(You may also be able to right-click or Control-click the text, depending on the application.) By default, it’s set to “Service receives selected text in any application.” This means you can select text and then click the application’s menu, point to Services, and choose your service in any application. At the top of the window, we can then choose what we want the service to work with. First, we’d select Service in the dialog and click Choose. RELATED: Use Your Mac’s Services Menu to Perform Quick ActionsĪs an example, we’ll create a service you can use in any application.

Dictation Command: This runs when triggered by a voice command, known as a dictation command, on your Mac.

Image Capture Plugin: This appears as an option in the Image Capture utility, used when transferring photos to your Mac.

Calendar Alarm: This runs when a specific event occurs in your calendar.

When you add files to that folder, your Mac will automatically run the workflow on them.

Folder Action: This is a workflow that you tie to a specific folder on your Mac.

Print Plugin: A print plugin appears in the system’s print dialog.

Service: This allows you to create a “service,” which will be accessible from the Services menu in other applications.

For example, you could drag-and-drop files onto the application’s icon to run the workflow on it from outside automator.

Application: An application is the same as a workflow, but it can be run as an application from outside Automator.

Workflow: A workflow is a series of actions that runs inside of Automator.

All of these are basically different types of workflows they’re just triggered in different ways: You’ll see a variety of different document types you can start with.

You could also find it under Other > Automator in Launchpad or Applications > Automator in the Finder. Launching Automator and Creating a DocumentĪutomator is installed on your Mac by default, so you can launch it by pressing Command+Space to open Spotlight search, typing Automator, and pressing Enter.

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