Chapter 14: How Can I Automate My Mac?

What if your Mac could perform routine (and possibly mundane) tasks for you automatically? Sounds pretty tempting, no? Mountain Lion is fully equipped to make your Mac life more enjoyable with a handy application called Automator. Automator uses actions (or steps) to create workflows that you can run any time to complete repetitive tasks quickly and easily. Services and AppleScripts can automate repetitive steps even further. Another way Mountain Lion can help with your Mac housework is with Time Machine, the OS X backup utility. Time Machine literally takes you back in time to retrieve lost data.

Getting Around in Automator

Using Workflows

Recording Your Actions

Using Services to Perform Tasks

Discovering Time Machine

Setting Up a Backup Drive

Running a Backup

Retrieving Information from Time Machine