How To View Flash Content On an Adobe-Free Mac

I, like many, have found that Flash causes stability problems on my Mac and have removed it. Since I no longer had Flash on my Mac when I encountered a site with Flash content I would copy the site’s URL, paste it into Google Chrome (which has Flash built into the application) and then open the site in Chrome.

To streamline this process I cobbled together some AppleScript, created a Service using Automator, and assigned a Function Key to run the Service. Now when I encounter a site with Flash content, I simply press F16 and the content is opened in Chrome. I chose to use the F16 Function Key but a Keyboard Shortcut (i.e., Control-Alt-C) could be used to do the same thing.

Below are the steps I used to create the Service and assign the Function Key.

Open Automator

Select “Service” as the document type and click “Choose.”

At the Service Input Screen, change the “Service receives selected” input box to “no input.”

Change the application field from “any application” to “Safari.”

Select “Utilities” from the Library and then double-click the “Run AppleScript” action.

Select and delete the default placeholder AppleScript.

Paste the following AppleScript, which is designed to copy the current Safari URL and open that URL in Chrome.

property theURL : " "

tell application "Safari"
	
	set theURL to URL of current tab of window 1

end tell

tell application “Google Chrome”
	if (count of windows) is 0 or front window is not visible then
		make new window
	else
		make new tab at end of tabs of front window
	end if
	
	set URL of active tab of window 1 to theURL

	activate

end tell

The AppleScript is designed to open Chrome if it isn’t already open. If Chrome is open, it will open the desired URL in a new tab.

Save the Service, giving it an appropriate name such as “Open Safari URL in Chrome.” Whatever you choose, note the exact name of the Service; we’ll need it in a moment to create the keyboard shortcut.

Open System Preferences and go to the “Keyboard” preference pane.

In the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, select “Services” and locate your newly created Service in the “General” category.

Double-click the space to the right of the Service name to open the Keyboard Shortcut input box.

Enter the key or key combination that you wish to assign to the Service. Once complete, make sure to check the box to the left of the Service name to enable the keyboard shortcut.

That’s it! You should now be able to use your keyboard shortcut to open websites with flash content automatically in Chrome. To test, simply open any website in Safari and then press your designated shortcut. The site should immediately open inside Chrome.

Thanks, James, for this awesome tip and walkthrough!