How to Make Apps (automator)

In this Instructable i'll show how to make your own apps using automator. If you like this please follow me or vote.

Step 1: Materials

You'll need

Automator (comes with every mac)

A idea for an app

Preview (also comes with every mac)

Photoshop or Gimp, any photo editor/creator (Optional (Recommended))

Finder

Step 2: Automator

Go ahead and open automator and choose Custom template.

This is where you will make the body of your app.

Step 3: Drag Actions

Next you need to drag actions to the script. This is where there's endless possibilities. In this tutorial i'm just going to show you a app that opens the instructables homepage.

Step 4: Test Run

Once all actions are down press the run button. this will run the script doing whatever the actions tell it to do in this case it opens instructables.

Step 5: Save

Next save you script any where you want MAKE SURE IT IS IN APPLICATION FORMAT. If you don't want to change the picture then you're done.

Step 6: Change Icon

This is the most challenging step you don't have to do this if you don't want to.

1. Go to your app

2. Right click and click show contents

3. go to contents / Resouces / AutomatorApplet.icns

4. Delete AutomatorApplet.icns KEEP THIS WINDOW OPEN

5. Get a picture or make one using Gimp, Photoshop etc. (I used the instructables robot)

6. Open your picture using preview

7. Do some Instant Alpha to remove the background

8.The picture baground should now be transparent.

9. Right Click your picture and click Get info

10. Where it says Name & Extension Write "AutomatorApplet.icns"

11. Ignore the warning and click use .icns

12. drag/copy this to the folder we had opened (you app /contents / Resouces /

13. close every thing and go to your app

14. the icon should have changed from the automator icon to the application icon if you did the las steps right

15. go back and open your picture with preview

16. Press command + a

17. Press command + c

18. go to your app

19. right click your app and choose get info

20. Right on top ther should be your apps name and a little thumbnail picture

21. click this thumbnail picture it should get blue around the edges

22. press command + v

23. Done now your app icon should have changed to the picture you used.

24. If anything goes wrong just go back and review these steps

Step 7: Done

Well done ! give yourself a pet in the back. you just made your own app!

If any troubleshooting needed please comment below and I will try my best to help solve your needs.

Comments

[coolaj86]

When I copy the My App.app to another computer, it now has the default App icon again instead of the custom icon. Is there another step to get the icon to save to the .app rather than to .DS_Store(?) or whatever makes it just affect me?

[Luigi Pizzolito]

I don't know how to store the icon in the app not id .DS_Store, but there should be a file inside the app called "Icon" (However finder hides it).

I guess that when you are going to copy it to another computer you should try zipping it with the icon photo. Then when you open it in the other computer you can change the icon again.

Sorry for taking so long to answer.

Cheers!

[stealthy_sparky]

I love OSX

[NTT]

Do you know of a free windows based programme that will do the same?

[Luigi Pizzolito]

Not really like Automator but I used Visual Basic Scripts before, they are pretty easy to understand and quick to make. I might make an instructable about it. If your are gonna post any app/program or profit out of it I recommend JDK (Java Development Kit) or Python.

[DCengineer]

Try AutoIt... it has some very similar features to AppleScript. Even then, I would recommend learning something more generic and powerful, such as Python on top or BASH. It all depends on what you want to do.

http://www.autoitscript.com/site/

Here is a short list of common programming languages and good uses for them:

- BASH: file system management, various system tools (ported to Windows via the Cygwin project)

- Python (2 or 3): rapid development, network communication/server management, text parsing

- Perl: text parsing, servers

- C: long-term development, low-level programming

- C++: long-term development, low and high-level, extends the functionality of C

- Objective-C: used almost exclusively on Apple devices, but will work on any system. Objective-C is a C library that provides some of the features of C++ as a library in C. That being said, the added functionality will slow down the program and C++ provides many language extensions that simply cannot be implemented in C.

- JavaScript: web programming, although it can be used in many modern web browsers as a console application

NOTE: None of these are used for programming the GUI directly in the way that AppleScript and AutoIt do, but they are all far more powerful and versatile.

[Flamp1x]

Hmmm.. interesting!