Read Me First

Welcome to Take Control of Automating Your Mac, Second Edition, version 2.0.1, published in January 2018 by alt concepts inc. This book was written by Joe Kissell and edited by Scholle McFarland.

This book explores many ways to work faster, increase your efficiency, and have more fun using your Mac by automating common activities. Many of these techniques require no extra software, and nearly all of them are suitable for ordinary users without special technical skills.

If you want to share this ebook with a friend, we ask that you do so as you would with a physical book: “lend” it for a quick look, but ask your friend to buy a copy for careful reading or reference. Discounted classroom and Mac user group copies are available.

Copyright © 2018, alt concepts inc. All rights reserved.

Updates and More

You can access extras related to this ebook on the Web (use the link in Ebook Extras, near the end; it’s available only to purchasers). On the ebook’s Take Control Extras page, you can:

• Download any available new version of the ebook for free, or buy any subsequent edition at a discount.
• Download various formats, including PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket. (Learn about reading on mobile devices on our Device Advice page.)
• Read the ebook’s blog. You may find new tips or information, links to author interviews, and update plans for the ebook.

If you bought this ebook from the Take Control Web site, it has been added to your account, where you can download it in other formats and access any future updates. However, if you bought this ebook elsewhere, you can add it to your account manually; see Ebook Extras.

Basics

To review background information that might help you understand this book better, such as finding System Preferences and working with files in the Finder, read Tonya Engst’s book Take Control of Mac Basics.

What’s New in the Second Edition

Version 2.0 of this book includes hundreds of changes that bring it up to date with recent versions of macOS and third-party automation tools. It expands numerous important topics, removes obsolete text, and adds entirely new material. Here are the highlights:

• Added a chapter called The State of Mac Automation, which talks about the present and likely future of automation on the Mac
• In the discussion of how to Control Your Mac with Your Voice, added a Use Siri topic
• Added a few tools to the Use a macOS Clipboard Utility topic
• Added MailButler and MailTags to the list of recommended Mail plug-ins in Automate Apple Mail with Plug-ins
• Expanded the discussion of IFTTT and Zapier, two services that take actions based on changing conditions in cloud-connected apps
• Covered using iCloud to sync Desktop and Documents folders in Automate Mac-to-Mac Syncing
• Split the material on macOS automation tools into five chapters:
  • Discover macOS Automation Technologies: An overview of the user-level Mac automation tools Apple provides
  • Use Services for System-wide Shortcuts: Guidance on using and configuring items in the system-wide Services menu
  • Get Started with Automator: An introduction to Apple’s Automator utility, with an expanded set of examples
  • Get Started with AppleScript: The basics of performing tasks with Apple’s venerable scripting language, now with more instruction, examples, and tips, plus coverage of how to Use GUI Scripting
  • Script the Command Line with Shell Scripts: How simple scripts you run in Terminal can automate tasks on your Mac
• Added a new chapter, Use Omni Automation, about the JavaScript-based automation capability now built into apps by the Omni Group on both macOS and iOS
• Included more examples and details in Control Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro
• Added Switch Contexts with ControlPlane to explain the basics of this utility that automatically performs actions on your Mac based on user-defined criteria
• Added coupons for OmniGraffle, Script Debugger, and UI Browser, and increased the discount on the Nisus Writer Pro Coupon to 25%