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Automator is an automation app that comes pre-installed on every Mac. It’s a simple utility where you create a workflow by specifying a set of instructions (called act) which the application will in turn follow. Automator can do everything from moving files or modifying files to complex things like launching scripts and interacting with apps. An overview of the Automator application is available here.
Today we will focus on a simple aspect of Automator. How to select photos from anywhere on your Mac and resize them to a set resolution. If you are a web publisher or photographer, you often have to deal with image resizing. Typically, you’re resizing an image to a specific resolution – possibly several of them.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just select a photo, right-click, select an option, and resize the image and go to a specified folder? Read on to find out how we can get there.
Set up a workflow
We will use Service instead of folders so we can do this for images anywhere on the Mac.
To get started, open automatic word app Applications folder. You will see a window asking you to open an existing document or create a new one. Select New document. Now from Select type document, select Service.
You should now see a Gallery view that lists apps, actions, and workflow details.
To specify that we will work with the image, select image file from the drop-down menu next to it Selected receiving service.
Now search for an item that says Get Selected Finder Items and drag it in working process see. Search Image ratio and do so.
Automator will now ask if you want to make a copy of the file before it is modified. If you want to keep the original, select Add. In this example we will go with no more.
The Image ratio section will show options to resize the image. Change the pixel size from 480 to whatever you want. You can also use percentage Metric system.
Select Rescue from Document menu and name the workflow.
Now select any number of image files mentioned, right click, press Service, and select the workflow we just made. The images will be edited and resized instantly without you having to open any kind of additional tools.
Keep original files safe
If you don’t want to mess with the original files, choose Add when Automator asks if you want to copy finder items.
This will add a Copy Finder Items menu in the workflow. Here you can select the folder where you want to copy the resized images.
Keep experimenting with Automator
Automator has many Actions and supports the majority of built-in apps (and some third parties). So keep exploring, drag in Actions, try them out by pressing the button Play button in the app. There’s a lot you can do here. If you come up with something interesting, do share it with us in the comments section below.
Challenge Accepted: If you’re looking for a challenge, how do you feel about this – create a workflow that takes any new photo added to a specified folder, automatically changing it image size and send a copy to another folder. It’s easy – just drag and drop Actions like we did above. If you run into any issues, feel free to ask for help in the comments.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
