ThisService: Use Scripts to Create Services

One aspect of my Mac that I often neglect is the Services menu. It isn’t that I don’t want to use the services within this menu, it’s just that I never think to. There really isn’t anything in there now that I find essential to use.

Browsing through this month’s MacLife issue, I saw that the cover story was “The 30 Best Mac Apps You’ve Never Heard Of.” Going through the list, most have been featured here on MacApper, though the one I want to focus on today, ThisService, was only mentioned in passing. ThisService is an application that lets you take scripts (whether it be written in AppleScript, Ruby, Perl etc.), and turn them into services accessible from the Services menu.

Now, in itself, this application may not seem that useful. How useful this application becomes to you really depends on the scripts you write, or the ones you find online. I know that many people would find it useful to be able to hit a keyboard shortcut in any application and have a script run instantly on whatever they are working on.

To create your service, all you need to do is give it a name, find the file that contains your script, specify the type (Acts on input, Produces output or Filter [both]), and then decide if you want to add a keyboard shortcut or not. Once you click “Create Service,” your service gets put in Library/Services, and you can instantly access it from any application.

Clicking “Pack Up Service” will give you options to zip up your service for distribution. The example I used made use of the Word Count AppleScript written by John Gruber of Daring Fireball.

Overall, I wish I knew AppleScript, or another Unix scripting language, as I am sure there are endless uses for this application. There are some services available for download on Waffle Software’s site, if you would like to take a look. This application is donationware.

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