Office X for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

chapter 11: advanced entourage 431

The Script Menu

There’s no more conspicuous badge that Microsoft has gotten Macintosh religion

than its embrace of AppleScript, the Macintosh-only programming language. As a

happy result, even advanced-beginner programmers can automate the Office pro-

grams with custom features.

Like its sibling Outlook Express, Entourage has some impressive AppleScript capa-

bilities. (In fact, Entourage is the only Office program that doesn’t exploit Microsoft’s

own programming language, Visual Basic for Applications.) It even has a Script menu

that houses several AppleScript scripts, which add useful features like:

• Create Event from Message. When you highlight an email message and choose

this command, Entourage creates a new calendar event based on the message. All

you have to do is fill in a few details. Even better, the event is automatically linked

to the original message.

• Insert Text File. When you choose this command, Entourage opens the Choose a

File dialog box, so that you can locate a text file to insert into the body of a mes-

sage. This feature can be handy when you want to send quick, canned responses

from time to time.

• Save Selection. Here’s a great way to save some critical information that’s been

emailed to you into its own text file on your desktop. Highlight some text, choose

Script→Save Selection, and then provide a file name and location when Entou-

rage asks for it.

The best thing about this menu, however, is that you can add your own scripts to it.

(Of course, writing such scripts requires some familiarity with programming

AppleScript.) Save such scripts as compiled scripts (not text files or applets), and

then drop them into your Home→Documents→Microsoft User Data

folder→Entourage Script Menu Items folder. They’ll show up in the Entourage Scripts

menu the next time you run the program.

script, add the following text to the end of its file name:

\cA. (That first character is a backslash.) You can’t assign

the c key for this purpose—only the Control key.

The next time you pull down the Script menu in Entou-

rage, you’ll see your key combo (represented by the ^

symbol, which designates the Control key, and the key that

you chose) next to the script’s name.

You can add a keyboard shortcut for any script in the En-

tourage Script Menu Items folder.

First, locate the file’s icon in the Finder. (You’ll find it in

your Home→Documents→Microsoft User Data folder→

Entourage Script Menu Items folder.) Onto the end of its

file name, just tack a backslash (\), the letter c, and then

the Control-key that you’d like to use. For example, to add

the shortcut key equivalent Control-A to an archive email

Adding a Shortcut Key to Script Menu Items

POWER USERS’ CLINIC

The Script Menu

432 office x for macintosh: the missing manual

If you aren’t an AppleScript programmer, you can still capitalize on this feature by

downloading scripts that other people have written. For example:

•At www.mattridley.com/products/applescript/, you’ll find lots of information about

using AppleScript with Entourage, along with several scripts available for down-

load.

• You can also visit Allen Watson’s iDisk at http://homepage.mac.com/allenwatson/

for more Entourage scripts for all Entourage modules.

• Paul Berkowitz has scripts available for download at http://homepage

.mac.comberkowit28.

• You can also find a hearty collection of Paul Berkowitz’s Entourage scripts at

www.applescriptcentral.com.

The Script Menu