Mac Folder Action Scripts and Evernote

For reasons that I have yet been able to fathom the functionality levels between the Mac and Windows Evernote clients is subtly different. For example on Windows there is the very useful ability to be able to add a watched folder that when anything gets added to this it automatically gets added to Evernote. This is not an option on the Mac version. However, all is not lost using Applescript and Folder Actions Scripts it is easy to replicate this action.

I say that it is easy but that is only the case if you are au fait with the way that Mac Folder Script Action work, which I was not and to make matters worse the way they work seems to have changed between Mac OSX versions making a Google search a challenging exercise.

Anyway, here is what I did to get a watched folder for Evernote on a Mac running OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard):

1. You will need to create a new folder that you want to be “watched”. I created one called Evernote in Documents.

2. You will need to go to the following article on Thought Asylum on Evernote watched folders on OSX. Copy the script to the clipboard.

3. Open the Applescript Editor and paste the script from step 2 into the editor.

4. Compile the script

5. Choose File | Save As…from the menu

6. This is the important bit! You must save the script in the following location: /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts. I called the script Save to Evernote.

7. Now go back to the folder you created in step 1 and right click on it and select Folder Actions Setup… Ensure that Enable Folder Actions is ticked and that the Folder you want the action on is listed and ticked.

8. Click the + button under the right hand pane and a new screen with a list of scripts to attach will open. On this list you should see your newly created script.

And that’s it. I hope that someone finds that useful.

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