automator recording problem

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Level 1

16 points

automator recording problem

I posted this on the snow leopard forum last month but got no replies. I figured the mountain lion forum might get more hits and I'm having the same problem with it as with snow leopard, so here goes:

I want to automate the specification of startup disks as I tend to frequently swap between a few systems. I fired up automator, hit the record button and proceeded to select the system preferences pane from the apple menu, selected startup disk pane and then clicked one of the disks. Automator listed my steps and it looked fine. However, when I play the script, instead of clicking once on the system preferences menu item it clicks twice on the app store menu item, resulting in an error. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong, so I'd appreciate some help. Thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1), waiting 4 10.8 to catch up to 10.6

Posted on Sep 14, 2012 7:59 PM

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Answer 1

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mns579

Level 4

1,170 points

Sep 16, 2012 10:06 AM in response to mgeller47

I see what you mean (in Snow Leopard). Even though Automator appears to show the right actions, when the workflow runs, the cursor "jumps" up one line in the Apple menu, from System Preferences to the App Store. Weird, but Watch Me Do is often quirky. (And remember that the App Store was inserted into Snow Leopard in one of the 10.6 incremental updates. No surprise that that the insertion isn't perfect.)

There's a workaround: Avoid the Apple menu. Make the first action in your workflow Launch Application and set it to System Preferences. Then put together the Watch Me Do action to choose Startup Disk and select the disk you want.

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Answer 2

mgeller47 Author

Level 1

16 points

Sep 16, 2012 4:57 PM in response to mns579

Thanks! Simple and effective.

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