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Long shot... Can an entry in Calendar add a new line in Numbers?

I am a photographer. I am setting up a very simple simple Job tracking spreadsheet. Column A is Job number, column B is Client, column C is Date, etc... One line per job type of thing.


When I get a job I am often not at the computer so I enter it on my iPhone in the Calendar app. Is there a way I can add some sort of flag in that entry which will then open my spreadsheet and add a new line with a new sequential job number and the Client and Date?


I realize that is probably asking for a lot but I thought I would at least ask, just in case...


Thank you for any help!


Bo

Aperture 3, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Apr 2, 2014 6:34 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Apr 2, 2014 9:14 PM

No.


If the calendar on your phone syncs with the one on your Mac, it might be possible to make the transfer using AppleScript. If your profile is out of date, and you are actually using Numbers 3 and OS X v10.9 (Mavericks) on the Mac (and iOS 7 on the phone) you should be able to sync the Numbers fie on both machines and update it on either.


Regards,

Barry

19 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Apr 2, 2014 9:14 PM in response to Bmachine

No.


If the calendar on your phone syncs with the one on your Mac, it might be possible to make the transfer using AppleScript. If your profile is out of date, and you are actually using Numbers 3 and OS X v10.9 (Mavericks) on the Mac (and iOS 7 on the phone) you should be able to sync the Numbers fie on both machines and update it on either.


Regards,

Barry

Apr 3, 2014 11:28 AM in response to Barry

If the calendar on your phone syncs with the one on your Mac,


Yes it does.


t might be possible to make the transfer using AppleScript.

Great.

If your profile is out of date,

Not sure what that means... How do I check that?

and you are actually using Numbers 3 and OS X v10.9 (Mavericks) on the Mac (and iOS 7 on the phone) you should be able to sync the Numbers fie on both machines and update it on either.

Numbers 3.2, OS 10.9 and iOS 7.1. I am seeing the Numbers file on both and able to edit it.


So, with all that established, any idea on how I might go about finding an Applescript that would have a Calendar event trigger a new job line in that Numbers spreadsheet?


Thank you very much.


Bo

Apr 3, 2014 11:57 AM in response to Bmachine

any idea on how I might go about finding an Applescript that would have a Calendar event trigger a new job line in that Numbers spreadsheet?


If you can give specifics on what you input into Calendar (exactly how do you input the client name and in which field) we can probably suggest a script that will look up recent Calendar entries and insert them into Numbers. It would not be fully automated, though. You have to trigger a script, either by clicking a "run" button or pressing a keyboard combination.


(You're probably aware that you can drag a Calendar event into a cell in an existing Numbers table. You might want to experiment with that a little.)


SG

Apr 3, 2014 12:19 PM in response to SGIII

Thanks very much SG!


The way I enter the event in Calendar on the iPhone is very generic at this point. Just click on the day, click on the "+" sign and write something like "Client X photoshoot", enter the time and that is pretty much it.


I was not aware that I could drag the Calendar event into Numbers. Thanks for that tip. However, I'm not sure how I could do that on the iPhone though... Seems like it would be easier on a desktop. The purpose of this task is to be able to enter the event in Calendar on the iPhone and then have that trigger something in my spreadshhet in Numbers that I can finish completing when I am back at the computer later on.


If it is too hard to have it done in Numbers, plan B would be to have it generate an email that would say "Hey, you entered a new job in Calendar today. Now go and update the Job tracking spreadsheet before you forget it!" type of thing... ;-)


Thank you for your help.

Apr 3, 2014 1:13 PM in response to Bmachine

HI Bo,


"Not sure what that means... How do I check that?

and you are actually using Numbers 3 and OS X v10.9 (Mavericks) on the Mac (and iOS 7 on the phone) you should be able to sync the Numbers fie on both machines and update it on either.

Numbers 3.2, OS 10.9 and iOS 7.1. I am seeing the Numbers file on both and able to edit it."


Click on your user name above any of your posts. That will take you to your User Profile.

Just below the image, you'll see a list of "My products" and a link/button that permits you to edit the list.


Information on your current OS and the verion of the application(s) you are asking about is often useful in arriving at a solution. Your profile 'my products' information is listed in your first post when you initiate a discussion.


Regards,

Barry

Apr 3, 2014 2:22 PM in response to Bmachine

Seems like it would be easier on a desktop. The purpose of this task is to be able to enter the event in Calendar on the iPhone and then have that trigger something in my spreadshhet in Numbers that I can finish completing when I am back at the computer later on.


Definitely easier on the Mac. Setting up what is called a "Calendar Alarm" in Automator may be a solution. I suggest checking out this article. This would work on the Mac to trigger a script (to either place data in a Numbers table or send a reminder email; neither would be hard to do).


What I'm not sure about it whether, as on the Mac, you would be able to just duplicate the "alarm" on the iPhone each time you want to "enter a new job". The alarm would have to run on the Mac, but you may well be able to see it and duplicate it on the iPhone.


Perhaps you might want to look at the general approach and see whether you think it could work for you.


