Automate sending reminders in Entourage
Nov 03, '10 07:30:00AM
Contributed by: Bexier
I wanted to create an automated email to send hourly reminders to a co-worker who was forgetful about many things. So I used Automator and (because of corporate Exchange email) Entourage 2008.
Here's how I accomplished it. [crarko adds: In Automator in 10.6 you would choose 'Workflow' where 'Custom' is used in the steps below. I think that's the major difference and it should otherwise work.]
- Open Automator and Choose Custom.
- In the Actions section -- Choose Mail.
- Drag Create New Entourage Mail Message (or in Mail - New Mail Message) to the workflow area.
- Create your message and choose the account you want to send it.
- Then Drag 'Send Outgoing Entourage Mail message' to workflow.
- Just go with the default 'Account that create message.'
- Save as 'AutoSched.workflow' in your ~/Library/Scripts folder (or any folder you want).
Now you have to tell Automator to run your workflow.
- Create another Automator window and choose Custom.
- Drag 'Run Workflow' to Workflow window.
- In the pulldown navigate to your 'AutoSched.workflow.'
- Save as 'AutoSchedRun.app' in your ~/Library/Scripts folder (or any folder you want).
Now for the Scheduling part.
- Open Entourage » Tools » Schedules
- Click the + button.
- Under 'When' choose 'Timed Schedule'
- Click the button to choose the times you want the message in your autosched.workflow sent.
- Under 'Action' choose 'Launch Alias'. Even though the app you will choose is not an alias, it does not matter.
- Choose 'AutoSchedRun.app' from your Scripts folder (that's where we have been saving the Automator stuff)
- Be sure to name your Schedule what you want so you can keep it straight.
- Hit Ok
You should now have an email that will be sent on a schedule that you yourself do not have to remember. Send as many as you need so you can get your forgetful co-workers to remember what they have to do.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. This is for Entourage 2008, and might be able to be adapted (if necessary) for Outlook 2011.]
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