Re: templates

[Allen Watson]

Title: Re: templates

on 10/30/2000 5:33 PM, Bryan Harris at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> Here's a script that should do the trick.  You can drop any message in the
> TEMPLATES folder and it'll work.  (I'm sure someone more experienced than I
> can figure out how to choose messages from a list directly using their
> subjects rather than the search-back-through-them method I resorted to here.
> No noticeable lag, but still not a method I'm proud of using...)
>
> I don't have Entourage (still too pricey for me), so I can't try this out,
> but I hear there aren't any compatibility problems, so it should work fine.
>
> Sorry, can't help you with moving permanent folders.  Changing icons might
> be possible using ResEdit, but you're treading thin ice there if you've
> never done it before.
>
> - Bryan
>
Bryan, I took a quick shot at improving your script for you. The method you used to match the list of subject to the list of messages was not bad. The method I give may seem more complicated but is actually slightly faster because it uses the internal “text items” routines instead of a repeat loop. It isn’t original with me; I learned it on the AppleScript list. Also, I replaced your loop to get the subjects with a single line. Functionally, this version does exactly what yours did, just maybe marginally faster. Probably not enough to make any difference unless you had a huge list of templates!

In a message to follow I will post a script that will open a message from a list of template TEXT files.
>
> ****************************************************************************
> Copy the following script into a Script Editor window,
> then save into your Script Menu Items folder as a compiled script.
> ****************************************************************************


on itemOffset(theString, theList)
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {return}
    -- coerce theList to a return delimited and wrapped string
    set ls to return & theList & return
    try
        -- find the (return-wrapped) search string in the list string
        -- and count the text items up to that point
        set theIndex to (count text items 1 thru character ¬
            (offset of (return & theString & return) in ls) of ls) - 1
    on error
        -- the search string is not in the list string
        set theIndex to 0
    end try
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
    return theIndex
end itemOffset

-- Open Template
-- script by Bryan Harris, [EMAIL PROTECTED], 30 October 2000
-- Slight mods by Allen Watson, [EMAIL PROTECTED], 10/30/2000

-- This script allows the user to select a template
-- from the "TEMPLATE" folder (at the root folder level).


tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
    
    activate
    
    with timeout of 600 seconds
        
        try
            set theMsgs to (every message of folder "TEMPLATES")
        on error
            display dialog "Can't find a \"TEMPLATES\" folder.  This script requires that there be a folder named \"TEMPLATES\" at the root folder level with messages in it to be used as templates." with icon stop
            return
        end try
        
        set theCount to count of theMsgs
        
        if theCount is 0 then
            display dialog "There are no templates in the \"TEMPLATES\" folder.  Please drag at least one message to that folder to use this script." with icon stop
            return
        end if
        
        set theSubs to subject of every message of folder "TEMPLATES"
        (*
       set theSubs to {}
       
       repeat with theMsg in theMsgs
           set theSubs to theSubs & (subject of theMsg as string)
       end repeat
*)
        set theTemp to (choose from list theSubs with prompt "Select a template:" without multiple selections allowed and empty selection allowed) as string
        -- Use subroutine to find offset of subject in subject list.
        -- This assumes there are no duplicate subjects and will always find the
        -- first match.
        (*
       set iFound to false
       set i to 0
       repeat until iFound
           set i to i + 1
           if i > theCount then
                display dialog "Script error 1.  Contact Bryan Harris ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) to report this." with icon stop
               return
            end if
            if (item i of theSubs) is theTemp then set iFound to true
       end repeat
*)
        set i to my itemOffset(theTemp as string, theSubs)
        
        set theSubj to (subject of item i of theMsgs)
        set theCont to (content of item i of theMsgs)
        
        make new draft window with properties {subject:theSubj, content:theCont}
        
    end timeout
    
end tell


--
Peace,
Allen Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> XNS name: =Allen Watson
A Mac family since 1984
My web page: <http://home.earthlink.net/~allenwatson/>