The alternative is enter the usual events on the iPhone and have a script on your Mac (within a Calendar Alarm if you want it to run automatically at specific times) that collects recent entries in Calendar and places them where you want in Numbers or an email. The trick there would be to distinguish between "jobs" and other events. Probably you would want to have up separate calendar specifically for jobs and nothing else.


SG

Apr 3, 2014 2:31 PM in response to SGIII

"The trick there would be to distinguish between "jobs" and other events. Probably you would want to have up separate calendar specifically for jobs and nothing else."


Keyword detector in the script to determine what's done with each recent entry? Would require the keyword (or 'flag' in Bo's terms) to be included in the calendar entry.


Regards,

Barry

Apr 3, 2014 2:51 PM in response to Barry

Yes, if a separate calendar is not convenient, searching for a keyword such as "job" would work.


I've just looked at Calendar scripting. Extracting information to place in a Numbers table, or an email, looks doable, the kind of thing AppleScript is probably best at-- acting as a customizable "glue" between applications.


SG

Apr 3, 2014 3:20 PM in response to SGIII

Wow, thank you very much Barry and SG ! Awesome info there.


I think the idea of a script which automatically runs, say everyday at 8pm to search for keywords in the Calendar entries of the day and then generate a new entry in my Numbers spreadsheet would absolutely do the trick.


I've just looked at Calendar scripting. Extracting information to place in a Numbers table, or an email, looks doable, the kind of thing AppleScript is probably best at-- acting as a customizable "glue" between applications.


So it sounds like Applescript would be better than Automator for this? Any idea on how I might get started on this? My scripting abilities are fairly limited....

Apr 3, 2014 3:33 PM in response to Bmachine

I, and hopefully others here who are more experienced, can help get you started.


AppleScript and Automator are not mutually exclusive. One of the many things that Automator can do is run an AppleScript. An advantage of putting a script within Automator is that it can appear in your Services menu and have a keyboard shortcut to trigger it. Another is that it can be attached to a "Calendar Alarm" so that it runs at a specific time. I've read about the Calendar Alarm action but have never tried it, so we'll see where this leads.


SG

Apr 3, 2014 3:47 PM in response to Bmachine

How does this sound?


You would need two Groups or Calendars in Calendar, one for Unlogged Jobs and one for Logged Jobs. These would sync between your iPhone and your desktop Mac.


On the road with your iPhone, you would add new jobs to the Unlogged Jobs calendar.


You would need a regularly repeating Calendar event, separate from the jobs themselves, that would trigger an Automator Calendar Alarm on the desktop Mac.


You would also need your Numbers spreadsheet to contain the job details in a fixed place on your Mac. I don't think this would work if the spreadsheet was saved in iCloud.


The Automator Calendar Alarm would run an AppleScript that would look for events in the Unlogged Jobs group or calendar. It would extract the details from them (date, time, client name, location) and write them to a new row in the spreadsheet. It would then move the event to Logged Jobs (or possibly re-write in Logged and delete from Unlogged).


I'm not saying all that is easy, but I do think it's possible.


Corrected "lists" to "groups" - HD

Apr 3, 2014 4:18 PM in response to HD

This is a proof-of-concept Applescript that logs events from Calendar into a Numbers spreadsheet. It expects a spreadsheet to be open, it doesn't put new events at the bottom of the table or add new rows if needed, it doesn't move the event from the Unlogged calendar to the Logged calendar. It doesn't do any error-checking (it would fail if you didn't have a calendar called "Unlogged Jobs"). But I think it has potential.


tell application "Calendar"

set event_count to (count events of calendar "Unlogged Jobs")

repeat with x from 1 to event_count


tell event x of calendar "Unlogged Jobs"

set {client, sdate, place} to {summary, start date, location}

end tell


tell application "Numbers"

tell document 1

tell sheet 1

tell table 1

tell column 2 to set value of cell (x + 1) to sdate

tell column 3 to set value of cell (x + 1) to client

tell column 4 to set value of cell (x + 1) to place

end tell

end tell

end tell

end tell


end repeat


Apr 3, 2014 4:40 PM in response to HD

If you preferred a single calendar and keywords approach, you could use Calendar's Notes field. In fact it might be easier to script than recreating the event in another calendar. Just loop through every event with a Note ("description" in AppleScript) that contains the keyword "Unlogged", write it to the spreadsheet, modify the note to remove "Unlogged". It's open to user error though - what happens if you accidentally type "Unloggged"?

Apr 3, 2014 6:07 PM in response to HD

Wow! Thank you very much HD! Especially since it must be the wee hours of the morning in the UK... ;-)


Yes, I like the single calendar with a Notes field better. It's cleaner.


I don't know much about scripting but I am guessing that we would also need to add some sort of time limit so it doesn't search through the entire calendar each day. If this thing is set to run automatically each night, maybe we set it to search only "today" or something....


The next challenge I guess is to have the script open a specific Numbers file since it would not normally be open at all times and then have it find the first empty line to which to add the new data...


FYI, here is what a sample of the ultra simple (for now) spreadsheet looks like:


User uploaded file

Long shot... Can an entry in Calendar add a new line in Numbers?

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