43 Folders

Back to Work

Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

Join us via RSS, iTunes, or at 5by5.tv.

”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Best Entourage hack for getting inbox to empty

I realized I put off getting my inbox to empty a lot of times because I hated dragging messages to folders. It sounds like a small thing but I get A LOT of email, as in 100+ emails a day. All that dragging added up to a huge annoyance.

The solution...a simple applescript with an assigned shortcut key. For each of my folders: todo, toread, archive, etc, I have a script with a shortcut. Now all I have to do is with the message/s selected, hit the shortcut and boom -- instantly filed.

Here's the applescript (thanks to google's entourage groups from providing me the script). To use edit to your own settings and put into your HD/users/yourusername/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Entourage Script Menu Items. Save file as: nameOfFile \cA.scpt. The "\cA" part of the file name sets the shortcut to ctrl+A, you can make it whatever you want though.

NonExchange Account version:

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
	set destFolder to folder "name of folder" 
	set currMsgs to (current messages)
	move currMsgs to destFolder
end tell

Exchange version:

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
	set destFolder to folder "name of folder" of Exchange account "name of Exchange account"
	set currMsgs to (current messages)
	move currMsgs to destFolder
end tell

Hope this is useful to someone else!

-
sharon

mynameisdanno's picture

I get an error when...

I get an error when I do this:

The actual operation works fine, though - the message shows up in the remote target folder, no problems.

This is my first foray into the world of AppleScript.

The error comes up immediately when I run the script, which is strange. Our IMAP server is sluggish to respond sometimes, so I tried wrapping the script in a timeout statement. This had no effect.

You'll also notice that I took a wild guess at adapting the script for IMAP servers, which turned out to be correct.

with timeout of (15) seconds
	tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
		set destFolder to folder "FolderName" of IMAP account "IMAPAccountName"
		set currMsgs to (current messages)
		move currMsgs to destFolder
	end tell
end timeout

Any ideas? It's annoying, as the error box doesn't have focus, so I have to mouse over and dismiss the darn thing.

Thanks for the great contribution!

 
EXPLORE 43Folders THE GOOD STUFF

Popular
Today

Popular
Classics

An Oblique Strategy:
Honor thy error as a hidden intention


STAY IN THE LOOP:

Subscribe with Google Reader

Subscribe on Netvibes

Add to Technorati Favorites

Subscribe on Pageflakes

Add RSS feed

The Podcast Feed

Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »