Let’s say you have a picture in your iPhoto library that you want to email to someone. You could launch iPhoto, select your picture, and click the send button, which in turn will make a new email with the picture attached.
As easy as that is, there is an even easier way, if you’re running OS X 10.4 (Tiger). You could make your own media browser, just like the ones found in iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, etc… using Automator. It’s simple…
- Open Automator, and click iPhoto from the list on the far left.
- From the list of actions, select Ask for Photos, and drag it to the right-hand pane.
- Under the file pull-down menu, select Save As Plug-in, and select Script Menu for the location (the script menu that displays in the menu bar) so it is accessible anywhere. (If this menu is not visible, launch the AppleScript Utility in /Applications/Applescript, and check ‘Show Script Menu in menu bar.’)
Now accessing your pictures is a snap, without ever opening iPhoto. At any time you can go to the Scripts Menu in the menu bar, and select your new iPhoto Browser. You can in turn drag those images into emails, text documents, etc…
You can also do this with songs from iTunes. Simply repeat the procedure above, but instead of selecting iPhoto in Automator, select iTunes.
Found via Mac OSX Hints