If there is one thing computers are really good at it’s doing the same thing over and over again, however many of us fail to leverage this fundamentally useful aspect of our Macs. Step in Automation. There are many ways of automating repetitive tasks on MacOS and iOS, some, like Siri Shortcuts, have been designed to be as easy to use as possible, whereas others utilise the unix underpinnings of the system to powerful effect. We are going to explore several of the different ways that we can create custom automations to help save us time and effort.
In part one we will examine some of the simpler methods that you can take advantage of straight away, part two focusses on the scripting languages available in MacOS, and finally part three will explain how to use the modular automation applications that make it quick to build more complex programs without needing to use a programming language. I have added several videos to show just how to use the method in question so that you can join in and create the tool yourself or customise it for your own use.
Text Substitution
Our first area of automation is text substitution and it’s the simplest of all the methods we are going to look at. Text substitution uses an input string (some text) that once detected by MacOS gets transformed into a different string. This is best used for items that you type most often, such as your full name, your address or mobile number, or in my case I use it to write out a long list of appointment times which I would otherwise have to type out each time. Watch the short video below to see how to configure and use it.
File Name Convention
In the video we show you how to set up text substitution with a 'File Naming Convention'. In this context a File Naming Convention would be a consistent way of naming files for a project so that it remains well organised and easily searchable in the future.
Setting Up Text Substitution
- Navigate to System Preferences > Keyboard and select the ‘Text’ tab.
- Click the + button to add a substitution.
- Type the string you wish to use in the ‘Replace’ column.
- Type the string you would like to have the text replaced with in the ‘With’ column.
Batch File Rename
We have talked about another simple form of automation in the past - batch renaming of files in the Finder without having to reach for a third party solution.
App Shortcuts
App shortcuts allows us to bind a particular shortcut to a menu item in any application that doesn’t already have one. It’s very useful for functions that you find yourself using a lot but that haven’t been assigned a keyboard shortcut to activate. Check out the video where we add a shortcut to help format a table in Numbers, create a new mailbox in Mail and email a copy in Pages.
Setting Up App Shortcuts
- Navigate to System Preferences > Keyboard and select the ‘Shortcuts’ tab.
- Make sure the App Shortcuts is selected in the column to the left. The right hand panel reflects the selection in the lefthand column.
- Click the + button to add a shortcut.
- In the resulting sheet select the application that you wish to add the shortcut to in the ‘Application’ drop down.
- Enter the name of the command from the menu exactly as it appears in the application in the ‘Menu Title’ box. This includes capitalisation and ellipses (…).
- Click in the ‘Keyboard Shortcut’ box and type the key combination you would like to use to activate the command.
- Click add to finish.
Other Simple Automations in MacOS
You can argue that two other system level features are forms of automation; ‘Time Machine’ and ‘Startup Items’ both automatically run their actions at specific times without the user needing to launch them. To find out more about these aspects of MacOS check out our previous blog articles that go into more details about them.
With these simple automations inside of MacOS it’s possible to improve your workflow by removing the need to do repetitive tasks like type out the same thing multiple times, or having to constantly go to a menu in order to activate a common command. Once you see the potential it’s hard to stop yourself from continuing your journey to greater and greater levels of automation, and that’s where scripting and automation apps take centre stage.