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Coming from Windows to Mac I occasionally find little annoyances that get in the way of how I am used to working. One of those is right clicking a file and just being able to select send to email recipient.

While this is possible out of the box with Apple Mail it is not with Outlook 2011. However there is an easy way to set it up and it also introduces you to the amazing Mac app that is The Automator !

Once you have set this example up you should be able to work out how to set up a lot of short cuts and things you need to automate, Most applications are well supported in Automator and Outlook is one of them.

This article was written using evaluation versions of Ecto and MarsEdit, more about that in the next article.

First up start Automator from your applications folder. Then once it is open the welcome screen appears.

Click on Service then Choose. Now all we want to do here is get the names of the selected files in Finder, open a new Outlook message, attach he selected files to that new message, this is quite straight forward.

Change these to the following

So that is "Service receives selected files or folders in Finder.app" On the left had side select Files and Folders so we only see file and folder related items.

Drag "Get Selected Finder Items" to the work area to the right and drop it. It should look like this.

Click on Mail on the left hand side

Drag Create New outlook Mail Message across to the right hand side UNDERNEATH Get Selected Finder Items, order is important as it is the order the commands are executed.

should look like this afterwards

Whatever you add the fields here will appear every time you run this, you can also select the default account if you have more than one.

Now, the second last part, attach to the mail message, drag across Add Attachments to Outlook Message

Just about done ! Now Save your work (File - Save)

Call it what you want

Now, go to Finder and right click a file, go down to "Services" and you will see the workflow you just created.

Nifty huh ! If all is well it should finish like this

That just scrapes the surface of what is possible. Now, suppose you want to delete that Service ? Easy ! Go to Your User Account /Library/Services and delete the associated .workflow file

That's about it.

As the title states, this is but merely an introduction based on a simple problem I had and should open your eyes somewhat to the possibilities of the Automator. I for one have used it little.

Till next time !