How to Customize Contextual Menus with Automator
New tricks for Control-clicks!
You know Mac OS 10.6 lets you customize contextual menus with services, the handy shortcuts that use features from one application in another. But did you know you can build custom services with Automator? This is an outstanding way to banish mundane repetitive tasks -- like cropping and resizing photos, shortening URLs, changing file extensions, and much more -- from your life.
1. Start Automator
As an example of how easy it is to create your own service, let’s say you want to create one that scales and crops a PNG image selected in the Finder to 640x480 pixels, then converts it to a JPEG file. First, launch Automator from your Applications folder, then choose Service.
You can create your own services using Automator.
2. Define the Service
This tells Automator what input to expect from which application.
In the rightmost pane, choose Image Files and Finder. In the left pane, choose Photos. In the middle, double-click Change Type of Images. Then, when Automator prompts you to add a Copy Finder action, click Add. This ensures that your original image will remain intact (you can eliminate this step if you’re a daredevil and want to modify your original image without making a backup copy first). In the rightmost pane, under Change Type of Images, choose JPEG.
3. Finish the Service
This tells Automator what input to expect from which application.
In the middle pane, double-click Crop Images. This time, select Don’t Add at the Copy Finder action prompt because you’ve already copied the Finder items above. Next, type in 640 for the image’s width, 480 for its height, then choose Scale to Width from the pop-up menu.
4. Start Using It -- And More!
You made that menu item!
Choose File > Save and type the name of your service as you want it to appear in your Mac’s contextual menus. Automator will automatically save your new service for you in your Home > Library > Services folder, and it’ll be instantly recognized by the Keyboard system preference. Now right-click on any image in the Finder, and you’ll find your new service at the bottom of the list. Depending on how many contextual items you have, you might have to navigate into a Services submenu. If this whets your appetite for further customizations, check out Apple’s collection of more than 140 downloadable Automator actions at apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator. Some will coincide with your contextual menu needs as-is or provide inspiration for your own creations.
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