Let’s Get Organized!

by Josh de Lioncourt

Our recent podcast on scripting VoiceOver prompted a bit of discussion in the visually impaired Mac community. Everyone has a different opinion on the uses and necessity of scripting and automating various tasks, whether it involves accessibility or not.

Automating particular tasks on your computer can be a timesaver, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, it can even be fun. In this editorial, I want to cover a simple, yet potentially extremely useful way of getting more organized, using Automator on your Mac. This article is not meant to be a comprehensive look at Automator. It is merely meant to wet your appetite, and illustrate just a little of what is possible.

The steps described here assume you are using Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The more technically inclined may be able to adapt them for previous versions of the operating system, but for simplicity’s sake, we’re assuming you’re running the current big cat. Further, we also assume you are a proficient VoiceOver user, and therefore are not providing VoiceOver specific key combinations here.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have downloaded quite a few files onto your Mac. Usually, the files save to a folder in your home folder called "Downloads". Also, if you’re like me, and most users, you tend to leave a lot of files there. Over time, you have likely collected an unseemly mess of forgotten freebies, outdated DMG’s, mysterious zip archives, and something your aunt gave you which you don’t know what it is.

The upshot of all this is, of course, that your "Downloads" folder can rapidly begin to behave in a way similar to the Bermuda Triangle: you know things go in, but sometimes they are never seen again.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution for this.

Mac OS X provides a type of Automator workflow that can run automatically, any time a folder is updated. (Automator is a utility that let’s you automate tasks on your Mac without needing to learn a scripting or programming language.)

Below are the steps required to create one of these "Folder Actions" workflow with Automator.

Create a new folder called "Zips" inside your "Downloads" folder. Actually, you can put this folder anywhere you want, but for the purposes of this example, we’ll assume you have put it there.

Find and launch the Automator app. It will be located with the rest of your apps in your "Applications" folder.

Automator will open a window asking you to "Choose a template for your workflow". Interact with the "Template Chooser" list, and navigate to "Folder Actions".

Stop interacting with the list, and navigate to the "Choose" button, and activate it.

After a moment, your new and untitled workflow will be available to edit. Use VoiceOver to navigate to the area called "Untitled Workflow" and interact with it. This area will contain all of the actions, (or steps), that your workflow will take to accomplish the task. Right now, there’s only one step: "Choose folder".

Interact with the group that repesents the first step, and you will find a pop-up button that is asking you to choose a folder. Activate this pop-up and select "Other…".

Select your "Downloads" folder from the dialog box, and activate the "Choose" button to dismiss it.

Stop interacting with the first action and the workflow, and continue exploring the Automator window. You’ll find an area which VoiceOver identifies as "Actions Description Split View". Interact with it.

You will find a number of items in this area, but the one that concerns us is identified as "Actions Library split view". Interact with this also.

Now you will find two tables. The one on the left gives you various categories of tasks. THe one on the right provides various actions that are available within that category. From the "Actions Library" table, select the entry entitled "Files & Folders".

In the "Actions" table, find the "Filter Finder Items" and press enter. This will add the "Filter Finder Items" action to your workflow as your second action.

Continue through the actions available in the "Actions" table, and also add the one entitled "Move Finder Items".

It’s time to set up the actions you’ve added to your workflow, so stop interacting with the split views and navigate back to your workflow and interact with it. You will find that there are now three actions that comprise the complete workflow.

Interact with the "Filter Finder Items" action. You will find variety of options here. We are interested with the rules which are contained within the scroll area. This rules area works similarly to those found in smart playlists in iTunes or in the Mail application.

The first pop-up button in the first rule is set to "Any Content" by default. Change this to "File extension".

The second pop-up button is set to "Contains". Change it to "Ends with".

In the edit field for this rule, type "zip". The complete rule now reads as: "File extension ends with zip". In the context of our example, this ultimately means that this workflow will only be performed if the files which have recently been added to the "Downloads" folder have a file extension which ends with the characters "zip".

Stop interacting with this action, and interact with the final action, "Move Finder Items". Like before, choose "Other…" from the pop-up button that asks for a folder.

This time, select the "Zips" folder you created inside your "Downloads" folder and activate the "Choose" button.

There’s only one step left. Save your workflow by choosing "Save" from the "File" menu, or pressing Command-S. Call it something like "Download Zips".

I realize the steps above may look a bit unwieldy, but once you’ve performed them once or twice, you will realize it is really quite easy. Now, any time you download a zip archive, it will be moved to the "Zips" folder when the download completes. You can repeat the process above for any file types you wish, and keep your "Downloads" folder nice and tidy. I have folders for MP3′s, DMG’s, PDF’s, zips, and Audible.com files.

If you want to save your workflows or move them to another Mac, they are located in "~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions/".

For Automator workflows created by others, free for the downloading, check out Automatorworld.com.