Justin at veritrope has written an applescript that will quickly import emails from mail.app into Evernote , the web-based note and information manager.

It’s easy to use.

First, get the script from veritrope.

Like all Apple Mail-related scripts, the best place to store it is in your ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Mail folder, so that it appears at the top of the AppleScript menu when mail.app is open.

Then find the email that you want to save into Evernote, highlight it and click the AppleScript menu on the right of your menubar:

The script grabs the email and shunts into Evernote. It loads the message first into Evernote’s Desktop app from which it syncs up automatically.

The script also presents a dialogue so that you can tag the email and select where to store it:

Chosing the “Select notebook from list” options retrieves a list of your existing notebook and also offers you the option to create a new notebook on the fly.

A nice Growl alert lets you know when it’s done.

The end result is a new Evernote note, nicely tagged-up and with a hyperlink back to the original message in mail.app:

Of course, it all goes much faster if you fire the script with a trigger in Quicksilver or set a keyboard shortcut for it with a utility like Daniel Jalkut’s excellent FastScripts .

veritrope also provides a fistful of applescripts for integrating Evernote with other popular apps like Yojimbo, NeetNewsWire, MacJournal, DEVONThink, even (of all things) Entourage.evernote, mail.app, apple mail, applescript, script, plugins, quicksilver, fastscripts, yojimbo, productivity

Apple has changed the way that Mail.app interacts with plugins in Snow Leopard.

As Ken Aspelagh describes it on the Mac Observer:

“Each new version of Mail and the associated Message framework includes a unique code. Plug-ins have to explicitly declare themselves compatible with each new version,” Mr. Aspeslagh told The Mac Observer. “There is some sense to this as plug-ins are closely tied to the inner working of Mail, and stand the chance of breaking when Mail.app updates. Apple didn’t want to take this chance, so now they automatically disable all plug-ins with each update.”

So today’s 10.6.2 update is likely to break some plugins.

Most developers are only too aware of this issue, and will get updated plugins out fast.

Greg Welch, who develops the MailRecent and MailFollowUp plugins, has already got new, 10.6.2-compatible versions out the door.

Eric Hinterbichler has done the same with his new Herald Notification utility.

Other developers are sure to follow quickly. Some acted weeks before the update appeared, like Aaron Harnly who pushed out a compatible version of his Letterbox plugin three weeks ago.

10.6.2 broke the Mail clipping plugin from Omnifocus, but fortunately this can be restored simply by reinstalling it.

Other plugins, especially those not so actively or quickly supported, might be more difficult.

langui.sh has published some Terminal commands that will (potentially) revive other busted plugins. He has written them for GrowlMail but they could easily be adapted for other plugins, and “trick” them into working again.

It’s worth a shot, especially if you are in love with a plugin that’s not so well supported. However, maybe make a backup of the plugin’s bundle first. You know, just in case.apple mail, snow leopard, mail.app, plugins, UUID, Apple

Scott Morrison of Indev Software (producers of the MailTags and Mail Act-on plugins) has released a souped-up version of the miniMail plugin, which he recently acquired from Olive Toast Software.

miniMail 2.0 retains all the goodness of the original–the ability to minimize Mail.app’s interface like you can in iTunes–but adds more features and flexibility.

The minimised interface is elegant and efficient, as you would expect from the developer of MailTags:

It is also fully integrated with Mail Act-on, allowing you to use the same keystrokes to file messages away quickly.

The plugin’s Preference pane offers options to control which mailboxes it monitors, text size inside the minimized interface itself and how it should expand again when double-clicked (to the mail mail.app window or a single message window):

The Preference pane also controls miniMail 2.0′s new feature–multiple mini viewers.

You can now open a Message Viewer for a number of individual mailboxes and minimize them to keep track of new messages in particular accounts or even RSS feeds.

Here I am monitoring my work email in one miniMail window, my Hawk Wings email in another (one canny doctoral student sends his emails to both!) and the network status RSS feed of my ISP:

Very handy for keeping focus on important things whilst filtering out the rest.

miniMail is shareware (USD 12.95) and is available from Indev’s web site . Registered users of MailTags and Mail Act-on qualify for a USD 4 discount.mail.app, apple mail, mailtags, mail act-on, minimail, plugins, productivity

equinux, purveyors of fine HTML stationary for Mail.app, has released a new collection of Christmas stationery templates in plenty of time for the festive season.

“Season’s Greetings Vol. 2″ contains templates offering Christmas greetings, invitations, wishlists for your kids to send to Santa, templates for one of those much-loved “annual news-roundup” emails.

Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are not forgotten. Templates are included for those festivals too.

For those not in the know, Apple Mail’s stationery feature allows the app to send pre-made HTML emails, often quite fancy. Many of the equinux templates allow for customization by the insertion of your own photos and user-definable fonts:

The pack costs €7,95 (c. USD 11.80) and is available from equinux’s web site where you can also see the company’s other stationery packs.

