Automators

In this episode Rose and David dive into their very first feedback show. There's a quick look at what changed since the podcast started, a sneak peak of some of the upcoming episode topics, and much more including a brand new app - Scriptable, and automating timers! This episode of Automators is sponsored by: The Omni Group: Accomplish More Every Day Links and Show Notes Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership Siri Shortcuts Field Guide | MacSparky Field Guides OmniFocus Field Guide, Third Edition | MacSparky Field Guides OmniFocus 3 for Mac: Multiple Tags, Enhanced Forecast, Powerful Perspectives – MacStories Launch Center ProKeep your eye on the Twitter account @LaunchCenterPro for beta sign ups! CARROT Weather Overcast Forum Discussion for Episode 1: Automating Calendar Events - Episodes - Automators Talk Forum Discussion for Episode 2: Email Automation - Episodes - Automators Talk Forum Discussion for Episode 3: Converting Numbers Sheets to Keynote Graphs with Sal Soghoian - Episodes - Automators Talk Forum Discussion for Episode 4: First Look at Siri Shortcuts - Episodes - Automators Talk Forum Discussion for Episode 5: Project Templates - Episodes - Automators Talk Forum Discussion for Episode 6: Getting the Golden Hour in Shortcuts - Episodes - Automators Talk JavaScript Course | Codecademy JavaScript | freeCodeCamp Guide Learn JavaScript - Free Interactive JavaScript Tutorial Best free time tracking app for iPhone - Toggl CARROT Weather for iOS and Android Overcast Podcast App Automators - YouTube Automators Bonus Content | MacSparky Field Guides Scriptable Tasker - Apps on Google Play Automate – Apps on Google Play Automators Talk

iOS power user Matthew Cassinelli joins us to share some great iOS automation workflows. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: TextExpander, from Smile: Multiply your team’s productivity. Guest Starring: Matthew Cassinelli Links and Show Notes In this episode, we are joined by former Workflow team member Matthew Cassinelli. Matthew is an iOS power user with a ton of knowledge about Workflow and Siri Shortcuts. In this episode, Matthew shares a few workflows. Twitter List The first workflow lets you sort through your Twitter lists and display them. This intermediate workflow uses variables and selections. On the episode, we walk through every step and why Matthew used it. The Golden Hour If you shoot pictures or video, you may know you get some of your best photos an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. The trouble is accessing sunrise/sunset time in Workflow was traditionally tricky. Matthew put together a Workflow that hooks into the darksky.net API to pull the data from the Internet. This is an advanced workflow, but again, we walk it through one step at a time. Download the workflow, listen to the episode, and you’re good. This is a great episode that runs deep on Workflow/Siri Shortcuts. Matthew Cassinelli – Shortcuts, technology, and tips Supercomputer PodcastAlex Cox and Matthew make sense out of technology Mastering Apple Music: sharing my favorite shortcut on The Sweet Setup – Matthew Cassinelli Open Twitter Lists - Workflow Open Twitter Lists - Siri Shortcuts Golden Hour - Workflow Golden Hour - Siri Shortcuts Screencast - Rose Tackles the DarkSky APISee Rose's take on Matthew's Golden Hour script. Mac Power Users - Relay FM Workflow Field Guide | MacSparky Field Guides Siri Shortcuts Field Guide | MacSparky Field GuidesDavid said the Siri Shortcut Field Guide was coming. Well ... it's here ... with an introductory price discount. Automators Bonus Content | MacSparky Field Guides The Automators YouTube Channel

