Automator Virtual Input: Take control of your mouse and keyboard via automator

Originally downloaded 7/13/06. Now this is getting strong:really interesting. Of the three huge new Tiger innovations Apple unleashed on the world in May 2005 (Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator), Automator has been a real sleeper. Though my sense is that it wasn’t embraced immediately by a lot of Mac users, its growth in functionality and scope is perhaps even greater than Dashboard’s, and a few years from now we may look back and realize that Automator was the most revolutionary of the three. Here’s a shareware set of actions that takes Automator where previously only tools like iKey and QuicKeys could go: Deep into Applescript’s user interface controls to make them accessible to ordinary mortals. It’s also precisely the kind of tool you’d need if you really want Automator to take the next leap beyond simple actions that have to be build for each application individually. Here’s a generic set of actions that theoretically will let you do anything to any application… anything a mouse and keyboard can do, that is. You can be sure I’ll give this a try soon, and if it works as advertised, fork over my $25.

Version as tested: 1.0