In this guide we’ll explain the basics of the Automator application. Automator allows you to automate tasks without knowledge of programming or scripting languages. You can record your tasks as you perform them or select them from a list. As an Example we’ll create an application that will play a video file on startup of our Mac.

Create script with automator

Lets get started! You can find Automator in the ‘Applications’ folder, open it and you’ll be welcomed by this screen:

Click ‘New Document‘, and a new window will open:

Select ‘Application‘ and click ‘Choose‘. This creates an empty workspace to which we can add ‘actions’. Because we want a video to start playing on startup, first we’ll need to tell Automator were to find our video file. We do this by searching for the “Get Specified Movies‘ action, and dragging it to the righthand side of the Automator window. Next you need to tell the ‘action’ where your video file is located by clicking ‘Add‘. After this your screen should look like this:

Ok, so far we’ve created an application that finds your video file but no further action is taken. So next we’ll tell Automator to play the selected file. This time we’ll search for ‘Play Movies‘ and drag it to the right-hand side. Your application should now look like this:

Now save your application. That’s how easy it is to create an application in Automator. There is one more step if you want to run the application on startup of your Mac. Open your Mac’s ‘System Preferences‘ and then open Users & Groups on the left-hand side select the user for whom you want the video to play on startup. On the right-hand side click ‘Login items‘ and add your Automator application by clicking the ‘+’ sign in at the bottom. Close all windows and restart your Mac to check if everything works as planned.