How-tos
Mac Automation: Burn a backup disc of recent iPhotos
Time Machine is great way to backup your entire Mac, but what if you want to make a single backup of your recently imported photos in iPhoto? Well, Automator for Leopard is here to help with this task. In this how-to, I will show you how to find photos taken in the last 2 months and burn the resulting photos to a disc for safe keeping.
Continue reading to learn how to create this Automator workflow.
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Popularity: 7% [?]
Mac Automation: Using variables in Automator
Last week I showed you how to use Automator to make a workflow that took photos from your Mac with an iSight and sent them to your Apple TV. That how-to featured one way of using a variable in Automator to let the user name the photo themselves. In this week’s Mac Automation post, I want to go into a little more detail on what variables are and what they can do for your Automator workflows.
Continue reading to learn more about using variables in Automator. Read the rest of this entry
Popularity: 5% [?]
Mac Automation: take and sync pictures to Apple TV
Parties can sometimes be boring, but with a Mac with an iSight and an Apple TV, you can liven up any party! In this how-to, I am going to show you how to create an Automator workflow that will take pictures at specified times and sync them over to your Apple TV, all without you ever lifting a finger. This Automator workflow is fantastic when you have people over for a party they can head over to your Mac, take a crazy picture of themselves and have it synced over to the Apple TV in the living room.
Continue reading to learn how to make this Automator workflow. Read the rest of this entry
Popularity: 8% [?]
A low cost guide to making music with your Mac, part one
It’s well known that Macs have always been favored by musicians. And why not? Macs are the only computers that come from the factory with a starter-level digital audio workstation, or DAW as the hip kids call ‘em.
Point of fact, these days it’s entirely possible to make perfectly respectable, professional quality music with your Mac and some relatively inexpensive outboard gear. Gone are the days when you could only use your desktop or laptop for sequencing MIDI tracks and writing lyrics for songs that you’d have to take to a professional recording studio to realize. You may not be able to make a Dark Side Of The Moon or an OK Computer in your bedroom but if you’re a singer-songwriter, hip-hop artist or if you’re in a band making music with simple arrangements, you can skip the studio process almost entirely.
Of course, when it comes to music, most of the quality has to do with talent and skill, not technology: despite tools like Antares AutoTune, no amount of digital wizardry can make you a better songwriter. And you’ll still need to understand the fundamentals of audio production, which can be as exciting as watching paint dry.
But if you’re wiling to educate yourself a bit, there’s no reason you and your Mac can’t make beautiful music together.
In this four part feature, we’ll look at what it takes to turn your Mac into a music studio. Read the rest of this entry
Popularity: 9% [?]
Mac Automation: E-mail songs from iTunes
What do you do if you need to email a song from iTunes to your work computer, or to another machine you own? If you have one machine where you do all your CD imports, you might want to send a track to the office; maybe you’ve got your GarageBand compositions in iTunes and you want to send one to a friend. We can simply this process by using Automator for Leopard. In this how-to, I am going to show you how to quickly and easily e-mail songs from your iTunes library.
Continue reading to learn how to e-mail songs using Automator. Read the rest of this entry
Popularity: 6% [?]
