I’ve had Tiger on my Mac since its release but still have to dig deep into some of the more remote areas of the OS and applications. Figuring that one thing I do daily is to open several web sites – currently by using bookmarks – then getting to grips with Automator might be a worthwhile exercise. If it could perform all of the site openings in the background whilst I was off reading emails then I would even be prepared to let the task happen in Safari – not my browser of choice (partly because I loathe the brushed metal look).

Automator looks fairly straightforward. I select ‘Safari’ and I get a list of pre-supplied actions. I choose Get Specified URL’s which seems to be a good start. I drag in the URL’s I want to open. Next action: Display Webpages automatically links to the first action. Save it. Run it to test it out.

Now here is the interesting bit. Safari is a browser with tabs. I have the preference set to open links in new tabs. I was expecting the Automator script to open my selected websites in tabs. Forget it. Fifteen bloody browser windows!

If anyone out there knows how to make this happen in tabs then please let me know. If not – then Automator gets filed into the ‘useless tools’ section along with Finder and Font Book!