Speed up Automator workflow

automationautomator

I've recorded some actions and made an Automator workflow out of it. It's basically some clicks, selecting something in drop-down menues and quitting the app. I run the workflow at 10x speed, but it's still fairly slow. Is there a way to speed it up beyond 10x? It can also run in the background, invisibly, I don't need to see the steps. I don't know if it's possible.

Best Answer

Try this alternative approach in Automator. Be sure to back up any PDFs before applying this workflow – the originals will be overwritten.

In Automator.app, create a new workflow and add the following actions:

  1. Ask for Finder Items, with Allow Multiple Selection
  2. Apply Quartz Filter to PDF Documents, selecting the Reduce File Size option Compress PDF workflow

When run this workflow will let you select multiple PDFs and then overwrite those files with reduced file size versions. It performs the equivalent steps as the original workflow, but is faster than scripting Preview.app.

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