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It seems like it should be possible to create a reminder in ical from an email message (reproducing the "todo" functionality lost in the lion upgrade). I can manually create a reminder, then drag an email onto it, creating a link in the url field. I've tried creating a service to do this using automator, but I don't really know enough to pull it off. Any pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Macbook, Mac OS X (10.4.10)
Can I answer my own question?
Here's an applescript that creates a reminder from an email, and inserts a url link to the email in the reminder. It inserts the body of the email into the "note" section of the reminder.
I've added this as a service to mail.app. I have to have some text selected in the body of the email in order to have the service available. Not sure why this should be. (I created the service to receive no input).
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Mail"
set theSelection to selection
set theMessage to item 1 of theSelection
set theurl to "message://%3c" & theMessage's message id & "%3e"
set thedes to theMessage's content
set input to theMessage's subject
end tell
tell application "iCal"
tell calendar "YOUR CALENDAR HERE"
make new todo at end with properties {url:theurl, summary:input, description:thedes}
end tell
end tell
return input
end run
Can I answer my own question?
Here's an applescript that creates a reminder from an email, and inserts a url link to the email in the reminder. It inserts the body of the email into the "note" section of the reminder.
I've added this as a service to mail.app. I have to have some text selected in the body of the email in order to have the service available. Not sure why this should be. (I created the service to receive no input).
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Mail"
set theSelection to selection
set theMessage to item 1 of theSelection
set theurl to "message://%3c" & theMessage's message id & "%3e"
set thedes to theMessage's content
set input to theMessage's subject
end tell
tell application "iCal"
tell calendar "YOUR CALENDAR HERE"
make new todo at end with properties {url:theurl, summary:input, description:thedes}
end tell
end tell
return input
end run
Hi Chuck,
I'm really new to automator & apple scripts. But this is exactly what I have been looking for - a way to automatically fill out the url field in Lion's iCal reminder with the email header so I can open up the specific email from the ical reminder. Can you please let me know how you set up this script so when you select text in Mail & "control click", a window shows up with an option to create the reminder in iCal? Thanks.
Automator has the ability to run applescripts. Open automator, tell it you want to make a new "service", from the most used file of actions pick "run applescript". Paste my code into the script shell that automator creates.
Up at the top select "no input" for "service receives selected..."
Save with your favorite name.
In theory that shoudl make the service available anytime, but that hasn't worked for me. I need to have some text selected in the message to have the service appear in the menue. You can assign a keystroke to this new service in the keyboard system preference. I'm not sure how to add this service to the contextual menu that appears when you control click, but it should be possible.
Hope that helps.
-Chuck
Chuck - thanks. Was able to get this working. I have a calendar called "work", so used that for "your calendar here". Reminder shows up in iCal just like you describe, except get this error when iCal tries synching with the iCal service, & the reminder does not synch to icloud. Any ideas?
https://p02-caldav.icloud.com:443/[my ical ID]/principal/ is not a location that supports this request.
Gives me 2 options: Go offline, or Revert to Server.
Not sure if this is the issue, but I have a separate calendar for reminders. In preferences>general you can see that iCal maintains calendars and reminders lists. You want to add reminders to an icloud reminders list.
Chuck - worked out perfect ! Thanks so much from the prompt posts. This is really going to help me get work organized in Lion. A lot of other folks who upgraded to Lion are struggling without the todo functions of Snowleopard. I'll direct them to your solution. Cheers.
Hi Chuck. Thanks for this tool! I did what you mentioned above but am getting an error:
Syntax Error:
Can't get item 1 of {}
in icloud.com account, I do have a calendar called Reminders. Also, in ical.
Any ideas?
I am not sure but it sounds like you may not have a message selected. You have to have a message selected and some text selected in the message... But I'm not an expert.
I followed Mihircon's advise and managed to get the email r-click services working. I don't need to select text, but i do need to have my mouse over the body of the email to get the services menu.
Is it possible to open the reminder automatically in order to specify alarms, due dates etc?
If not I think I shall need to buy Mailhub.
thanks,
Phil
Chuck, great stuff and thanks. I am wondering how you may solve the issue with creating iCal Reminders from the new "Copy Note Link" functionality in Evernote released last week. This allows for Notes in Evernote to become url's that can be used in any application.
Here's what I think most are looking to do:
I know you can do this from the above script... no doubt.
Thoughts? Thanks so much!
Dean
I think the key would be getting a hold of the applescript dictionary for Evernote. There is probably a comprable way of creating a service to make calendar reminders in Evernote to the script I made for Mail. You need to know how to refer to the parts of an Evernote note.
You should be able to modify the script to tell iCal to open the reminder that was just created. I'm not enough of a scripter to know how to do this offhand-- but looking at the iCal dictionary in applescript, or for iCal scripts on the web should give you enough to go on.
Brilliant! Thank you!
I had a "Cannot modify..." issue with my Exchange 2007 Calendar. It turns out that even thoguh the name of the calendar was "Calendar" on my system there was another "hidden" calendar called Tasks that the script had to be set to.
A couple of things I noticed in getting this set up:
1. If you have calendars and reminder lists with the same names, it can be messy. Basically, iCal gets confused because it deals with calendars not on the basis of the text names we see, but on the basis of unique identifiers. One way to fix it is to rename your preferred reminders list so that it differs slightly from the calendar you have. This is the path (of least resistance) that I chose. Alternatively, you could run a few AppleScripts to interrogate your iCal database to work out the unique id that applies to your preferred reminders list and refer to that in the Applescript instead of the reminders list name.
2. If you want the focus to shift immediately to your newly created iCal reminder, simply add the word "activate" (no double quotes) after the second "end tell" line in the script (but before the third "end tell" line). This will make your Mac focus on iCal when the reminder is created.
This basic script can be extended significantly. I've stopped the script from populating the "notes" field of each reminder with the text of the email because that's what the link is for! I'll probably add a default priority level and a default alarm later on.
Thanks to all for their contributions - restoration of a most worthwhile feature.
I think we're a little off topic, but I've pulled together what you're wanting.
To use, add the following to an Applescript block in a new service - created in the same manner as Chuck describes above:
on run {input, parameters}
set theLink to the clipboard
tell application "iCal"
tell calendar "Mundanities"
makenewtodoat end with properties {url:theLink ,summary:"New To Do"}
end tell
activate
end tell
return input
end run
Save the service and assign a keyboard shortcut to that service using the Services Preferences window. Open Evernote and Copy a Note Link, then press the keyboard shortcut.
If you don't like the focus of the window changing to iCal when you press the keyboard shortcut, comment out the link "activate" by putting a hash (#) in front of it and saving the Automator Service.
I hope that helps someone.
automator for reminders from mail
