Once you know the BASIC about service , OS X ’s underused shortcut , your next head is inevitably : Where can I find more ? you’re able to impart — and even create — your own services . Here are four of the best :
1. DevonTechnologies’ WordService
you may find some third - party services if you attend around . DevonTechnologies ’ freeWordServiceis actually a package of services that allow you to do action at law on select text . This set of service is for you if you ever find that you call for to reformat text copied from an email , dispatch line disruption , alter text in ALL CAPITALS to normal case , or Capitalize Every Word In A textual matter without having to manually modify your texts .
2. DevonTechnologies’ CalcService
CalcService , also usable free from DevonTechnologies , allow calculation functions from within any software that handles services . With this set of overhaul , you could type a expression in a text document and then use one of the Service to do the calculation . Also use the services to either display the result or add it to your document ( supercede the convention , or supplement the result to the formula ) . I ’m not a math geek , but anything that can take a formula likebs(sin(sqrt(2)))sign(cos(pipi))and give me an solution ( it’s-0.987765945993if you ’re curious ) is middling nifty .
3. MacAutomation’s Finder services
TheMacAutomation websiteoffers a number of free services , including some that encode music files and others that work with Apple ’s iPhoto , Mail , Safari , Terminal , the OS decade Finder , and more . One of my favorites is Disk Item • New Disk Image with Selection , which is part of the site ’s Finder Services bundle . This service create a novel disc image file ( .dmg ) containing the selected Finder detail . If you send or archive single file in disc images , this service of process can save a fate of time . The other service included in this bundle are Disk Item • Rename Selected Items and Disk Item • Set Spotlight Comments .
4. Your own custom-made services
It ’s easy to turn your Automator workflows into services so you may access them more quickly . Just about anything you may do with OS X ’s Automator can be salvage as a service . This makes your workflows extremely well-heeled to access and purpose . Ina recent article , “ How to convert PDFs to Word ( and other formats),”I describe how to make an automator workflow to extract schoolbook from a PDF . Take this one footstep further , and you may save the work flow as a service .
Launch Automator , and , in the Choose a Type for Your Document pane , press Service , then sink in Choose . At the top of the window , in the fare following Service Receives Selected , choose PDF Files . Next , tap PDFs in the Library column of Automator , then in the 2d column , tap Extract PDF Text and drag that to the right - hired hand plane section of the Automator window .
Press Command - S to save the service , and , in the dialogue box that displays , give it a name , such as PDF to Text . tap Save .
It’s easy to turn your Automator workflows into services so you can access them more quickly.
Check to ensure it ’s working . Find a PDF filing cabinet in the Finder , decently - dawn on it , and choose the Services sub - carte du jour from the contextual menu that displays . You should see your armed service listed there . Also choose Finder - > Services , and retard to check that it shows up in the menu there . You should see it in both places .
If you ’ve follow the instruction manual above , your complete Automator window should look like this .
Notice that if you select a Indian file thatisn’ta PDF , the divine service wo n’t show up ; that ’s because you specified , in the beginning , that the service would only exploit with PDF Indian file .
If you’ve followed the instructions above, your completed Automator window should look like this.
Senior contributor Kirk McElhearn write about more than just Macs on his blogKirkville . Twitter:@mcelhearnKirk is the author ofTake Control of Scrivener 2 .
