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June 18, 2007

tips

Simplify your Flickr uploading

Posted Jun. 18, ’07, 4:11 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | Tips

folderflickrupload.jpg

Methods of uploading images to photo-sharing site Flickr abound: iPhoto and Aperture plug-ins, the official uploader—or should I say uploadr—and many other applications. However, my tool of choice is much simpler: a single folder that sits on my desktop. Anytime I drag a photo onto that folder, I enter the photo’s title, description and tags, and it’s off to Flickr.

All of this is possible with a small Automator action written by James Pitts. After downloading and installing the action, drag it into Automator’s main pane. You’ll need to authorize it with Flickr by clicking the Authorize button (try de-authorizing from Flickr and reauthorizing again if it doesn’t work on the first try).

Next, create a folder on your desktop or anywhere else you like. You’ll probably want to give it a nice, distinctive icon (I used one from this icon set). In Automator, leave the action’s fields blank, and choose “Save as Plug-In” from the File menu. In the Save dialog box’s “Plug-In for” pop-up menu, choose “Folder Actions”, and then choose the folder you just created from the second pop-up menu.

That’s all, folks! Drag any image onto your magic folder, type in the details in the dialog box that appears, and it should upload in the background.


5 Comments

Aaron said:

Great idea! This is one of the most useful tip I've seen in a long time. Thanks for sharing.

June 19, 2007 9:02 AM
Keith Souza said:

This seems great. I'm maybe missing something being new to Automator. I followed the steps above, but can't seem to get it to go. Anything I might be missing? Sorry, like i said, I'm new at automator and still learning.

June 19, 2007 10:16 AM
Island in the Net Author Profile Page said:

Hmm...I followed the info here and on the web site but I also am not able to "Drag any image onto [my] magic folder, type in the details in the dialog box that appears".

June 19, 2007 4:31 PM
Thomas GvL Author Profile Page said:

Hmm... are you guys sure it did authorize with Flickr? Your username should be showing up in the lower part of the action. Apart from that, I can only recommend to make sure you've correctly saved the workflow as a folder action for that specific folder. Sorry :/

June 19, 2007 4:46 PM
jane said:

this might be a dumb question but do you need to have a particular operating system to use this? i bought my mac a year ago and think it's a tiger and not a leopard. the profiler doesn't have an animal name

July 29, 2007 2:00 PM

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