[ANN] AppleScripts for Entourage X

[Paul Berkowitz]

Title: [ANN] AppleScripts for Entourage X

18 scripts adapted or written for Entourage X have now been posted to
    
    AppleScript Central   <http://www.applescriptcentral.com/>

Most of them involve setting preferences, which is now done by a separate PREFS script, since the scripting additions which detected key-presses in E 2001 are not available in OS X. Now you don't have to remember which key does what.

Almost all the scripts have had small improvements : see below.

There are three new scripts in there too.

See the next announcement for the long-awaited (?) Sync X to Palm scripts.


Attach vCard X
Delete from Server X [NEW]
Delete Junk Folder X
Delete Imported Duplicates X
Delete Junk Folder X
Edit & Resend X
Group Sort X
Mailing List Account X
Make Contact from vcf [NEW]
Make Hyperlinks X
Open Contact Name X
Print Tasks List [v1.0.1]
Redirect Edit X
Reply Insertion Reversed X
Reply All Reversed X
Sent News Items to Folder X
Set Reply Category [NEW]
SMTP Location X
Split Recipients X

Attach vCard X

This script can attach your vCard to all outgoing messages, or to outgoing messages just from accounts which you specify. It thus provides a workaround for Entourage’s lack of an “Add vCard to signature” feature such as is provided by Outlook for Windows. Or, instead of scheduling for all messages, you can just use the keyboard shortcut or select the script in the script menu to attach a vCard to a particular message you’re sending.

New in X: You no longer need to make the vCard yourself, nor remember to update it if you alter your Me Contact in the Address Book: the script creates it and updates it on each run.

Delete from Server X

If you usually keep messages from one or more accounts on the server and want to be able to remove messages permanently from the server at the same time as you delete them from local folders, run this script from your Empty Deleted Items schedule instead of the standard Delete Mail action. This will also prevent them from downloading again, but will let you keep the rest of your messages on the server until you’re ready to remove them in the usual way.

New in X: it also deletes messages and folders from the Deleted Items folder (if you use one) of any and every IMAP account you may have.

Delete Imported Duplicates X

This script will quickly delete duplicate messages even from enormous folders such as the Inbox. The situation typically arises especially when importing Entourage 2001 or Outlook Express messages into Entourage X after using them both simultaneously for a while. All the 2001 messages are imported directly into the folders of the same name in Entourage, rather than being put into special import folders such as when you import from Eudora or another email client. While this is excellent in that 2001 or OE’s messages retain all of their Source information and some history, you can be left with many duplicates in extremely large folders.

New in X: This script is the same as the new v1.2 of Delete Imported Duplicates E for Entourage 2001. It fixes a bug that would error if you selected the first (or 101st, 201st, etc.) message in a folder, and another that would omit deleting a message under certain circumstances, where the first copy had not been replied to and the second had.

Delete Junk Folder X

Run this script whenever you want to delete the contents of your junk folder without having to select and view any message in it. It will also mark all as read so that neither junk folder nor deleted items folder will appear in bold afterwards.

New in X: If your junk folder is not a top-level local folder called "Junk" (in English), the script will ask you to locate it the first time. You can use any folder or subfolder, local or IMAP, called anything.



Duplicate Calendar Events X

Unfortunately, there is no way to duplicate an existing Calendar event from one day to another by dragging it to a day in the calendar, or copying and pasting. Nor is there a Duplicate menu item as there is for Tasks, Notes, or Messages. Here is something almost as good. You select the event in the Calendar, and run the script to make the duplicates, complete with title, location, description notes, categories, and links to everything the original was linked to plus all the other events with the same title. They will all appear in the Calendar in an instant, in the color of their category.

New in X: Reminders are now duplicated too, and the script is faster, both due to improvements in scripting in Entourage X.

Edit & Resend X

If you like to use the Resend feature of Entourage to send follow-up messages to the same recipients without having to bother entering them all – or the subject – again, this script will make it quicker and easier to do so. Select a message you have sent, in the Sent Items folder or another folder, in the message pane, and a new empty message window will open addressed to the same recipients and with the same subject. (You can change the subject or any recipient if you wish.)

New in X: The script prefixes a "Re: " to message subjects if there is not already one there.

Group Sort X

This script will sort the group entries (group members) of either a selected group in the Address Book, or one or more groups you choose from a list, or all your groups – whatever you choose – into alphabetical order by last name in one quick pass.  

Mailing List Account X

Do you find that you are constantly getting messages bounced back to you from mailing lists to which you are subscribed from a particular non-default account, because you keep forgetting to set the correct account from new mail messages and send from the default account to which the new message window always opens? This script, when run from a schedule, will put that right so that it never happens again.

New in X: Better selection methods to choose all mailing lists (always updated from new lists), all current mailing lists at the time of setting preferences, or select just some lists.