If you are keen on this kind of thing, and know that your friends don’t mind receiving them, but you don’t want to shell out money for the option, you will find some freeware seasonal stationery templates listed in the following, previous Hawk Wings posts:

1. Plugin List adds 122 Leopard Mail Templates.

2. More Mail Stationery, for sale and for free.

[via macnews.de ]stationery, mail.app, apple mail, plugins, addons, Christmas, hanukkah, Kwanzaa, festive season, more bandwidth-sucking tomfoolery

Erik Hinterbichler has created a plugin, inspired by the well-loved MailAppetizer, that offers the same polished notifications when new mail arrives, and adds the option to perform some quick actions from the notification pane itself.

As an added bonus it’s ready to run in Snow Leopard now, while MailAppetizer is still being made Snow Leopard friendly.

It offers a customisable notification pane, with four icons on the bottom which allow you to delete, reply, open the message in amil.app or simply mark it read:

Herald comes in an installer package, but installs itself as standard plugin bundle in the Bundles folder of your Mail folder. It adds an additional pane to Mail’s Preferences.

The first tab allows you to specify whether the notification pane should be permanent or dismiss itself after a user-defined number of seconds. It also offers the option of opening the message in Mail’s main window or in a separate window of its own.

The second tab control the background and font colours and the level of transparency in the notification:

The third pane provides the ability to specify which mailboxes it polls for incoming emails, providing you with good control over just how bothered you want to be, and by what kind of emails:

If you like having your email in your face all the time, a utility like this will do the job very well.

Herald is donation-ware and is available from Erik’s web site . notification, mail.app, apple mail, plugins, mailappetizer, productivity

Jumsoft has released a pack of additional mail stationery templates for Leopard Mail.

The pack contains 50 “high-quality and exclusive design options for every occasion”, covering Family, Congratulations, Invitations, Emotions, Vacations and Seasons themes.

An additional group are described as “Neutral”, or multi-purpose.

You can view small thumbnails of all the templates on the Jumsoft web site, but some examples of the “Neutral” category are displayed below:

    

The pack costs USD 39 and is available from Jumsoft’s web site .

Value-conscious readers will want to compare this pack of 50 with the pack of 111 templates from equinix (reviewed in an earlier Hawk Wings post). The equinix pack retails for 24.95 euros (c. USD 40), twice as many template choices for almost the same price.

Of course, really value-conscious readers will want to make their own (see earlier Hawk Wings post ) or look at the increasing number of stationery templates offered for free.

Novcon.net has started a collection of free stationery templates, which now contains sixteen examples. Users can rate the ones they like best. The current winner is an attractive “parchment” template.

The Novcon site also contains instructions on how to install the stationery.

Templates in the Jumsoft pack and on the Novcon.net site are now listed in the Templates section of the comprehensive Hawk Wings Plug-in and Add-on List.templates, stationery, html, leopard mail, mail.app, apple mail, plugins

Is there a fast way in Mail.app for replying to frequent repetitive requests?

Hawk Wings reader Greg Bentz emails to ask:

I need to be able to save and email with information in it to be resent out repeatedly. I am in real estate and get the same questions over and over. I can do it outlook express but cannot figure out to do in Mail.

I know of two sensible ways to get this done fast and efficiently.

1. Use the MailTemplate plug-in

MailTemplate is a plug-in for Mail.app and Entourage that is designed to do this, and it does it well.

You can quickly access it from the Contextual menu in Mail.app.

It comes with a Template editor in which you can write your frequent replies. For example:

The fields enclosed with double carets (^^) are “smart fields”, that is, they pick up the information from the email to which you are replying.

So, when I get an email that needs one of these quick, repetitive replies, I just right-click on it, and select the right template from the Contextual menu:

And as if by magic, MailTemplate creates the reply:

One keystroke and the email is sent. All done. Productivity gurus like Merlin Mann of 43Folders swear by it.

MailTemplate is shareware (USD 14.95) and a demo is available from the developer’s web site

2. Use a text snippet manager like TextExpander

Snippet managers offer a different way to skin the same cat. There are loads of them around — here’s a list of some from MacUpdate. I prefer TextExpander (Shareware, USD 29.95—but see special offer for Hawk Wings readers in the comments) which, after Quicksilver, is the best thing in my time-saving toolbox.

Snippet Managers allow you to store text and images that you often use and to spit them out again with a few keystrokes. For example, if I type “hwnts” (Hawk Wings is Not Tech Support) into an email I am composing, I get the same text as the MailTempate reply.

Well, almost the same text. The downside here is that TextExpander doesn’t have smart fields. I need to reply to the message, type the person’s first name, and then type “hwnts” to get the same result.

But there are two upsides which make up for this. First, text snippets are available system-wide. If I want to use this boilerplate text in TextMate or in a Safari form or in some other app, it’s just the same few keystrokes away. MailTemplate isn’t. This is a bit plus for me.

Secondly, you will soon find that there are more things that frequent email replies that you want to store.

Typing “tss” produces my work signature with all the bells and whistles (and no mistakes) in Mail.app and anywhere else that I need it. All the HTML in this blog post, written in TextMate, was produced by the same time-saving, error-free text snippets.

I prefer Option 2 but either will do the job. mail.app, apple mail, templates, plugins, productivity, getting things done, text snippets, TextExpander, MailTemplate