In this episode of Automators David and Rose get nerdy with project templates. They start out with what a project template is and how it can help you, and go through using basic project templates all the way up to more complex options. While both of them are OmniFocus users, project templates can be used in any task management system - and is something that everyone can use. Links and Show Notes The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right - Atul Gawande xkcd: Is It Worth the Time?A comic demonstrating when automation actually pays off. xkcd: AutomationA comic showing how you can spend more time automating things than time you gave - but as said in the podcast this isn't always the case! Screencast: Project Planning with MacSparkyIn this example, David demonstrates how to build a Siri Shortcut Script to create a new project template in OmniFocus. OmniFocusVideo Field Guide — MacSparkyContains 45 minutes of material for project templates Populate Template Placeholders in OmniFocus—curtclifton.netTake a project with «variables» and replace those with words and create a new project with AppleScript How to Fill Out OmniFocus Project Templates with Workflow | Colter Reed Tweaking OmniFocus: Project Template Applescript — MacSparky Using Drafts 5 Taskpaper with OmniFocus | Rosemary Orchard Screencast: Using Drafts to Create OmniFocus Project TemplatesIn this screencast Rose demonstrates how to use the action group she created for Drafts to create a project for OmniFocus. OF Taskpaper | Drafts Action DirectoryThe action group that Rose created in Drafts to enable easy TaskPaper creation and manipulation. Workflow: Essay To OmniFocusDynamic creation of an essay project for OmniFocus Workflow: Essay To ThingsDynamic creation of an essay project for Things Workflow: OmniFocus Travel Plans | Rosemary Orchard TripList Pro - Packing List ManagerThe packing list app Rose uses Bookworm – Podcast Book ClubA podcast hosted by Joe Buehlig and Mike Schmitz in which they review books. How to Create OmniFocus Projects with Workflow | Colter Reed Templates and Predefined Lists in Things — Matthew Palmer Create Travel Checklist in Things with AppleScript – Coding Bull Junky Creating Projects with Relative Due Dates in Todoist (Reddit) Automators 1 Screencast: Numbers & Fantastical for Batch EventsFrom episode 1, Rose demonstrates the numbers sheet and Keyboard Maestro Macro you can use to bulk add lots of similar events to your calendar. Create OmniFocus Project Templates with AppleScript | Colter ReedColter shows you how you can build project templates (for OmniFocus but you could also translate this to Things) in AppleScript and offers example scripts too.

Rose and David have been busy trying out the Siri Shortcuts beta. This episode looks closely at how Siri Shortcuts is better (and worse) than Workflow along with some hopes for where this is all heading. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: The Omni Group: Accomplish More Every Day Links and Show Notes Because he can't help himself, David kicks off the show taking credit for the existence of Siri Shortcuts because … well … why not? Rose quickly gets on board with the idea. Then our hosts dive in deep on Siri Shortcuts, the banner automation features that will ship with iOS 12. In less than three minutes, Rose summons her iPhone Harry Potter style. David says lots of hand-wavy things about running betas and then they dive in deep on how Siri Shortcuts works. If you've ever wondered what a URL scheme is, Rose explains it brilliantly and then David whines about wanting more in automation. David attempts to explain all the ways Siri Shortcuts can work and delivers the usual disclaimers at the same time. Our hosts both like the idea that Siri shortcuts will make suggestions to people that normally wouldn't automate. Hooray! After celebrating this fact, David starts listing all the things he wants in addition to these cool new tools. That's a running theme through this episode. Our hosts seem to always want more. Rose and David eventually get into the subject of what's new with Siri Shortcuts. Rose has already automated her airplane boarding workflow. David comes up with an easy way to automate parenting teenagers. Eventually, they get around a hypothetical meeting shortcut. This is an important point because it marks the third podcast where David talks about meetings. (Although this is the first time that he uses the word "fun".) They take a break so David can talk about this episode's sponsor, OmniFocus 3, which they both love very much. David and Rose then talk about the various ways they are gaming their iPhones to create the Siri Shortcuts they want most. Our hosts then explain how this is only the first iteration of Siri Shortcuts and then they provide a laundry list of features they want immediately. With an irresponsible faith in Siri's voice to text engine, David wants Siri Shortcuts to grab variables from your verbal commands. Eventually, David digresses to fantasy workflows that expose exactly how big of a nerd he is. Automators on the Internet The Automators Forum Soup Chef: Accelerating App Interactions with Shortcuts | Apple Developer Documentation Introduction to Siri Shortcuts - WWDC 2018 - Videos - Apple Developer Building for Voice with Siri Shortcuts - WWDC 2018 - Videos - Apple Developer Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful Software SharecutsThis is a great collection of Shortcuts which many people have already made. Flight Time ShortcutRose's Shortcut for Flight Time, hosted on Sharecuts

