Macintosh Q: Invisible files and macros

Factual Questions
1

I’d like to make some files on my Mac invisible and then set up Macros so that I can open them without having to hunt for them. Anyone have experience with this?

2

It’s easy. Just prepend a “.” to the filename to make the file invisible. I’m not sure what kind of macro you want, but you can just specify the filename to open.

3

Not in 10.5:

4

Can you use the mv command from Terminal to rename a file so that it begins with a dot?

5

Yes, the Finder won’t let you do it, but Automator will do it. I just tried it.

6

What’s Automator?

And where do I start when it comes to macros?

7

Automator is Apple’s way-cool macro generator. It’s in the Applications folder. You drag and drop functions to generate a Macro. I made a tiny macro that said “take this file, and add “.” to the front of the file name.”

Here’s some help:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304759
http://www.llamagraphics.com/resources/documentation/macintosh/ChapUsingAutomator.php

8

Thanks, Beowulff!