Often times when I create image projects in Photoshop or InDesign, I import them into Aperture simply because I can manage and access image projects using the media pane in Apple's creative suite of applications like Keynote, iDVD, Pages, and iMovie.

The process to export images from Photoshop to Aperture should be quite easy, but as far as I know there's not a plug-in to do that. So I created an Automator workflow to do the process for me. This workflow runs well, but I wish it could be done behind the scene, instead of opening up Aperture each time it runs.

Creating this workflow is quite simple.

1. Open Automator 2.0 which has Aperture actions already installed.

2. Click on Photos in the Library pane on the far left.

3. Double click on the Import Photos action in the middle pane, which will cause it to appear in the workflow window of Aperture. You can also simply drag the action into the window.

4. When this action is added, it should open up Aperture. Now click on the drop down menu button next to Choose Project, and select a project folder where you want to have your photos imported into when saved in Photoshop. Or you can go into Aperture and create a project folder just for this workflow. I created one titled Photoshop Layouts.

5. Next, decide if you want to click the Import by Reference and/or the Delete the Source Images After Importing Them. I left them both unchecked.

6. At this point you can also add two more actions to the workflow. You might want to add one action titled, Set Image Rating, and another one titled Assign Keywords to Images. Both of these will of course give a specified rating and keyword to each photo you designate to have imported into Aperture.

7. You also have the option to show this workflow in progress so that you can change the project folder, rating, or keyword before the image is imported into Aperture. Just click on the Options button for each action and check the "Show this action when the workflow runs" box.

8. At this point, you can test the workflow before you save it. Simply add and drop an image file from your Finder right before the Import Photos action. Then click the Run button on the far left of the Automator menu to see if it works.

9. Next, create a folder in your Finder where you want to save your Photoshop files. If you already have such a folder created, that will do. But note, your selected folder will have an action attached to it, which means that each time a file is added to that folder, it will run the action and export the file into Aperture. So you will probably want to designate a special folder for this workflow.

10. To assign this Automator workflow to your selected folder, click File>Save As Plug-in. From the drop down button, choose Folder Action. Click on the Attached to Folder button, and choose the folder that you created for your Photoshop files. As you can see, you can also save this workflow as a Finder plug-in or AppleScript action.

11. Now go back to Photoshop and save an open image into your designated folder to see if it works.

12. If you ever want to delete or turn off this action, simply control click on your desktop, click on More at the end of the drop down menu, and select Configure Folder Actions, where you will find your saved workflow action.