Create Outlook-like reminders for Mail with a keyboard shortcut

Sep 17, '12 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: jstoner

I just read this hint, about creating Outlook-like reminders for Mail, and thought I would submit my variation on this that I created a few weeks ago. I liked the functionality of creating reminders from e-mail messages and having the link for the message in the reminder, but the requirement of dragging and dropping killed it for me.

So I created an Automator service and AppleScript that gives me the exact same result but with a keyboard shortcut so I never have to leave Mail.

Create a new Automator service.

Select "Service receives no input."

Add Get Selected Mail Items and select Messages in the drop down menu.

Add Run AppleScript and paste in the following script:

on run {input, parameters}
	
	tell application "Mail"
		set _sel to selection
		set _links to {}
		
		set the _message to item 1 ¬
			of the _sel
		set theSubject to subject of _message
		set message_id to the message id of the _message
	end tell
	
	set message_url to "message://%3c" & message_id & "%3e"
	set end of _links to message_url
	set the clipboard to (_links as string)
	
	set theBody to the clipboard
	
	tell application "Reminders"
		set theReminder to make new reminder with properties {name:theSubject, body:theBody, priority:1}
		
	end tell
	
	return input
end run
Save the service, add a shortcut, and you're done.

Here is my stackexchange post on the subject along with my solution . User Kevin Oneill provided an AppleScript that I haven't played with yet but he says it will add the body of the e-mail to the Reminder's entry which some people may prefer, since it would be viewable on an iOS device as well.

Comments (4)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120911083449814