3 Ways to Automate Tasks on a Mac (And When to Use Each)

If there’s a activity you perform repeatedly, cease and suppose: are you able to automate it? With these apps, there’s a superb probability you possibly can.

A Quick Historical past of macOS Automation

macOS comes with three apps to automate duties: Script Editor, Automator, and Shortcuts. Whereas these apps have related targets, their approaches are fairly totally different. The presence of all three demonstrates Apple’s altering method and a dedication to backward compatibility that’s fairly uncommon in macOS.

Script Editor launched the AppleScript language in October 1993, when the working system was known as System 7. The app continues to be bundled with macOS at this time, over 30 years later. Nevertheless, Script Editor is all however deprecated and also you’ll nearly definitely solely need to use it for legacy code—sustaining outdated scripts that another person wrote.

Launching in April 2005, Automator was a radical overhaul of Script Editor. This app launched the workflow because the automation methodology, letting you drag numerous actions right into a sequence and cross information between them. It additionally helps you to combine AppleScript applications and shell scripts into your workflow, for extra superior makes use of.

Lastly, arriving on macOS in 2021, got here Shortcuts, an analogous app to Automator for iOS gadgets. Shortcuts pared again the interface to make automation so much much less intimidating and supplies a sizeable gallery of pre-written shortcuts protecting many frequent makes use of.

Which Automation App Ought to You Use?

The best reply is, after all, to make use of probably the most fashionable instrument for the duty: Shortcuts. This app has a gentler studying curve and can proceed to obtain updates for the foreseeable future, so it is sensible because the default selection.

Nevertheless, every method has its advantages. It’s good to know precisely what every can do, and the way it would possibly greatest assist along with your activity. To elucidate their variations, I’ll present you how one can full a easy activity in every: creating a brand new folder, with a customized title, in your house listing.

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Script Editor: Outdated-College AppleScript

Script Editor is little greater than a textual content editor for AppleScript information. It has a minimal interface which is centered across the code you write within the language. So it may possibly take some time to get began with Script Editor, however you might discover it affords extra underlying energy for area of interest duties.

Script Editor is accessible on nearly any Mac, even on Basic Mac OS. On fashionable macOS, it’s just a little buried; you’ll discover it within the Purposes/Utilities folder.

Since 2014, Script Editor has supported JavaScript instead language, though AppleScript stays the default and hottest choice.

The primary a part of the folder activity entails person enter, which you’ll request utilizing a dialog:

        show dialog "Folder title?" default reply ""
set reply to textual content returned of outcome

    

With a reputation, the rest of the duty is just to create a folder utilizing it. AppleScript’s inform block helps you to talk with an utility, passing it directions to hold out—offering it understands these directions, after all. For this function, the Finder app will allow you to create a brand new folder, passing its title utilizing the variable you used earlier:

        inform utility "Finder"
make new folder at dwelling with properties {title:reply}
finish inform

    

This code is pretty readable in contrast with many different scripting languages as a result of AppleScript makes use of components of natural-language programming to approximate real-world language. Whereas this doesn’t essentially make it any simpler to write down, it does imply that AppleScript code ought to be comprehensible, even by non-experts.

The Script Editor app additionally caters for customers who don’t want to write any code with its recording operate. This allows you to begin a recording, perform the duty you’re making an attempt to automate, then cease and save the ensuing actions as a script. You should use this function to find extra about how AppleScript works, however the ensuing scripts received’t be very environment friendly and should not work in broader contexts, so you should still have to edit them manually.

Script Editor saves your information with the .scpt extension and shows information saved in its default location in a menu bar app:

Automator: Much less Typing, Extra Choices

Automator is accessible on all Mac OS releases from Tiger (10.4) onwards, so you should use it until you’re on a really outdated Mac. While you open the app and create a brand new doc, it should ask you to decide on a sort:

That is the primary key departure from Script Editor; the kind you select will have an effect on how your script runs. The default Workflow runs from with the Automator app, however an Software can run as a standalone app and a Fast Motion can present up in Finder or the Companies menu. It’s value exploring the choices right here to determine precisely which kind of automation you need to create.

Within the case of our new folder instance, the closest analogy is the default Workflow. Nevertheless, if you wish to modify the instance, you can create the brand new folder in a user-specified location, and this is able to take advantage of sense as a Finder Fast Motion.

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When you’ve created a brand new Workflow, you possibly can drag and drop Actions into it from the left-hand checklist. Seek for “Ask for Textual content” and drag within the Motion of that title, then change its Query to “Folder title?.” Add a “Set Worth of Variable” Motion to retailer the worth entered into the dialog. Then, add a “New Folder” Motion and select your house listing as its “The place” location.

The ultimate piece of the puzzle entails injecting the variable into the “Title” discipline of the “New Folder” motion. It’s under no circumstances apparent how to do that: select View > Variables from the menu to show a variable checklist on the backside of the display screen, then drag your variable into the title discipline:

Automator brings much more to the desk than usability. It may possibly run shell scripts and even internet companies, and the workflow sorts assist conduct like solely operating a script when the contents of a folder change, so that they’re versatile too.

Shortcuts: A Cellular-First Strategy

The Shortcuts app originated on iOS, the place it launched in 2015 as a third-party app named Workflow. After renaming it “Shortcuts” in 2018, Apple ported it to the desktop in 2021, primarily as a alternative for Automator.

Like many fashionable default Mac apps, Shortcuts is closely influenced by its iOS counterpart. With a minimal interface and a wealth of helpful shortcuts, automating your duties is quicker than ever:

In a departure from Script Editor and Automator, Shortcuts has no facility to report actions and automate them. Maybe it’s because Apple considers the app to be easy sufficient with out this function, or perhaps it’s an acceptance that the recording methodology is simply not possible.

Utilizing Shortcuts to create a brand new folder shortcut is similar to utilizing Automator: create a brand new shortcut, seek for actions, after which drag them into the primary panel. It’s just a little easier, nonetheless, as a result of the variable is already accessible so that you can use, so there are simply two steps:

Like Script Editor, you possibly can run your shortcut instantly from an icon within the menu bar:

With three totally different choices, there’s loads of selection. It principally boils right down to what you’re aware of and which know-how you need to use. AppleScript is a mature know-how, however Shortcuts are extra cross-platform. If you wish to report a activity to automate, Shortcuts received’t assist you; you’d be higher off with Automator.