This weeks Automator tip of the week focuses on quickly and easily converting the format of your Word documents to PDF by creating a workflow and saving it as a Finder Plugin.

To create an Automator workflow that will take your selected Word documents in a Finder window and convert them to PDF add the following actions:

1. Get Selected Finder Items - This will tell the automator task to grab all the items you’ve selected in Finder
2. Copy Finder Items - This will allow you to backup the items before you perform any action on them.
3. Convert Format of Word Document - Select Portable Document Format (PDF)

Save The Workflow as a Plugin

With these three action items you have everything you need to quickly convert word documents. To make it even easier lets save Automator workflow as a Finder plugin.

1. Select File
2. Select Save as Plugin
3. Name the plugin and Select Plugin for: Finder.

Test Out The New Finder Plugin

I named the plugin Word2PDF and I’m now ready to test our new Finder plugin:

1. Open a Finder Window and navigate to a folder that contains word documents
2. Select the word documents and right click (command + click)
3. Select More, then Automator, and then Word2PDF (Or whatever you named your Finder plugin

Your computer will then automatically convert the Word files to PDF.

Related posts:

1. Automator Tip of the Week: FTP Uploads
2. Automator Tip of the Week #2: Convert Movies To iPod Format
3. Automator Tip Of The Week: Picture File Conversion
4. Automator Tip of the Week #4: Show & Hide Hidden Files in Finder
5. Automator Tip of the Week: iPhoto Library Browser