Google Earth for Mac gets Automator actions

Saturday, November 11, 2006 (12:50 UTC)

Many applications for the Mac are controllable via the AppleScript API — including Google Earth 4. AppleScript is simple, but it's still code, which is why in OS X 10.4 you'll find Automator, an application by Apple that lets you construct scripts simply by dragging and dropping predefined "actions" into a "workflow" — no coding required at all.

Now Nyhthawk at Automator.us has built two such Automator actions from Google Earth's AppleScript library — it's the Google Earth Action Pack (GEAP v0.3, so it's beta).

The first action, Go To Location, works fine, and gives you the option of importing the current view in Google Earth, which is a big time saver. The second action, Save Screenshot, is hampered by the fact that the screenshots are saved in black and white, but that's due to a problem currently with Google Earth's AppleScript skills, not GEAP.

The obvious thing to do with these actions is to combine them with many of the default Automator actions to make presentations that include audio. Two such "workflows" are included on the download site, of Paris and Silicon Valley. I've made my own short one, of Stockholm (ZIP), and since many people don't yet own a Mac, here is a screencast of how it plays:

(This only makes sense if you have the sound turned on.)

If you have a Mac, why is this better than simply playing a series of placemarks in Google Earth? Because you can add commentary, and because you don't need to make placemarks if you simply want to show off some landscape. One limitation: Automator has no good easy way of playing prerecorded sound files, so at the moment you're stuck with a robot voice. (Via MacNews.de)

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