Anyone working in a collaborative, digital field knows that screenshots can be an essential part of daily life. Although it's much easier managing them on OS X than Windows (that's cmd+shift+3 or cmd+shift+4 for those playing along at home), if you're not careful, you can still really junk up your desktop. Luckily, there's an easy way to keep these daily snippets neat and tidy.
Here's how Apple's Automator app can help keep screenshot chaos at bay.
Open Automator.
It's in the applications folder, but you can just press CMD-Spacebar (the hotkey for spotlight) and type Automator.
Construct a workflow.
Go to File, New, and choose Workflow. (You might also be prompted to do this when you fire up Automator.) There are a variety of ways to create an action, including a macro-like recording screen, but I find it's easiest dragging presets from the left pane into the right pane and then changing the settings. Like this:
- Create a folder to receive your screen shots. I created a folder in my Dropbox to make them easier to share.
- Scroll down the middle list for "Spotlight,", and drag that action into the right pane.
- Type "screen shot" into the Search for: field.
- Find and click Files & Folders under Library in the leftmost menu.
- Drag Move Finder Items into the right pane, and select your destination from the To: menu.
- You're done. File > Save. Finishing touches.
I saved this automator script as an application and pinned it to my dock, ready to clean my desktop at a moment's notice. But there's even more you can do. For instance, even though Otto the Automator's robot icon is already excessively cool, you can change the icon to something more appropriate. Or, using Calendar reminders, you can have this script run at regular intervals, such as every Sunday night. If you typically share your screenshots immediately, you can set up workflows to upload the images to the Internet or email your team automatically and then delete them. Hell, why stop at screenshots -- you can use this script to clear the whole desktop.
Obviously, this trick doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what Automator can do. But even if you don't have much time to fiddle with AppleScript, a few minutes now with Automator can save you hours of work in the future.
