Sometimes an Automator script that I am testing won't ever stop and I have to force reboot the computer as it won't allow me to take control of the cursor. I would hope that there is a key command for this but if so, I can't find it. thanks for the advice in advance.
Unless Automator will respond to the control+\ keyboard shortcut, you may need to kill it external to the running process. This can be done with the following AppleScript, or from the Terminal.
use scripting additions
tell application "Automator" to if it is running then quit
return
You may need to substitute "Automator Runner" for "Automator".
From the Terminal, this should work too, where you replace <automator application name> with the saved application name, without angle brackets, on (e.g. sample.app your Desktop:
pkill -9 -ix automator
pkill -9 -ix <automator application name>
How can I abort an Automator script