In this episode we sat down with Sal Soghoian to learn how to use AppleScript to turn a Numbers table, column, or row, into a chart in Keynote. We also dove into the history of AppleScript, what parts of it mean, and how you can learn it too. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: TextExpander, from Smile: Multiply your team’s productivity. Guest Starring: Sal Soghoian Links and Show Notes This is an episode where you'll want to bring your Mac, and make sure to visit Sal's page to download all the goodies too! Mac Power Users #370: Automation with Sal Soghoian - Relay FMSal Soghoian, the father of automation on the Mac, joins Katie and David to discuss the state of Mac an iOS automation. Sal discusses the history of Automation on the Mac, the possibilities for Automation on iOS and the tools and languages available to put the power in the hands of the user. Numbers Table to Keynote Chart | macOS Automation.com macOS AutomationIf you want to learn about automation on the Mac, this a great place to get started. You'll find links to all of Sal's other sites here too. Apple Configurator & AutomatorAll about automating Apple Configurator with Automator and more. Late Night Software | The home of Script DebuggerAn alternative to Script Editor for your Mac. CMD-D Down-Home Scripting BootcampA 3 day course with Sal and Ray where you can learn AppleScript together. Make sure to listen to the show to get a discount of $200 when booking your ticket! Omni Group AutomationIf you want to learn about automating OmniGraffle or OmniOutliner with OmniJS, then this is the official website. How Apple Programmer Sal Soghoian Got Apps Talking to Each Other | WIRED iWork and AutomationIf you enjoyed the example of taking a table in Numbers and converting it into a chart in Keynote and would like to automate more things with the iWork suite of applications then this is the place to start! Automators ForumsJoin us to talk about the episode, dissect the AppleScript, and nerd out about automation.

In this episode, our intrepid Automators dive into email and cover the best ways to get your Mac, iOS devices, and the web wrangling your email for you. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: The Omni Group: Accomplish More Every Day Links and Show Notes David keeps talking about all the subjects for Automators but settles on email for episode 2. Rose and David agree the emails you send do not need to all be special snowflakes. David throws out TextExpander as the starting point because saving snippets in a Word document is madness. David likes automating the tab key when writing an email. Both David and Rose use Automator on the Mac but agree it should be more powerful. Very quickly Rose presses on to Keyboard Maestro. Rose then explains how she uses a Keyboard Maestro script to look for the existence of a file to automatically assemble and send an email. David gets irrationally happy about the thought of email getting sent without any direct involvement. Then our nerdy automators take on sorting email. Both of our hosts get too much pleasure from auto sorting unwanted email out of their life. David bangs on about a years-old request to make Apple’s cloud-based email rules stronger. David mentions his beloved AppleScript that auto inserts an email recipient’s name. The Omni Group sponsored this show, and Rose and David agree that they’re swell. Then Rose and David move on to iOS email automation. The way email apps make you create email links to only their apps makes David sad but Rose digs it. Then David subtly pitches a reality show about two Italians in the middle of a vineyard. Rose then admits she has a thing about email clients and once installed 28 of them. And then they get to Workflow. So much talking about Workflow. Ultimately, David admits to being “that guy”. Then our hosts address cloud-based automation, and David closes up banging the drum about dictation and email. Rose and David both love the secret Drafts unending dictation tool. If you’re reading this and you’re from Apple, move along. This is not the app you’re looking for. The Big Explanatory Post on this Episdode Home | Automators Automators Talk David's Video on TextExpander and Email David's Advanced TextExpander Snippet David's Salutation AppleScript Video David's TextExpander AppleScript Rose's Airmail Screencast Rose's Workflow Screencast Rose's Mail Merge Workflow Rose's Picture Send Workflow Email Field Guide — MacSparky Mac Power Users #328: iOS Email - Relay FM Mac Power Users #303: Email Clients and Workflows - Relay FM Mac Power Users #224: The Email Problem - Relay FM Mac Power Users #164: Tackling Email - Relay FM TextExpander | Communicate Smarter Keyboard Maestro 8.2.2: Work Faster with Macros for macOS Mail Act-On and More Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful Software Email Management for Any Inbox | SaneBox Airmail - Lightning Fast Mail Client for Mac and iPhone Dispatch: TextExpander-enabled Email App for iPhone TripIt - Travel Itinerary - Trip Planner Drafts. Where Text Starts. | Drafts IFTTT helps your apps and devices work together Zapier | The easiest way to automate your work SaneBox

