Making emails and attachments into calendar items

[hcsd]

I'm gradually moving from Windows to Mac, but can't give up on Outlook/Entourage. However one very handy GTD trick does not seem to translate. In cranking through Outlook emails, I used to have another copy of Outlook open on its calendar page, and would drag and drop emails with attachments from the inbox in one copy into the calendar on the other, to create or add to material for a timed meeting or call, or a timed reminder. But you can't do this on Mail/Calendar, Entourage or (I understand from a beta tester) Outlook for Mac 2011. The best you can do is use special Applescripts to create an event from an email (not add material to an existing event), and then all attachments have to be stripped out from the email and stored in a separate folder.

This slows down email processing for me significantly, as well as being clunky and irritating. Does anyone have know of a workround or a piece of software to deal with this? I would hate to conclude that Windows and Outlook were just superior in such an important part of basic processing.

 

[mcogilvie]

I'm gradually moving from Windows to Mac, but can't give up on Outlook/Entourage. However one very handy GTD trick does not seem to translate. In cranking through Outlook emails, I used to have another copy of Outlook open on its calendar page, and would drag and drop emails with attachments from the inbox in one copy into the calendar on the other, to create or add to material for a timed meeting or call, or a timed reminder. But you can't do this on Mail/Calendar, Entourage or (I understand from a beta tester) Outlook for Mac 2011. The best you can do is use special Applescripts to create an event from an email (not add material to an existing event), and then all attachments have to be stripped out from the email and stored in a separate folder.

Look up data detectors in Mail help to see how to add events efficiently in Mail. As for your todo list, it depends on what you use. For Toodledo and Omnifocus, you can email in. Omnifocus and Things both have one keystroke methods of adding basically anything to your inbox. One issue that developers face today that you may not realize is that the drag and drop functionality with attachments that Outlook uses is not workable with multiple desktops and portable devices. I have also seen users get into trouble in Outlook when their huge .pst file gets corrupted. I understand the attraction of a monolithic program that does it all, but I think lightweight standalone apps are going to prevail in a mobile world.

 

[ChelseaA]

Using Things with Entourage

Hi there,

I am switching over from using Outlook to using Entourage, and I'm wondering how I can possibly send email items to Things as to-dos, if that is possible.

If you have any thoughts, please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[mcogilvie]

Hi there,

I am switching over from using Outlook to using Entourage, and I'm wondering how I can possibly send email items to Things as to-dos, if that is possible.

If you have any thoughts, please let me know.

Thanks!

Try using the Things shortcut with autofill, to see if it will work in Entourage. See settings in Things to set it up. Works in lots of other places too. If not, consider using the Mail app in OSX. Especially because Entourage is being replaced by a Mac version of Outlook in the next version of Office for Mac.