Mail Act-On
Merlin mentioned a plug-in for Mail called Mail Act-On a couple of days ago, and I just got around to trying it out; it’s great. Like many people, I used to use the trick of appending three underscores followed by the name of a key combination to an Applescript’s file name to allow me to trigger it with that key combination. So a script called ‘Flag items___ctl-f.scpt’ would get triggered by using the Control-F hot key. Unfortunately, Tiger broke this little wheeze, and I was getting fed up of having to drag and drop to file messages.
Act-On lets you create specially named rules in Mail which perform actions and can be triggered by a key combination. Even better, if you press the special Act-On hotkey (` by default), it brings up a Quicksilver-like bezel which lists the keys and actions, so you don’t have to remember what activates your ‘File in Project X mailbox’ rule. It’s actually much more convenient than having to create lots of separate Applescripts, though if you want to do something that can’t be accomplished by a Mail rule, you can still use the interface to call an external applescript.
If you use Mail, it’s well worth giving it a try.
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Sounds useful. This seems like as good a time as ever to ask, but as a current Linux user switching to the Mac at some point, how does one go about learning the intricacies of OS X? Things like AppleScript sound fascinating and very useful, but I wouldn't have the first idea how to use them. Is there any kind of Mac tutorial or tips website you know of? It's not just AppleScripts though, but many other things, including applications like Quicksilver. How much can you learn just by poking around, and how easy is it to break the OS? (I know from Linux experience that poking around with root access can easily cause destruction.)----- I've been using Mail Act-On for a few weeks now, and I don't know how I lived without it. The setup for individual rules is a bit odd and I had to take special pains to keep it from conflicting with SpamSieve, but once I got it all configured it made my mail sorting way more efficient. Highly recommended!
by Joe Kissell @ 15/06/2005 4:07 pm • Permalink •
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It sounds cool, but I'm slightly confused by it. I use Eudora, and it seems that a number of the things it would be useful can already be handled by Eudora filters. And, in Eudora filters can be run on all incoming mail, any mailbox, or any selection of mail in any mailbox, with a key command. I had thought that Mail.app offered the same functionality, with more of a limit on what rules could be applied.
Is the benefit the ability to apply a single step of a filter, or cleaning up the mail that didn't get caught by your filters the first time around? I guess I'm just not certain what it does that mail.app filters can't or don't do.
by allgood2 @ 15/06/2005 8:07 pm • Permalink •
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Poking round with root access on any system can cause mayhem and destruction and OS X is no different in that respect, but poking around as a standard administrator (as long as you don't delete too many things) rarely causes harm.
As a Linux user I would sugest when you do get your hands on an OS X box that you give yourself a few days to try out all your Linux tricks and see what's similar and what's different. I would then erase the drive and start again : ) This time without the Linux tricks : ) In general though the OS is very resilient.
On the AppleScript front here are a couple of links:
AppleScript Resources
A series of articles on AppleScript
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by Nick @ 16/06/2005 8:07 am • Permalink •
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A word of warning Bill Brigg's Applescript tutorials mentioned above, while they were an excellent introduction for me are rather old and so relate to OS 9, making them not so suitable for someone arriving at OS X from Linux. If you have done any scripting in Linux, you will find Applescript very easy as it has comprehensible commands making your scripts easy to read and understand. Its main use is in automating actions in other apps, rather than the more low level stuff that other languages such as perl are usually used for, so you are dependent on how well your apps support it, and this is quite variable. Another old Applescript tutorial which was highly thought of in its time is Danny Goodman's Applescript Primer. It has been recently updated for OSX and is available as a pdf here for $15.
by ThoughtBadger @ 16/06/2005 9:07 am • Permalink •
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hey! I really dunno why I thought you were italian! But the feeling was so strong that at the beginning I wanted to entirely write the comment in Italian ... I was sure I would flabbergast you!!! Then I said to mayself: > Anyway it could be that you have a strong web italian style. I don't even know what it could mean but it sounds good to me. I really dunno. did you have fun here in Italy???
by nourdine @ 16/06/2005 7:06 pm • Permalink •
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hiya bsag, not directly related to your post, but thought you might like to see this Ruby on Rails post on slashdot
oh and nick: re linux->osx, osx is essentially just a tidier linux distro. most of its interface regressed to unix standards after 9 and hasn't really moved forwards since then. there IS a lovely new backend daemon in Tiger replacing inetd etc tho
by Saltation @ 17/06/2005 8:06 am • Permalink •
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whoops, not nick, i should have typed matthew. nice brain there, sal
by Saltation @ 17/06/2005 8:06 am • Permalink •
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<a>ooo...</a>
by Saltation @ 17/06/2005 10:07 am • Permalink •
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Matthew: Nick and ThoughtBadger provided some great resources, but there's also MacOSXHints, which has some great tips. The forum is also a brilliant place to ask questions, and has saved my vegetarian bacon on several occasions. I'd also recommend creating a test user account in addition to your own account, and installing things like PreferencePanes, scripts and so on in your own, user-level Library folder. That way, if things go pear-shaped, you can log in as the test user and see if that fixes things. If it does, you know that it's something in your own home folder that's broken. (Joe Kissell reminded me of that recently, and it saved me a lot of hair-tearing-out).
nourdine: I would have been flabbergasted if you had posted in Italian, but not for the reasons you think! My Italian is very rusty... I had a wonderful time in Italy. Must go back soon.
Saltation: Yes, I've read the book already
(well, nearly). It's a great book, and I've had many moments of, "oh, that's how you're supposed to do it..." And if you have any tips on using launchd concerning this, do share 
What's the ooo? The link has no href 
by bsag @ 17/06/2005 3:07 pm • Permalink •
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Thanks for all the advice everyone, I'll be sure to check those links out
by Matthew @ 17/06/2005 3:07 pm • Permalink •
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and Subversion your Home folder/account...
>href
uhh... y'know? i honestly can't remember. bugger. i remember thinking it was pretty good too.
re tips, mate it's 31 degrees at this desk and not a breath of wind. i can't think to save my life. i'll have a try later maybe
by Saltation @ 20/06/2005 3:06 pm • Permalink •
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