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Quicksilver: AppleScript to quickly add Entourage Tasks

Entourage - Fast Task.scpt

A hacker who wishes to remain anonymous has answered my prayers by creating a modest one-line AppleScript that lets you pipe input from Quicksilver into a new Entourage Task with zero cruft—no Category, no Project, no date, and no reminder. Perfect for fast capture any place, and something I’ve craved for over a year.

To install:

Entourage-Fast-Task

  1. Download the script, “Entourage - Fast Task.scpt
  2. Copy it to ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions/
  3. Restart Quicksilver (CTRL-CMD-Q)

To use (just one example):

  1. Invoke Quicksilver (usu. CTRL-space)
  2. Type “.” to get the variable input field
  3. Type “Test task
  4. TAB to the second pane
  5. Type until “Entourage - Fast Task” shows up
  6. Hit Return

Jump over to Entourage and you should have a nice new task sitting in your list. Note that the Quicksilver input, as ever, can come from practically anyplace; you can select text in Safari and “Send to Quicksilver” (CMD-Esc in most locations), etc.

Like I say, if you want all the “trimmings,” you should enter Tasks in Entourage as usual, but this is just terrific for capturing stuff quickly without changing modes. A minor godsend as far as I’m concerned.

(As ever with all my Quicksilver tips, I’m sure I’ve forgotten some critical element that makes this work on your end; if the Setup guide doesn’t answer your question, post a comment)

Scott Palmer's picture

Springboarding off a springboard, this...

Springboarding off a springboard, this script automatically sets a due date and a reminder of one day from now for your task in iCal. This helps me keep track, and won’t let me toss it in and forget it. I have 2 scripts, one that sets the reminder and one that doesn’t.

using terms from application “Quicksilver” on process text t tell application “iCal” set cal to (item 1 of (every calendar whose writable is true)) set newTodo to make new todo at the end of todos of cal tell newTodo set summary to t set due date to current date set myReminder to make new display alarm at the end of display alarms of newTodo tell myReminder set trigger date to ((current date) + 86400) end tell end tell end tell end process text end using terms from

 
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