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Declutter and Organize Your Mac (Instantly) with Automator

Declutter and Organize Your Mac (Instantly) with Automator

If you particularly despise the inefficiency of organizing your files manually, you’re going to love what the Automator app can do for you.

Automator is an incredibly useful and powerful app that’s been installed into every Mac unit since OS X 10.4 (Tiger), which has been around since 2007. If you own any type of Mac, chances are that you have this app installed somewhere on your device.

Yet despite its capabilities, Automator continues to be severely overlooked and under-appreciated. So what’s the big deal about this app anyway? What does it do?

You can pretty much guess what Automator does for you—it automates tasks. But the amazing thing about it is that it doesn’t require a previous knowledge in programming. While the name Automator sounds highly technical and intimidating, setting up automated tasks with the app are as easy as dragging and dropping commands into an application window.

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Automate decluttering and organizing tasks

One of the most exciting things about using Automator? Decluttering and organizing your files don’t have to be as tedious as you’ve always known them to be. You can simply create an automatic script for each task, then watch as the app does all the work for you.

 Imagine thousands of files decluttered and organized in a single click, in the blink of an eye.

Sound too good to be true? Try it out for yourself! Below are some tasks you can execute with Automator, which you might find helpful. See which ones strike your fancy, then learn how to do them by clicking the corresponding links below:

While the name Automator sounds highly technical and intimidating, setting up automated tasks with the app are as easy as dragging and dropping commands into an application window.

Renaming several files all at once

Renaming hundred and thousands of files manually can be infuriatingly mind-numbing and time-consuming, so why not make your expensive Mac do the hard work?

Instructions:

  1. Find the Automator app. You can do this by looking through your Applications folder or using your Mac’s search function.
  2. Open the Automator app and click on the Workflow icon.
  3. Click the Actions button on the upper left of the app window, if it isn’t already selected. 
  4. In the first pane, select Library. Under the Library dropdown, select Files & Folders.
  5. In the second pane, select the Get Specified Finder Items* action, then drag-and-drop it to the third pane. If a pop-up appears make sure to click the Don’t Add button.
    • In the Get Specified Finder Items window, Add the files you want to rename.
  6. In the second pane, select the Rename Finder Items action, then drag-and-drop it to the third pane under Get Specified Finder Items.
    • In the Rename Finder Items window, select any of the following actions:
      • Replace Text
      • Make Sequential
      • Add Text
      • Add Date or Time
    • Fill out each field as desired
  7. Drag-and-drop additional Rename Finder Items actions, if you want to do more actions (such as adding date or time after having replaced text).
  8. Run the workflow by clicking the button on the upper right of the app window.
  9. You can Save your workflow by selecting File > Save in the app’s task bar.

Move specified files to a different folder

No need to search for files and manually move them from one place to another.

  1. Find the Automator app. You can do this by looking through your Applications folder or using your Mac’s search function.
  2. Open the Automator app and click on the Workflow icon.
  3. Click the Actions button on the upper left of the app window, if it isn’t already selected.
  4. In the first pane, select Library. Under the Library dropdown, select Files & Folders.
  5. In the second pane, double click the Get Specified Finder Items action.
    • In the Get Specified Finder Items window, Add the files you want to move.
  6. In the second pane, double click the Move Finder Items action.
    • In the Move Finder Items window, select the folder where you want to move the items.
    • Check the Replace Existing Files check box, if desired.
  7. Run the workflow by clicking the button on the upper right of the app window.
  8. You can Save your workflow by selecting File > Save in the app’s task bar.

Move specified files to the Trash

Browsing your folders one by one to find files worth chucking is now a thing of the past.

  1. Find the Automator app. You can do this by looking through your Applications folder or using your Mac’s search function.
  2. Open the Automator app and click on the Workflow icon.
  3. Click the Actions button on the upper left of the app window, if it isn’t already selected.
  4. In the first pane, select Library. Under the Library dropdown, select Files & Folders.
  5. In the second pane, select the Get Specified Finder Items action, then drag-and-drop it to the third pane.
    • In the Get Specified Finder Items window, Add the files you want to move.
  6. In the second pane, double click the Move Finder Items to Trash action.
  7. Run the workflow by clicking the button on the upper right of the app window.
  8. You can Save your workflow by selecting File > Save in the app’s task bar.

Crop and/or resize several photos or image files

Need to print photos for an album or photo book? Don’t put yourself through the torture in editing them one by one.

  1. Find the Automator app. You can do this by looking through your Applications folder or using your Mac’s search function.
  2. Open the Automator app and click on the Workflow icon.
  3. Click the Actions button on the upper left of the app window, if it isn’t already selected.
  4. In the first pane, select Library. Under the Library dropdown, select Files & Folders.
  5. In the second pane, double click the Get Specified Finder Items action.
    • In the Get Specified Finder Items window, Add the image files you want to crop or resize.
  6. In the first pane under the Library dropdown, select Photos.
  7. In the second pane, double click the Crop Images or Scale Images action.
    • If you chose Crop Image, fill in the fields as desired. You can also choose to resize your images before cropping them, if you choose to crop the image according To Dimensions instead of By Percentages.
    • If you chose Scale Images, fill in the fields as desired.
  8. Run the workflow by clicking the button on the upper right of the app window.
  9. You can Save your workflow by selecting File > Save in the app’s task bar.

Delete specified Calendar items 

Even your calendar deserves to be decluttered. If you’re tired of looking through each month for certain items to delete, speed up the process with automation.

  1. Find the Automator app. You can do this by looking through your Applications folder or using your Mac’s search function.
  2. Open the Automator app and click on the Workflow icon.
  3. Click the Actions button on the upper left of the app window, if it isn’t already selected.
  4. In the first pane, select Library. Under the Library dropdown, select Calendar.
  5. In the second pane, double click the Get Specified Calendar Items action.  Fill in the fields as desired. You may double click the Find Calendar Items instead, if you’re looking for events that fulfill a particular criteria.
    • If you chose Get Specified Calendar Items window, Add the files you want to move.
    • If you chose Find Calendar Items, fill in the fields as desired.
  6. Once more in the second pane, double click the Delete Calendar Items action.
    • In the Delete Calendar Items window, fill in the fields as desired.
  7. Run the workflow by clicking the button on the upper right of the app window.
  8. You can Save your workflow by selecting File > Save in the app’s task bar.

Discover other workflows

And those are just some of the many commands you can run on Automator. Feel free to experiment by using different actions. Then you can discover what other ways you can make your current workflow even more efficient and productive.

Do you know of any Windows programs that does what Mac’s Automator can? How about other operating systems? Let us know in the comments below, and we might just write an article about it in the near future!

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Patricia Tancongco

Trisha is an organizing consultant and graphic designer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. In her spare time, she writes about decluttering and organizing on the Aliwalas blog.