Applescripts to help you work better between Mail and iCal

If you're like me and you have your reasons for not using Entourage, but you still appreciate its interoperability between email messages and todo's, I've found a few Applescripts you might be interested in.

First up is Mail2iCalToDo. Once a message in Mail is selected, invoking this script will simply take the message's sender and subject and create a todo in iCal. If you'd like to chose a default calendar for these todo's to be created in, run the script yourself by double-clicking it, without a Mail message selected, and you'll be prompted to chose a calendar.

Next is Fuhgeddaboutit, which builds on Mail2iCalToDo's capabilities by presenting a dialog through the todo creation process allowing you to chose a calendar, set a due date and append an event summary with each todo you'll create from a selected Mail message.

Last but not least is a set of Labels scripts. There is a separate script in this pack for each label color Mail can assign to a message (including one for no color), so these effectively allow you to assign colored labels to Mail messages on the fly.

I'd like to also mention Mail2iCal, from the same author of Mail2iCalToDo. Mail2iCal creates an event (not a todo), but I can't get it to work under 10.4.2. The script winds up trying to start Classic, which I don't even have installed. If there are any Applescript gurus out there who could help clear this up, I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.

Nevertheless, these scripts, combined with some kind of an application launcher utility such as Quicksilver, will let you get more done in less time, adding a nice boost to your productivity. Just don't tell your boss.

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If you're like me and you have your reasons for not using Entourage, but you still appreciate its interoperability between email messages...

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Shawn Workman

I am having both scripts trying to launch classic as well. Would it be possible to get the source so I can do as you have mentioned?

December 26 2005 at 5:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Georg Klein

David, I am sorry to hear that your email bounced. I am the author of Mail2iCal(ToDo) and I know of the problem. Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix it, since I can't reproduce it on my computer. The script works fine with me. However, there is a workaround. If you're interested, I'll send you the source code. Just open it in ScriptEditor and save it as an application. Afterwards, It should work without Classic.

December 07 2005 at 5:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Carlos Alberto Santos

Thanks for the hints, specially for the label scripts. This was a feature I missed a lot at Apple Mail.

October 20 2005 at 11:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David Chartier

Tim Gaden: yea I am. This is really strange. Just to feed the "no other options" paranoia, I've tried downloading it from three separate sources too: Versiontracker, MacUpdate and the author's actual site. All of them warrant the same result on both my Powerbook G4 and my iMac G5, both running the latest 10.4.2 with all the latest updates. I tried writing the author for support but my email bounced :(

October 19 2005 at 11:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tim Gaden

Hmmm.... Odd that Mail2iCal is not working for you. Mail2iCal 1.3 works fine for me. Are you using the latest version of the script?

October 19 2005 at 7:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott Gardner

I use Mail Tags and Mail Act-On to manage email-based follow up. I created an "action" smart mailbox with the criteria: Message is flagged (Mail Tags flags the email when you set a follow up date) & Mail Tag due date is within 1 day. Then, I use Mail Act-On with Rules to create a series of quick follow up hot keys (e.g., ctrl+7 = set follow up to 7 days from now and move the email to a specified holding area folder; I created a folder called "temp" to keep my action emails in). It sounds complicated, but it's not. Works like a charm, and allows me to quickly work through email-based follow up, forwarding/replying etc. without redundant handling.

October 19 2005 at 6:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

systemsboy

Regarding color mail labels: I don't know if folks are aware of this, but you can also color mail messages by simply selecing the message(s) in question, bringing up the color palatte (command-shift-c), and choosing a color. This is nice because you have an infinite number of colors to choose from and don't need to add anything. It's built-in!

October 19 2005 at 6:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply