OSX Automator Workflows

Automator Service to Make PDF from Multiple PNGs

Refs

• http://miriamposner.com/blog/use-automator-to-combine-your-research-photos-into-one-pdf/

Using Make PDF from PNGs Automator Service

1. Open folder containing PNGs to combine in Finder.app
2. Arrange the order and then select PNGs
3. ctrl-click the selection to get contextual menu, choose Make PDF from PNGs
4. After a second or so (depending on number of PNGs) a dialog will appear to enter the basename (without .pdf) of the output PDF.
5. After entering the name the new PDF will appear on the Desktop

Creating Make PDF from PNGs Automator Service

1. Open Automator, choose Service
   • Select Service receives: image files in any application
   • Drag Library > PDFs > New PDF from Images action from 2nd column into empty 3rd column
   • Drag Library > Files & Folders > Rename Finder Items
     • click through the warning as this is a new file
     • select Name Single Item from the list and in Options tab select Show this action when the workflow runs
   • Save workflow as Make PDF from PNGs and exit Automator.app

Modifying Make PDF from PNGs Automator Service

Find it:

delta:~ blyth$ mdfind "Make PDF from PNGs.workflow"
/Users/blyth/Library/Services/Make PDF from PNGs.workflow
delta:~ blyth$

Page Sizing

Existing PDF from PNGs is making all pages 1024x768

Automator Service to Combine Multiple PDFs

Using Combine PDFs Automator Service

1. Open a folder containing PDFs to combine in Finder.app.
2. Adjust the Finder order as desired
3. select the PDFs to be combined, and ctrl-click on them, the Combine PDFs service should appear beneath Tags.
4. a Rename Finder Items dialog will appear, select a name (basename only, no .pdf extension) and hit Continue and the combined PDF should appear on Desktop

Creating Combine PDFs Automator Service

Follow along:

• http://www.documentsnap.com/how-to-combine-pdf-files-in-mac-osx-using-automator-to-make-a-service/

1. Open Automator, choose Service,
   • Select Service receives: PDF files in any application
   • Drag Library > PDFs > Combine PDF Pages action from 2nd column into the empty 3rd column
   • Drag Library > Files & Folders > Rename Finder Items
     • a warning comes up, about using a copy instead of a rename. Its OK however as we are dealing with a newly created PDF, so agree to the rename
     • select Name Single Item from the list and in Options tab select Show this action when the workflow runs
   • NB to give more space in 3rd column, close the disclosure triangles on the actions
   • Drag Library > Files & Folders > Move Finder Items into the 3rd column
     • leave destination at default location of Desktop
2. Now File > Save.. and enter name for the Service: Combine PDFs and exit from Automator.app
   • NB exiting is necessary, as without it the Service does not appear in contextual menu after having selected some PDFs

Modifying Combine PDFs Automator Service

Find and open, need quotes for both find and open as name contains a space:

delta:~ blyth$ mdfind "Combine PDFs.workflow"
/Users/blyth/Library/Services/Combine PDFs.workflow
delta:~ blyth$ open "`!!`"
open "`mdfind "Combine PDFs.workflow"`"

Creating Flatten_PDF Automator Service

• wanted to be able to combine a multiple page PDF eg a 2 page PDF with front/back scans positioned not to overlap into a 1 page PDF with front/back scans on same page But seems no Automator action can do this.
• manual way is to use Keynote and drag the PDFs into it, and then print as PDF