Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Automator tutorial needed!

T

Transporteur

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 30, 2008
2,729
3
UK
Hi guys,

Im completely new to automator and I would like to create a few little services.

First of all I would like to create a Wikipedia service, that looks up a selected word in wikipedia.

I added 'Get Specified URLs' and 'Website Popup' which works fine within automator, but of course it just shows the Wikipedia site, without a specified intput.

I know that there is a service for that I could download, but I would like to know how it's done.

What do I need to do to get this running?
 
I don't want to use any browser for this because it takes time and space on the display.

It is so much easier to just select a word within a document, and select the service which opens a small window (iPhone size) with the desired result. Takes a second.

Same for dictionaries or whatever. It just saves time and is much more comfortable than opening a browser, selecting the webpage and then typing in the word.
 
If you want to know how it's done take a look at the attached workflow.
 

Attachments

  • Lookup in Wikipedia.zip
    69.2 KB · Views: 99
If you are going to use an iPhone sized window, I would recommend using the mobile site. Here is the URL you need:

Code: 
http://en.m.wikipedia.com/wiki?search=

But that into the appropriate section in the AppleScript.
 
calderone said:
If you are going to use an iPhone sized window, I would recommend using the mobile site. Here is the URL you need:

Code: 
http://en.m.wikipedia.com/wiki?search=

But that into the appropriate section in the AppleScript.
Click to expand...
The "Website Popup" automator action lets you set your user agent to the iPhone. Both methods work.

Transporteur said:
That works great. Thank you very much!
But can't I replace the AppleScript section with 'Get specified URLS'?
Click to expand...
No. Why would you want to do that?
 
While you may prefer to use Automator, just so you can learn it, there are other ways to accomplish what you want. I use SafariStand for right-click quick searches on various sites, such as Google, MRoogle, Wikipedia, Amazon, Apple Support, IMDb and others. With it set up, I can highlight any word or phrase, right-click and quickly search the site of my choice for those search terms.

Here's a thread that will show how:
How to quickly search MR Forums with Safari or Firefox
 
lancestraz said:
The "Website Popup" automator action lets you set your user agent to the iPhone. Both methods work.
Click to expand...

In my experiences, I have had better results by specifying the mobile version of Wikipedia than using the User Agent function of the "Website Popup" action. Namely, ambiguous words would sometimes not bring me to a mobile version of the disambiguation page.

GGJstudios said:
While you may prefer to use Automator, just so you can learn it, there are other ways to accomplish what you want. I use SafariStand for right-click quick searches on various sites, such as Google, MRoogle, Wikipedia, Amazon, Apple Support, IMDb and others. With it set up, I can highlight any word or phrase, right-click and quickly search the site of my choice for those search terms.

Here's a thread that will show how:
How to quickly search MR Forums with Safari or Firefox
Click to expand...

This doesn't get you a system wide search service.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back