" open location "http://www.google.com/"

I larady have Firefox to open at loging, but I want it to automaticaly go to the 8 diferent webpages.

In adition, I would like 3 different text editor documents to open too

Weaselboy · Feb 29, 2012

LeandrodaFL said:
I larady have Firefox to open at loging, but I want it to automaticaly go to the 8 diferent webpages.

In adition, I would like 3 different text editor documents to open too

That is fine. Just make sure you go to Safari prefs and set Firefox as your default browser and the Applescript will open the sites from the script. Just add all eight to the list like in my example.

Then add the below code to the same Applescript for your textedit docs. Change "yourname" and "filename1.txt" as needed.

Code:

tell application "TextEdit"
activate
open "Users:yourname:Documents:filename1.txt"
end tell

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How to use Automator or Apple script?

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