Starting with (complex) repeats, working all the way up to AppleScript - with examples. We take you through approximately 10 ways to automate calendar events! This episode of Automators is sponsored by: TextExpander, from Smile: Multiply your team’s productivity. Links and Show Notes After lots of planning, Rose and David get to roll up their sleeves and start automating. Their first subject is those elusive calendar events that take so long to create. (So many presses and clicks!) First, they agree that repeating events can actually be a form of automation, especially when you take it to the next level. David is obsessive about hyper-scheduling and, as a result, needs to make a lot of calendar events. He does it all using automation. Rose doesn’t like to remember directions to her dentist and, as a result, made a wicked Workflow workflow. Around this point, David opines that he could solve his travel-time problem with a Workflow (and after recording, actually created the nerdy solution and added it to show notes). Rose figured out a way to use a combination of Numbers, Fantastical, and Keyboard Maestro on Mac to bulk create a LOT of calendar events and this marks the first instance of AppleScript, albeit a short one, for the first time to the podcast. Around this time, our hosts wander into cloud services and pay homage to IFTTT and Zapier. Then they wrap up, having given you, dear listener, a pile of ways to avoid ever manually creating a calendar event again. Detailed PostThis blog post contains all of the links, downloads, and screencasts for the various automations discussed in this episode. Automators TalkDiscuss the episode and examples on our forum. YouTube ChannelHere you can find all of our screencasts (including the Memoji video from episode 0). Workflow: Event TemplatesThis workflow can pair with one of the next two to create an event in your calendar and also a slightly longer event in your work calendar. Workflow: Add Event To Work Calendar (Menu)This Workflow asks if the previous event you created (triggered by the last workflow) is in working time and if so adds a longer event to your work calendar. Workflow: Add Event To Work Calendar (Auto)This one does the same as the above Workflow, except it's 100% automated - no questions needed! MacSparky: The Hyper-Scheduling Experiment Workflow: Block Scheduling Events [Screencast]How MacSparky schedules some of his events from the above hyper-scheduling. Workflow: Block ScheduleThe workflow covered in the above screencast. Workflow: Copy an Event [Screencast]Rose shows you how you can use Workflow to copy a calendar event. Workflow: Copy a Calendar EventThe workflow from the above screencast. Mac Power Users 418: Workflows with Rose Orchard Numbers and Fantastical for Batch Event Creation [Screencast]How to use that crazy number sheet and Keyboard Maestro to create potentially hundreds of events with Fantastical. Workflow: Clipboard Events to FantasticalA workflow to replace the above Keyboard Maestro macro - should you be working on iOS. Drafts Action: Events in Fantastical Fantastical Video Guides Adding Travel Time before and after events [Screencast]David breaks down his Workflow which adds travel time to and from events for you. Workflow: Event Review

Welcome to Automators! In this preview episode David Sparks and Rosemary Orchard tell you all about their new podcast, why they love automation, and that yes, you can automate things! Links and Show Notes MeMoji VideoWe went a little crazy and did a video version of episode 0 with Memoji heads! YouTube ChannelHere you'll find not only the Memoji video, but also screencasts we make to accompany episodes. Automators ForumChat about every episode and automation!