Since i switched to Mac i´ve been amazed how clean and powerful OS X is and how easy it is to someone with very little programming knowledge, pretty much like myself, to be able to customize and create powerful little applications and tweaks to make the OS work the way you would like it to work.

In this post i´m going to talk about “Services” and how i easily created one service that simplified my work flow regarding emailing pdf files. I work a lot with pdf files and i often have to email those pdf files to friends and colleagues. By creating a convenient and contextual service i can with a couple of clicks auto create an email with the pdf enclosed as an attachment.

Services are not new (they are to me!) in Snow Leopard but they have been completely reinvented. You can find out and learn more about services at http://www.macosxautomation.com/ They have tutorials and resources that will help you to get to grips with this powerful automation tool.

Here´s the how to:

• Go to the applications folder and launch Automator (screenshot)
• Then click the Service icon to create a new service from a template (screenshot)
• In the “Services receives selected” box choose “PDF files” (screenshot)
• Then look in the Actions Library select “Mail”, then select and drag to the right pane “New Mail Message” (screenshot)
• Finally go to the file menu and select Save As “Email Pdf” to save your new service.
• You are done and good to go.

Now in any finder window you can select a pdf file and in the services menu there will be an associated service to create a new email with the selected pdf file as an attachment (screenshot).

Easy peasy. Go ahead, create your own services to make your work flow simpler and don´t forget to share them with me. Have fun!