If you’re frequent user of your Mac, you no doubt perform daily or weekly tasks that can often get redundant or time consuming. Sometimes just reducing the number of mouse or keyboard clicks on your computer can help you get things done a little faster or more efficiently. 

Well, almost five years ago, Apple produced a little used application call Automator. It’s main function is to help you automate customized tasks on your Mac. Automator works similar another Mac application called AppleScript, but unlike this application, Automator doesn’t require you to know any coded language. You just have to know how to choose the right actions to get certain automated workflows to run.

This article will explain a useful Automator workflow which uses iCal to open a couple of webpages and an application every week, on the same day and same time. 

Note: the tutorial that you’re running Automator 2.0 or higher. Automator comes installed with Leopard. 

Open Automator (found in your application’s folder) and select File>New. If you never used Automator before, a Starting Points window will open first. Select Custom and then the Choose button to get started. Next you'll be presented with a single interface consisting of three columns: the Library, a list of actions in the second column, and main workflow column. 

Before putting together our workflow, open Safari and go to a website page(s) that you want to include in your Automator workflow. In this example, we will create a workflow which will opens the website for a banking institution

With the website still open, go back to Automator and select Internet in the Library column, and in the next column locate the action, “Get Specified URLs.” Drag and drop this action into the main workflow window. Deselect or delete (using the minus button below) the pre-selected Apple website URL. Now click the “Current Safari Page” button. The URL of your selected webpage should appear in the action. Repeat this step for as many webpages you like to the action. (See Fig. 1)

Go back to the Library column under Internet and select “Display Webpages” and drag that action under the first action. Now click the Run button at the top right of the menu bar of Automator. If you set things up correctly, the two webpages you added to the workflow should open and display. 

Go back to the Library, and if you want, you can also add an application to open up in your workflow. Click Utilities under the Library list. Scroll down and find the action, “Launch Application.” Drag that action into the main workflow window. Click the drop down button in that action and select an application that you would like opened in this workflow. For instance, you might choose your financial management application, Quicken. For this tutorial, I’m selecting MoneyWell. Now run the workflow again and it should open the webpages and your selected application. 

Now that the workflow is setup, click on File>Save As Plug-in. Click the drop down button and select the iCal Alarm. Type a name for your workflow, such as “Open Banking Sites.” (See Fig. 2)

Click Save, and when you do, iCal should open up and allow you to enter a date and time that you want iCal to execute the workflow. You can simply check the “all-day” box. What’s important is to set the date and alarm time for when you want the workflow (now file) to run. Under “alarm,” click the drop-down button and select “on date.” Set the date and time. Above the alarm, select the “repeat” feature and indicate when you want the workflow to run: daily, weekly, monthly, etc. For this tutorial, we are choosing “weekly.” So the workflow will run every Thursday at 8:00 a.m.. (See Fig 3). Click done when you’re finished.

The workflow should run accordingly. But if for some reason it doesn’t, you can simply delete the calendar dates for the workflow and start offer. 

After completing your first workflow, you will want to turn other tasks into Automator workflows. A good introductory resource to Automator is Ben Waldie’s “Automator For Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.”