Review: Tiger's "personal robot" aims to automate users out of repetition and help them avoid repeating the same PDF tasks over and over again.One of the most touted but unutilized features in Macintosh's OS X v. 10.4 "Tiger" is Automator, described by Apple as "an innovative personal automation assistant that helps you streamline challenging repetitive manual tasks without programming."
Automator allows users to develop a series of tasks—dubbed "actions"—that can be combined via dragging and dropping within the Automator application to build custom workflows.
No understanding or writing of code is necessary, as with Apple's more technical AppleScript.
For example, one can choose from a library of pre-built actions available within select software programs and Apple's own Finder to develop special-purpose workflows that can be saved, reused and even shared with other users.
Despite Automator's power, a recent reader survey by Macworld Daily News suggests that "Automator sits neglected by most" users, and notes that "an astonishing 92 percent of voters don't use Automator."
Still, Automator is good news for PDF workflow managers, or anyone who is tasked with repetitive PDF jobs.
"I think the beauty of Automator is that anyone who is the least bit computer-savvy should be able to use it," said Matthew Russell, author of "What Is Automator (and
Can It Make Your Life Easier)?"
"It seemed to me as though Automator was being marketed as a way to give a lot of power to people who didn't want to delve into scripting, and it really has the potential to live up to that."
Russell expects Automator usage to steadily increase, although he notes the apparently slow adoption rate.
Russell suspects this may have something to do with the lack of pre-built actions available to Automator users.
Currently, Automator ships with slightly fewer than 200 actions.
To read more about three types of PDF security, click here.
But the actions that do ship with Automator are powerful, and include a variety of PDF-oriented functions, such as encrypting, watermarking and renaming files.
In addition, there are a range of freeware and third-party commercial actions and workflows currently available for download at a number of sites—including Apple, Automator.us, Automator World, macscripter.net, Mac OS X Hints and Automated Workflows—with more expected to be released as more users and developers begin to discover Automator's potential.
Ben Waldie, author of "Mac OS X Technology Guide to Automator," says that nearly every Mac user can benefit from Automator.
"Photographers and graphic designers can benefit from built-in PDF and image manipulation actions," Waldie said. The best way to get started with Automator is "to sit down and play with it for an hour.
"Download and look at some example workflows on the Web. Modify those
workflows. Try to come up with a basic task to automate, and try to
build that workflow."
Next Page: Create your own workflows or download others.
Automator by Example: Combining PDFs
A good example workflow to start with is combining PDFs. You can use Automator, sans Adobe's commercial Acrobat product, to build a workflow that will automatically combine a set of PDFs using four of the pre-built actions that come with Tiger.
First up, open Automator. You'll be looking at a new untitled Automator workspace:
Under "Libraries," single-click to highlight Finder; available Finder actions appear in the adjacent right column.
Select and drag the "Get Specified Finder Items" action into the blank workspace window at far right, where a new workflow can be built.
Learn how to find PDFs online. Click here to learn more.
Drag the "Sort Finder Items" action to become the second step, aligned below the first.
Next, single-click to highlight PDF in the Libraries column. Drag "Combine PDF Pages" from the available actions to become the third step.
Again Select Finder in Libraries. Drag the "Open Finder Items" action to become the final step.
Some of the steps offer options for further customization of the new workflow, such as choosing the order in which the PDFs will be combined.
The finished workflow can be saved in several ways, including as a plug-in that will appear in OS X Tiger's Contextual Menus for easy access.
To use it, highlight a selection of separate PDF files, then access Contextual Menus and under Automator, and choose the "Combine PDFs" (or whatever you named the new workflow) workflow.
Automator's Popular PDF Workflows
Ready to automate your PDF jobs? These are custom workflows you can download:
Save PDF and Mail
Function: Prints a document as a PDF to the specified location then attaches it to a new Mail message. This is a helpful variation on the normal Mail PDF print function in that it not only gives the PDF the proper title of the document you're printing, but also saves a copy to the folder of your choice for record keeping/backup.
Text to PDF Converter
Function: Converts text files to PDF. This is actually a drag-and-drop application that contains an Automator Action which appears when the software is installed in /Applications/.
Count PDF Pages
Function: Creates a tab-delimited report listing the number of pages in a PDF. Can be imported into Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet software.
Images to PDFs
Function: Converts any images selected in the foremost Finder window into PDFs. This workflow builds around the ImageMagick convert utility. Otherwise, the heavy lifting of the workflow is performed by an AppleScript, so be prepared for a wait depending on the number of images selected.
Number Stamper
Function: Stamps sequentially numbered annotations on each page of PDF files. Number Stamper is perfect for stamping scanned document archives. Scan your documents to PDF, then stamp them with an electronic number. Stamps created with Number Stamper can be searched using Apple's Spotlight feature.
Convert PDF to JPEG
Function: Converts selected files/folders of PDFs to JPEG and saves to the Desktop.
Download URLs as PDFs
Function: Allows the user to archive a Web page as a PDF document in a given workflow.
Create Thumbnail Poster in PDF
Function: Creates a multi-page 20-by-30-inch PDF document of thumbnails of the images passed into it from the previous action.
PrintFU - On-demand PDF printing
Function: Sends large PDFs directly to PrintFu's online printing service. "Give us your PDF and a couple days later, you'll have a black-and-white, printed and comb-bound book on your door step."
Document Management 
