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Using automator/problems building a workflow

K

Kaiser71

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 10, 2010
7
0
I have been using a macbook for about a year now and decided today that I would experiment with automator. After doing some basic research on this forum I was redirected to an instructional page with an accompanying help video. The subject was building workflows and the specific example used was for collecting, re-sizing, and emailing photos. I thought that this was just about the most handy thing I had ever seen so I gave it a try but am having little success.

Here is what I did (with the help of the video):

-opened automator and selected workflow
-dragged the selected items to the work window (exactly as described in the video)
-saved my workflow as an application and dropped the icon into my dock
-clicked on the icon to open my new workflow/application

this is where I started encountering problems. When I click on the icon it automatically opens my mail. I thought that it would first open a pane/browser allowing me to choose what photos I would like to email, but it does not. I went back and re-built the work flow and tested it and I am getting warnings that there are no pics coppied to the selected folder and therefore no pics scaled to size. This makes sense to me because I wasn't given the opportunity to select anything. My question is should I be automatically be given the ability to browse my pics and select items and if so how can I make this happen. Thanks.
 
No. That may solve my problem. I am going to give it a try. Thanks. I'll let u know how I make out. Thanks again
 
Ok, now I am almost there. The browser is opening allowing me to select the file/picture I want but I can only select one pic, even if I check the box that says "allow multiple selection". Any suggestions to fix this so I can select and email more than one pic at a time?
 
Kaiser71 said:
Ok, now I am almost there. The browser is opening allowing me to select the file/picture I want but I can only select one pic, even if I check the box that says "allow multiple selection". Any suggestions to fix this so I can select and email more than one pic at a time?
Click to expand...

It is working for me, please post each step you have in the workflow.
 
-ask for finder items (allow multiple selection checked)
-copy finder items
-scale images
-new mail message

this is what I have now, as soon as I click "choose" for the file I have selected it auotmatically goes through the rest of the process and opens the mail window with the picture attached. Thanks a lot for helping me with this by the way, I am not much of a computer guy.
 
I set it up the same, and it worked fine.
 

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are you able to select more than one picture? if so how, I don't seem to be able to figure that out.
 
OK, thanks. I am obviously still doing something wrong on my end.... I will try again, maybe it is finger problems. Thanks so much for all your help though. I am a lot further ahead than I was. Wish I could return the favor but somehow I think that you probably won't need any help from me. LOL. Thanks again. Cheers.
 
don't know what CMD is. So I am not sure. Can you explain?

Command? I know this probably a stupid question, but as I said before not much of a computer guy.

Right. Command, got it now. Thanks.....Again! Sometimes a little (or very little) knowledge is a dangerous thing. This is great though. I really appreciate it.
 
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