Script/Workflow: Select item, print, save as PDF, name sequentially, down arrow to next item

applescriptautomatorpdfprintingserial number

Yet again I have a task to do that would be great to automate. Yet after searching for examples that are even close I am nowhere.

Here is what I am trying to do:
First I Perform a search by specific year (Only needs to be done once so I can do this manually) Then I select the first record to get things set to run a loop routing. Next will be the repeated actions;

depress COMMAND + SHIFT + P to print
depress my own defined keyboard shortcut "^P" that's tied to an
automator script which then performs a "Save As PDF…"
depress right arrow to move to the end of the generic name
paste the next highest number
depress the "Save" button (Enter/Return Key press)…which puts me
back into the main window where I need to:
depress the down arrow key then go to step "1."

I can not use AppleScript because the database application is not supported and there isn't a dictionary I can open with supported AppleScript definitions.

Seems like Automator would work but really have no clue about Automator and to be honest every time I try and use it I end up spinning my wheels for days then eventually give up because I just need to get the work done.

Best Answer

I downloaded Keyboard Maestro and was able to get what I needed by writing a macro. I have a new favorite program. I kind of wish I had tried it sooner.

Related Solutions

AppleScript: Select a specific drop down menu item

As far as I can guess at your "structures", code to select a specific font might look like this:

-- insert after: click menu item "Set Font..." of menu "Edit" of menu bar 1

click pop up button of group of window "Set Font"
click menu item "[someFontName]" of menu of pop up button of group of ¬
   window "Set Font"

Depending on dialog window's "surroundings" s.th. like "group 1 of..." may be necessary.

How to remove the 10-minute delay for a scheduled Shut Down

You don't need paid apps to do this as it's very simple using Bash (the default shell in Terminal).

You can have the computer shutdown by issuing the command in Terminal

$ sudo shutdown -h now

If you try it, it will shutdown your Mac immediately.

What each part does

sudo = run as the root user
shutdown = the command to shutdown the system
-h = halts the system
now = immediately

So, if you wanted to shut the computer down 5 minutes from now, your command would be:

$ sudo shutdown -h +5

You can even schedule it for a reboot (-r instead of -h) at a particular time (11:00pm every night)

$ sudo shutdown -r -h 23:00

While that command all by itself, would do what you want, it's limited because of sudo; you'll need to enter your password when it's run. This means you'll have to be on-prem at each machine each time you want to issue the command (every day), so we need something that will run the command as root so it will be automatic.

Writing a Bash Script

The script for this is quite simple; it's a single line that calls the shutdown command:

#!/bin/bash

/sbin/shutdown -h now

Call it auto_shutdown.sh and save it to a convenient location. Make it executable by issuing the command:

$ sudo chmod +x auto_shutdown.sh

This will set the execute bit and allow the system to process it as a program. Now you have your script, you just need something to execute that script at a predetermined time.

Using `Launchd` to schedule your job

launchd is the service management framework that starts/stops/restarts processes, services, daemons, etc. To set up a job to kick off with launchd you need two items:

type of job to be run; run as the user for one user, as the user for all users, or a job run by the system as root. We want the last one.

plist (XML file) that describes the job. The key elements that you need to focus on right now are the ProgramArguments that calls the script and the CalendarInterval which specifies when the jobs should be run. For this example, call your plist user.com.autoShutdown.plist (no other reason for that naming convention other than it follows Apple's conventions.)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
 <plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.user.autoShutdown</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Path_to_Script/auto_shutdown.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <array>
    <dict>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>21</integer>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>30</integer>
    </dict>

</dict>

This plist is set to run the auto_shutdown.sh script every day at 11:30pm.

Since we want to run this as root, copy the plist to the /Library/LaunchDaemons directory.

$ sudo cp com.user.autoShutdown.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons

Finally, load the job into launchd:

$ sudo launchctl load com.user.autoShutdown.plist

That's it. Every day at 11:30, the system will automatically shutdown.

Replicate across all your machines

Copy both the script and plist to each machine and load the job into launchd. You have just set the shutdown time for all machines and it didn't require 3rd party ($$$) utilities.

You can find info on all the commands listed here by looking up their man page. Type man <command> for the command you're interested in.