William Smith posted about an article by Ben Waldie in the May issue of MacTech magazine that offers a brief introduction to writing AppleScripts for Microsoft Entourage. In the preceding issue of MacTech, there was a 150-page veritable book about transitioning from scripting Office with VBA to scripting with AppleScript. While much of that huge article is meaningful only if you have been using VBA, the chapter on Entourage by Paul Berkowitz is a superb extended introduction to AppleScript for Entourage. And, it is available online in its entirety.
If you have downloaded and used any scripts from Macscripter.net, you are probably familiar with the name of Paul Berkowitz. Paul is the master of scripting Entourage. He has written hundreds of scripts for Entourage, most notably the extremely popular shareware package, "Export-Import Entourage," which (among other things) makes it possible to transfer mail, contacts, and almost everything from Microsoft Outlook on Windows to Entourage on the Mac.
Paul's article takes you through specific examples of scripting, such as how to make and send a message with an attached document from Word, Excel, or Powerpoint; how to make a draft window, a new outgoing message, or even an incoming message; how to select messages, run scripts from rules, schedules, or menus; how to reply to a message using the reverse of your usual preference for reply style; how to send a reply using a different e-mail address; how to make a new contact, open a contact, flag a contact for follow-up (make a task); how to make a new group of contacts; how to make a calendar event or task for your to do list; and even how to export your contacts to Excel.
If you have read Waldie's article, which builds a great foundation, Paul's article will take you to the next level. Even if you have not read Waldie's article, Paul's is accessible to anyone who is motivated to learn AppleScript for Entourage.
Comments (3)
I am trying to figure out a better way to manage my email groups in Entourage that I use for business. What I'm really trying to do is figure out someway to include a "Subscribe" and "Unsubscribe" button on my Website or in the email that automatically adds a contact to a particular group. Can you help?
Dell
Hi, Dell,
To have a Subscribe and Unsubscribe button, you need to know a little web design. Really, it just takes a fancy URL. What you need is something that will send a mail message to you with a particular subject line or first line of the message that you can key off of with an Entourage rule. You don't need AppleScript at all.
Let's say you set up a rule that gets triggered if the subject is "Subscribe Dell's list". You set its action to add the sender to a particular group in your Address Book. That's the easy part, and you can test it by sending yourself a message with the appropriate subject. You can also use a rule to "Remove Sender from Group".
To generate the e-mail, set up a link on your web page with this URL:
"mailto:dell@yourisp.com?subject:Subscribe%20Dell's%20List"
You can attach the link to a button image, if you want, or just to text:
Click to subscribe
Hi,
Is it possible to add a custom menu in Entourage using applescript [or by any other means]? Is it possible to show an external screen from different application which will be invoked from some user interaction inside Entourage? You know, basically what I am trying to say is this - how far one can go with applescript to develop addin application for Entourage? For example, if you compare with Outlook 2003+ with VSTO?
And, what about the IP protection after deploying something developed with applescript for Entourage?
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.