Merging multiple pdf’s into one with Automator

Eystein — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:33:09 +0000

The other day I was producing a whole lot of pdf’s hitting print as pdf for each page of my Gmail. They off course ended up as a big bunch of separate pdf’s, although having them as one file made more sense.

I don’t have Adobe Acrobat, and don’t want to fill up my hard-drive with something which amounts to bloatware to me. So I fired up Automator. Automator is a handy little app which will make workflows for you by simple drag’n drops. Like making an AppleScript without any coding. It can do a lot of cool stuff, and usually if you think “Wouldn’t it be great if..” then Automator might be the answer for you.

In this case it’s quite simple. You’ll find Automator in your Applications folder. Open it. At first it will ask you to “Select a starting point to open a new workflow”. Choose the “Files & Folders”, and select “Ask for files & folders when my workflow runs” from the second dropdown menu. You want to be able to re-use the workflow later. Now click choose.

Now here’s one I made previously. As you see it has an iTunes-like interface. From the left-most column there’s a library of typical osX apps and files. Selecting one of these will show the actions which Automator has ready for you. Choose the one that suits you, double-click or drag’n drop it into the main well to the right. This is what I did to make my very basic pdf merger:

Finder: Ask for Finder items. Check Allow Multiple Selection
PDF: Combine PDF pages
PDF: Rename PDF Document.
Finder: Move finder items. I like new files to show up on my Desktop for easy renaming and management.
Finder: Open Finder items with Preview. Finally show your newly merged pdf to check that it’s all good.

I couldn’t find a way for it to open query box letting me write my own custom new file-name during the workflow, so for now I’m stuck with renaming the file after creation. Please let me and other know in the comments if you know of a way.

And here’s the screengrab you’ve been waiting for. Click it to see the full size version on flickr. I promise it’s easier to read.

last.fm update fixes annoying ‘bug’

Eystein — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:15:42 +0000

I’m using last.fm fairly much, and like having the little last.fm app running in the background, which means the only visible sign of it on my desktop is tucked away in the menu bar.

But somewhere along the way an update forced me to having the audioscrobbler icon down in my dock. If you’re anal like me about what belongs and doesn’t belong in the dock you’d find this extremely annoying. I tried Dock Dodger, but it failed miserably. Probably something wrong with me. So I avoided using it, and/or tried to avoid getting annoyed about it while waiting for a new update which would hopefully bring the option to choose away showing the icon in the dock. And my patience worked! As you see from the screenshot under, the little checkbox is back and ready to be unchecked. Joy and bliss.

Interestingly this whole on/off thing with Last.fm has made me increase my use of last.fm, so perhaps the whole thing was a diabolical plan in order to increase traffic?

That Norwegian Guy » osx

Merging multiple pdf’s into one with Automator

last.fm update fixes annoying ‘bug’