Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

The Script Menu

There’s no more conspicuous badge indicating that Microsoft has gotten Macintosh religion than its embrace of AppleScript, the Macintosh-only programming language. As a happy result, even advanced-beginner programmers can automate the Office programs with custom features.

Entourage’s impressive AppleScript capabilities begin with the Script menu that houses several AppleScript scripts, which add useful features such as the following:

• Create Event from Message. When you highlight an email message and choose this command, Entourage creates a new calendar event based on the message. All you have to do is fill in a few details. Even better, the event is automatically linked to the original message.

• Create Note from Message, Create Task from Message. These commands create Notes or Tasks linked to your message.

• Insert Text File. When you choose this command, Entourage opens the “Choose a File” dialog box, so that you can locate a text file to insert into the body of a message. This feature can be handy when you want to email quick, canned responses from time to time.

• Save Selection. Here’s a great way to save some critical information that’s been emailed to you into its own text file on your desktop. Highlight some text, choose Script → Save Selection, and then provide a file name and location when Entourage asks for it.

The best thing about this menu, however, is that you can add your own scripts to it. (Of course, writing such scripts requires some familiarity with programming ...