Use Screensaver to leave an away message with a keyboard shortcut

I am a focal point at work for various issues so I get lots of visitors to my desk who want to ask questions.  If I have to leave my desk, it is helpful to leave a note so people can find me if they really need me at that moment.

I have used the Computer Name screensaver on my Mac with a custom message, but going to System Preferences -> ScreenSaver -> Options... to change the text was always a bit of a psychological burden, so I started looking into a way to change that text programmatically.

After some internet research, I was able to develop an Automator service to prompt for a message and then start the screensaver using that message.  Here is the image of the automator service.



I saved my service as StartScreensaver.  Then I opened System Preferences, went to Keyboard, and then Shortcuts to add a keyboard shortcut that will launch my service.  I chose Command-shift-8, but you can pick whatever you want.

Now I just hit Command-Shift-8, type in my new message if I don't want to reuse the last one, and press enter to launch the screensaver with my custom message.

Observant readers may wonder about my applescript and why I set the_message to "no luck" before calling the dialog box.  That was just a debugging step so I could tell if the defaults read command was working and if the dialog box was working properly.

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