Creating OmniFocus Tasks from Entourage, take 3
by rainer on Sep.10, 2009, under GTD, Mac
It seems that my previous script to make omnifocus tasks out of entourage stopped working, either due to OF 1.7.x or Snow Leopard.
Anyway I have updated the script now and it should work on all versions.
Update 7.1.2010
While this mail rule is currently the latest one, please take a look at the newest posts tagged with “Omnifocus“, to find if there is a newer version.
14 Comments for this entry
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November 23rd, 2009 on 23:22
Hi
Great – just what I needed as I have just converted from PC to MAC and used to the GTD addin for Outlook.
Thanks
December 21st, 2009 on 19:45
Thanks for this script. Really handy for those of us that can’t abandon Entourage.
January 4th, 2010 on 4:06
I’m trying out Omnifocus, and would really like to get this working before I pull the trigger on buying (am using another GTD solution now).
However, I get: “Omnifocus got an error: quick entry doesn’t understand the open message.”
I’m on Entourage 2004 (I know, old, but I use VB macros, so I can’t update) with my company’s Exchange server, and of course the newest Omnifocus (1.7.5).
Any help?
January 4th, 2010 on 7:12
Hi–
I was able to fix this with a few changes to the script. Don’t know how many of these would be universal, and how many are just for my configuration.
First, I couldn’t write to the tmp folder, even though it existed. So I changed one line to this (removing the “tmp/” from before “entourage”:
set theFileName to “entourage” & theID & “.eml”
Then, the Finder couldn’t delete it. I had to add an extra variable that included “Macintosh HD:” in the pathname:
set thePathName to “Macintosh HD:entourage” & theID & “.eml”
Then later, change theFileName to thePathName for the Finder deletion:
tell application “Finder”
delete file thePathName
end tell
Lastly, they may have just changed quick entry…looks like 1) you don’t need to (can’t?) open it, and 2) you need to add a save line, or the items that are added there just sit there and don’t pass to OmniFocus. So, I now have (and I think this would apply to everyone?):
tell application “OmniFocus”
set theDoc to default document
set theTask to theName
set theNote to theContent
tell quick entry
–open
set NewTask to make new inbox task with properties {name:theTask, note:theContent}
tell the note of NewTask
make new file attachment with properties {file name:theFileName, embedded:true}
end tell
activate
save
end tell
end tell
Note that I commented out “open” (i.e. added — in fron), and added save before the second to last end tell.
Hope this is helpful!
Gary
January 7th, 2010 on 9:20
Hi Gary, thanks for your comments. The first part (removing the /tmp from the filename) was a direct reason for your 2nd problem where the finder could not delete it and I have a gut feeling that your system setup is broken (i.e. /tmp MUST be writeable not only for this script to work). So please open Terminal and make sure that everyone can write to the /tmp folder. You can do this by
chmod a+w /tmp2nd regarding the quick entry window. For me this works fine with OmniFocus 1.7.5. I am guessing that your change basically immediately creates a new task without opening the panel anymore. See, at least I like to be able to see what the script is doing and sometimes intervene (e.g. change title, set due dates, …) which wont work if you immediately push it to your inbox, but I guess this is just a matter of taste.
February 2nd, 2010 on 4:29
I am using the latest version of this script you have posted on your site. I am using with the latest Entourage 2008 update and latest OmniFocus. When I highlight multiple emails in Entourage and click Control-O, it doesn’t seem to pull all the emails into Entourage, with a separate task for each, just one (It adds the first email as a task). Any ideas what this could be?
MD5 ([OF] SendEntourageToOmniFocus\cO.scpt) = 03bc3f95c9e5ea22cd331a21858b4899
February 2nd, 2010 on 19:16
To be honest I have never tried that and I am not really surprised that this does not work. Will take a look when I have some time on my hands.
March 8th, 2010 on 23:15
Just found this script, seems to work like a charm. Thanks so much for writing it and sharing it.
April 16th, 2010 on 16:18
This script is an absolute life saver. Without this script Omnifocus would have been fairly cumbersome for me. A lot of my action items and todo’s come out of Entourage. Sincere thanks for keeping this going. I had trouble initially, but it was just that I am new to Entourage, and didnt know where the scripting items were.
And if this can be of any help to newbies out there, it is the “control” key not the “command” key. I struggled with that a little.
Thanks again for the efforts.
April 23rd, 2010 on 17:48
Hi! I use Entourage as first GTD instrument bat Entourage cannot sync with Iphone. The only good solution I’ve found should be using OF with OF for Iphone, bat Entourage cannot sync with OF either. So I’m trying to compile a script to sync in both directions Entourage and OF tasks. Has someone suggestions for me?
Thanks a lot!
April 23rd, 2010 on 20:31
wow thats a tall order. I fear that you wont get this done without a lot of AppleScript if at all. If you server is exchange 2007 you might be able to try applemail/ical on snow leopard or move to google tasks. Otherwise I think you are better off with OmniFocus or Things and create scripts to create TODOs out of mails.
July 1st, 2010 on 17:18
Hi,
Does this script convert tasks and projects from entourage to tasks/projects in Omnifocus? … If not, any suggestions as how to do so? Thanks.
July 1st, 2010 on 20:57
Not really. All IT does is take the currently selected mail and make it into an OF task. No clue how to convert entourage projects.
Sorry
July 2nd, 2010 on 21:48
Ok, thanks for the initial script…