We are all human . And as humans , we sometimes focalise far too much on today and think very little about tomorrow . When it fall to your Mac ’s work environment , that kind of intellection can lead to data loss and general discombobulation . But this calendar month ’s Automator work flow can serve by mechanically archive your calendar consequence and contacts at the end of each month .
Back up your contacts
The first task we want to take on is creating an archive of all the contacts in Address Book . Now that we have iCloud , it ’s possible to break up these contacts across devices and the Web . In the cognitive process , contacts can become corrupted or spawn duplicates . For this rationality , it ’s a good idea to file away them every so often . you may do this manually by launching Address Book and choosing File - > exportation - > Address Book Archive . Of course , you have to think of to do that . With Automator , no memory is required .
Launch Automator ( in /Applications ) and from the work flow templet that appears , select iCal Alarm and click Choose . choose the Contacts entry in the Library pane and , from the Actions pane , retarding force Find Address Book Items to the workflow surface area . From the Find protrude - up menu choose grouping and in the area below configure the condition to readName is Not 1111111.(Assuming you do n’t have a impinging with this name , we enroll this nonsense strand so that the activity will regain all of your contacts . ) The action ’s name will change to Find Address Book Groups .
Next , hang back Export vCards into the workflow area and configure it to readExport One vCard to Documents . As the condition suggests , this will produce a unmarried vCard text file that contains all your contacts and place it in the Documents folder within your user booklet .
This is what the completed workflow should look like.
This will be a reiterate event that we ’ll configure to happen once a month . With that in mind we ’ll ask to rename these archives each time they ’re write so that they do n’t come along as duplicate from the late month ( thus risking overwriting our previous archives ) . To do that pick out Files & Folders in the Library pane and from the Actions pane drag Rename Finder Items to the work flow area . You ’ll be prompted to bestow a Copy File action . come home Do n’t summate — you do n’t need it .
The only things you need to do in this activity is ensure that Month Day Year is take in the Format bolt down - up menu and that the Use Leading Zeros option is enabled . This will append the date to the filing cabinet ( for example , the file cabinet name might look likeFilename 02/05/2012.vcf),making it easy to identify when the archive was created . This will be a fully grown help if you need to shlep back through contact archive to find the one that best works for you . We ’ll now add a couple of more action to this workflow to take forethought of calendar event .
Create an iCal events archive
Specifically , we ’ll make a text written document that provides a summary of all the consequence on our calendar from the past month . This is handy if you unwittingly delete preceding calendar event and afterwards realise that you need a phonograph recording of your whereabouts — for a taxation audit or SEC investigation , for illustration . We ’ll tot these action onto the same work flow we ’ve been shape on .
Select Calendar in the Library window glass , opt Find iCal Items , and dredge it to the workflow pane . verify that the first condition readsFind Events Where . Below it should be configure to readDate Starting is in the Last 30 Days . This recite Automator to settle any events that have occurred in the last month .
This is what the completed workflow should look like .
We ’ll now ask Automator to make a list of these event by choosing Event Summary from the Actions Lucy in the sky with diamonds and dropping it below the Find iCal Events action . To make a textbook data file that contains that sum-up , fall into place the Text launching in the Library Zen and sweep up the New Text File action to the bottom of the workflow . In the Save As field enterMonthly Eventsand , with the Where pop - up carte , choose to save it in the Documents folder .
This is another file we ’ll need to be renamed each prison term a new version is create . So , move back to Files & Folders in the Library pane and hang back the Rename Finder Items action to the bottom of the work flow . Configure it as you did before , with leading 0 and a Month / Day / Year formatting .
Save the work flow and you ’ll be prompted to name it . Do so and click Save . iCal will open up and create a new event in the Automator calendar . ( It will create the Automator calendar if one does n’t subsist . ) Within that calendar event press Repeat and choose Every Month . Click Done and then move the event to the twenty-eighth day of the calendar month . ( There ’s a reason I chose the 28th . If you set a Monthly repeat and direct it on the 31st , only those calendar month that have 31 days will use the event , it will otherwise not happen until the next calendar month that contains 31 mean solar day . ) or else , you’re able to prefer Other from the Repeat pop - up menu and configure it so that it trip on something like the last Friday of every calendar month .
Note that a bug remains in Automator that can make iCal workflows to on the spur of the moment change to received workflow . If this happens while you ’re make this work flow , try building it again as an iCal Alarm work flow .
With this work flow in place , each month you ’ll have a bet on up archive of your impinging , which you’re able to after import into Address Book should something bad find to your existing middleman . You ’ll to boot have a text Indian file of all your calendar events from the calendar month you ’ve just lived through . Here ’s to creating a little more order in your living .