Make Contact from vcf [NEW]

If you run this script with an email message which contains a .vcf (vCard) attachment selected in a mail folder, the vCard will be added to your address Book with all its information. If you already have the sender in your Address Book, you will be informed, with options to have either version override, add both and/or open them up to compare.

This script works only in Entourage X, due to a new scripting feature added to this version.



Make Hyperlinks X
including Hyperlinked Signatures

This script makes proper hyperlinks (live underlined words in ordinary text that open linked web pages in the recipient's default web browser when clicked) in Entourage messages. You can also set up hyperlinked signatures to use on a regular basis.

New in X: works also for news messages.

Open Contact Name X

[including Groups and Companies]

Open Contact Name X is probably the most convenient way to open a contact window from anywhere within Entourage other than the Address Book: just press option-command-O for a fast way to the contact info, with four alternative ways of selecting or entering the contact very quickly, and one way where you don't have to do anything at all! It can open Group windows, and contacts with just Company (no name) too.

New in X: Because Jon's Commands (which facilitated toggling the option for Company in v E 1.4) is not available in OS X, I have set the script to always search Company.


Print Tasks List [v1.0.1]

This script prints the Entourage Tasks List in a fully-customizable Table format in Word. It also provides some extra features missing from Entourage: it can do more sophisticated sorting than Entourage with secondary and tertiary sort columns, and sorts your "No Due Date" tasks into the future, where they should be, so you can have most urgent overdue and today's tasks at the top of the list. It can display the list just as in Entourage or with various personal preferences, such as tasks of a single category, short dates, and other options.

v1.0.1 fixes two small bugs in the PREFS script which made two options inaccessible when taking the "tour" of all preferences.

Note for Entourage X: You don't need this script to print the Tasks List, since you can now print directly from Entourage, in two different formats. But this script still offers much better organization of the Tasks List, with No Due Date tasks in the future instead of the past, together with your other future tasks at the top of the list, and secondary and tertiary sorting, among other options.

Redirect Edit X

There are two scripts in this folder: Redirect Edit X and Redirect Replace X. They will allow you  to edit received messages, then redirect them – something that is impossible in standard Entourage use.

New in X: By popular request, the names of the scripts have been inverted to place them one above the other, thus easier to find.

Reply Insertion Reversed X

Reply All Reversed X

This script provides an alternate Reply format to your that set in Entourage's Reply Preferences, no matter which they may be. For those times when you wish you had the "other" setting — insertion above or below, chiefly — use the scripts' keyboard shortcuts.

The "Reply Insertion Above" script for Entourage 2001, which put insertion point and signature two lines above an "internet-style attribution line depended on Sigma's Additions to do the work. Since Sigma's, like all Classic scripting additions, is not available for OS X, that has not been possible to do for Entourage X. But these scripts will give you alternate insertion point methods to your default Entourage preference for those times when you want to reverse your usual procedure.



Sent News Items to Folder X

Entourage is not all that well equipped for dealing with news groups. One failing is that there is no way to set a folder for sent messages which you have posted. Outgoing Rules simply cannot filter messages to news groups. They all end up mixed in with your mail in the main Sent Items folder, making it difficult to find or to delete later on. This script lets you pick either a single folder for all your sent new messages, or to set up a separate folder for each newsgroup, or separate folders only for specific selected newsgroups with a default folder for the remainder.  It is run from an Outgoing Rule to move news messages to folders you have specified.     

New in X: The presentation of your folder list is better, and now includes all IMAP folders as well as local folders, as options for storing sent news messages.

Set Reply Category [NEW]

This script will set the category of a reply to the same as that of the message it is a reply to. It can run automatically on all replies from an Outgoing Rule, or just on particular messages when run from the Script menu.

SMTP Location X

SMTP Location X is an adaptation of SMTP Location E script to use in both Entourage X and in Entourage Classic in OS X. There is no Location Manager in OS X, so you have to enter your various locations once, and indicate to the script which location you're in. The script will then do the rest, as before. Even if you have advanced SMTP settings on certain accounts, such as SMTP authentication or SSL, the script will take care of everything.

New in X: I found a bug no one ever reported in E 1.5: the script would never remove Advanced Sending Options if they had been previously set and you no longer needed them. (Perhaps this never comes up.) It's fixed in SMTP Location X.



Split Recipients X

including BCC

This script will replicate messages into the number of copies needed to comply with an ISP's maximum number of recipients allowed per outgoing message. The original maximum number of recipients per message set by default is 50 recipients. You can change this number by running the PREFS script from the Entourage Script menu.

New in X: The will not error with IMAP accounts: although it can't move the original message on the server to the Sent Items folder if you have an IMAP Drafts folder, it will still mark it as sent and not error it. The maximum recipient preference is made by a separate PREFS script, which can be run even with new messages in the front window.



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Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage