Conclusion
The main purpose of Automator is to make your life easier through automation. For many users, that means batch-processing files. Without the ability to loop through files and process them individually, batch processing has some serious limitations. The tools discussed in this article provide you with some options for getting around those limitations.
Ben Waldie, president of Automated Workflows, LLC, is the author of Automator for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Visual QuickStart Guide and the host of the Mac Automation Made Simple video podcast series. For more of Ben's Automator and AppleScript tips and articles, visit the Automated Workflows, LLC website, where you'll also find Ben's third-party Automator actions for InDesign, Quark, Photoshop, and more, as well as information about custom AppleScript and Automator development.