Automator & Alfred

 

I'm a big fan of automated workflows. In fact, I've made a mini-career of optimizing workflows. With that being said, it should't be surprising that I love Automator, a workflow optimization program that comes with MacOS and gets very little attention. Tucked in the depths of the Launchpad in the "Other" folder with other MacOS staples like Grapher, it is a program that is very easy to overlook. Additionally, I can't recall ever reading an article or seeing a headline on any of the tech sites I follow on Twitter discussing Automator. It essentially gets no attention. Despite this, it has become one of my favorite Apple programs.

What can Automator do? Improve and speed up any workflow, especially if it is repetitive. It comes with numerous actions that it can perform, such as accessing websites and adjusting the volume. I have a workflow to start work, which opens Outlook and other work websites as well as launching the Calendar app. When checking my paystub, I have an Automator workflow which launches my bank websites as well as my work site which has my paystub and the Numbers app where I record my financial data. I built an Automator workflow where you can right click on a heic file and convert it to jpeg, which is useful since Apple's heic file format doesn't always play nicely with picture websites. These are just a few examples, but essentially any workflow that you do can be accomplished using Automator. If your workflow doesn't exist within Automator's numerous actions, you can use scripting code as well.

This brings up two points. One, how to build in Automator, and two, how to access the workflows. Building is mostly intuitive, though if you are trying to accomplish a complicated workflow, especially one that uses scripting code, you can usually find examples to mimic through Google searching. I access most of my Automator workflows using Alfred, and I wouldn't be complete in my workflow assessment if I didn't mention Alfred. Alfred is a productivity app for MacOS, which allows for program launches through hot keys, as well as web searching and workflow optimization, among other things. Unlike Automator, Alfred is a well publicized Mac app and in my opinion is a must-have for Mac users. Double tapping the command key opens up Alfred's search bar, and typing "fi" and pressing space launches my finances workflow which I mentioned above. It is that simple. Alfred can even optimize workflows itself, but you have to pay for the more advanced features. Regardless, even the free features that Alfred utilizes are fantastic, and are a great way to launch Automator workflows, as well as accomplish numerous MacOS tasks with its built-in features.