Assign a category with a keyboard shortcut

Using AppleScripts with Entourage helps with repetitive tasks. Do you frequently assign a category to messages and wish there was an easy way using a keyboard shortcut? In this tutorial, I’ll discuss how to use an AppleScript with a keyboard shortcut to assign a category to a message.

Categories are extremely powerful tools that are a major benefit to Entourage.

1. Easier sorting of Address Book
2. Use categories instead of entering individual addresses in your rules; you then have less criteria, making the rule run faster, as well as easing the ability to add new addresses.
3. Categories give items colour, especially useful in mail views and calendar views.
4. Mail can be filtered against categories. (for example, business contacts are assigned to the ‘work’ category AND to either ‘customers’, ‘staff’ or ‘suppliers’. Now, incoming mail that isn’t handled by specifc contact, company or project rules can be swept up by a broader “category is ‘work’ and category is ‘customer’” rule and filed accordingly.

We are going to add a script to the Script Menu Items folder that will assign a category to a message using a keyboard shortcut. You will also learn how to edit the script so you can assign YOUR custom categories.

If you make several scripts to assign your most used categories, you might want to place them in a folder inside the Entourage Script Menu folder. I selected to save to a folder named “Set Category.”

You can 1) copy the script below, 2) download the template and open it in the Script Editor (found in your Applications folder) to edit, or 3) you can download the sample scripts listed below.

Learning how to edit a script is useful. Even if you download the script, follow along in case you find a script later that you might want to customize.

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set category of (item 1 of (get current messages)) to {category "CategoryNameHere"}
end tell

This script is courtesy of Paul Berkowitz best known for his Export-Import Scripts.

When you open the script in the Script Editor you will see this:

Select “CategoryNameHere” and type in the Category you wish to use in this script. Be sure to include the “quote marks” After you make your changes, you need to save the script as a script (compiled), not an application. This example shows saving to the family category.

I saved this script with an assigned shortcut (Option-Shift-F). You can add the shortcut you choose in the Script Editor, or later in the Finder. See How to Assign a Shortcut to a script in Part 1.

Note: The script will only set the category of one message. It is meant to be used as you are reading your mail and not in assigning categories to multiple messages. For that you would use the Categories –> Assign Categories.

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Example

Have you ever wished for “Open Recent” in Entourage? I’ll use the category “Recent” to make it easy to find recently viewed messages.

Step One: View Recent Messages

This script is to help you find recent messages that YOU have assigned to the category “Recent” It will not find all recent messages like the Finder “Recent Items” unless you assign it to the message. I find this very useful when I have to switch folders to find info that I want to include in a message. When I return, the original message has been marked “read” and is not seen in my message list. I have to toggle View “unread only” then sort by “sent” to find the message.

Note: If you would like to see “Recent Items” added to Entourage, please send in your Feedback. The best way to send any feedback to Microsoft is to use the Help –> Send Feedback tool in any Office application or go directly to the Mactopia website.

This script will assign the category “Recent” to a message using the shortcut (Option- Shift-R). You can edit the shortcut assigned to the script if you download.

To View you Recent messages, create a custom view for recent. Optional: You can select to open this search in it’s own window for easy access.

Assign a category to Notes and Tasks

The above script is limited to messages. To assign a category to Notes and Tasks as well as messages you can use this script:

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set category of (item 1 of (get selection)) to {category "CategoryNameHere"}
end tell

Download template for this script

Use Three Folders

There are several articles out suggesting you stick to 3 basic folders when moving mail out of the Inbox (Trusted Trio):

1. Follow-up, for those messages that still require action from us
2. Hold, for emails that require action from someone else
3. Archive, for everything else

Here are three articles that you might find useful for explaining simplifying and organizing your mail:

• Getting started with “Getting Things Done”
• The Monster Blog: Trying to Organize Your Email? Keep it Simple
• Empty Your Inbox with the Trusted Trio

If having three folders sounds a bit too simple, remember you can further organize your mail with Custom Views. Saved searches in Entourage 2008 can be saved as a custom mail view. Mactopia How-to on Custom Views

Download

You can download the set category scripts for the Trusted Trio categories.
1.    Set category Follow-up
2.   Set category Hold
3.   Set category Archive

Download scripts for other common categories used in Entourage:
1.    Set category Family
2.    Set category Work

If you are unfamiliar with using AppleScripts with Entourage be sure to check out the links here.