Using Automator to name screen shots custom each time?

Question

Using Automator to name screen shots custom each time?

I'd like Automator to prompt me each time I take a new screenshot to name it, and save to my desktop. Pretty simple, but having a lot of issues.

I've followed this tutorial (the first three steps), but it isn't working. I can't save to my Desktop, it overwrites the previous screen shot image instead of saving as a new one, it uses "new screenshot" as the name instead of the name I type in, and it doesn't work outside of Automator.

I tried Skitch, but it doesn't allow me to save the images to my computer.

If anyone can post a photo of what this should look like, or has a work around, that would be sooo helpful!

This is how it looks for me now:

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Aug 23, 2022 10:09 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,196 points

Aug 27, 2022 5:19 AM in response to whalewrangler93

I just created a Folder Action that uses an AppleScript Action to rename files that are added to the folder.

Here is the AppleScript code:

on run {input, parameters}
	tell application "Finder"
		activate
		repeat with anItem in input
			
			if name of (anItem) begins with "Screen Shot" then
				set extension to "." & name extension of (anItem)
				display dialog "Enter new name for " & name of (anItem) & ":" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "Rename"} default button "Rename" cancel button "Cancel" with title "Rename Screen Shot" giving up after 30
				set newName to text returned of the result
				if newName is not "" then
					set name of anItem to newName & extension
				end if
				
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
end run

There is a slight delay until the dialog box appears asking for the name.

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Using Automator to name screen shots custom each time?

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