Another Automator Disappointment
I loved the idea of Automator when it was first announced; it seemed to hold a lot of potential for simplifying redundant tasks. However, I haven't yet found ONE task that I perform regularly that Automator can handle...
For example. My company limits my exchange server e-mail account to a low 10MB limit, which I often exceed (and thus can't send messages until I empty it).
All I want Automator to do is take any e-mail older than 15 days and move it to a local mailbox so I can clear it off the server knowing that it's been backed up. Sounds simple? Yet Automator has no option for selecting mail OLDER than a certain time period. I can select all mail I got this month, etc. but not all mail older than 15 days.
Hopefully Apple continues work on adding scripts and options because right now Automator is the most disappointing element of Tiger.
For example. My company limits my exchange server e-mail account to a low 10MB limit, which I often exceed (and thus can't send messages until I empty it).
All I want Automator to do is take any e-mail older than 15 days and move it to a local mailbox so I can clear it off the server knowing that it's been backed up. Sounds simple? Yet Automator has no option for selecting mail OLDER than a certain time period. I can select all mail I got this month, etc. but not all mail older than 15 days.
Hopefully Apple continues work on adding scripts and options because right now Automator is the most disappointing element of Tiger.
Comments
Originally posted by Sport73
I loved the idea of Automator when it was first announced; it seemed to hold a lot of potential for simplifying redundant tasks. However, I haven't yet found ONE task that I perform regularly that Automator can handle...
For example. My company limits my exchange server e-mail account to a low 10MB limit, which I often exceed (and thus can't send messages until I empty it).
All I want Automator to do is take any e-mail older than 15 days and move it to a local mailbox so I can clear it off the server knowing that it's been backed up. Sounds simple? Yet Automator has no option for selecting mail OLDER than a certain time period. I can select all mail I got this month, etc. but not all mail older than 15 days.
Hopefully Apple continues work on adding scripts and options because right now Automator is the most disappointing element of Tiger.
funny. i just started messing around with automator tonight and have similar thoughts. i mean would it really be hard for apple to make automator just record what your doing (in the form of a log file) then repeat it? photoshop does an excellent job of this already.
Originally posted by Sport73
All I want Automator to do is take any e-mail older than 15 days and move it to a local mailbox so I can clear it off the server knowing that it's been backed up. Sounds simple? Yet Automator has no option for selecting mail OLDER than a certain time period. I can select all mail I got this month, etc. but not all mail older than 15 days.
Just make a Mail Rule (Mail->Preferences->Rules)- it lets you specify older than 15 days.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
would it really be hard for apple to make automator just record what your doing (in the form of a log file) then repeat it?
To a point. If you are recording, and you sort by date, and then select the messages at the top that are more than 15 days old, it doesn't know that you are using that criteria - it will just record "user selected the messages 1 through 25", etc.
While it might be nice if automator had pre-rolled hooks for this, its can be done 'manually' now.
And... developers are responsible for writing the Automator plugins for their apps. Automator doesn't, er, automatically figure out what the app does and offer hooks, the developer has to write the proper interface. If they haven't done so, then Automator won't know how to work with that app. (Just because I've seen a number of complaints about Automator not working with app X, and blaming Apple... mail the developer instead.)
Originally posted by Kickaha
Automator is for the tasks that aren't already handled by the apps. As pointed out, Mail already supports directly what you want, so there's no real need for Automator support for that. (Although I do agree that the 'older than' should be a date-criteria choice...)
And... developers are responsible for writing the Automator plugins for their apps. Automator doesn't, er, automatically figure out what the app does and offer hooks, the developer has to write the proper interface. If they haven't done so, then Automator won't know how to work with that app. (Just because I've seen a number of complaints about Automator not working with app X, and blaming Apple... mail the developer instead.)
what about iChat?
Sorry, did I miss something in the question?
Originally posted by Kickaha
The developer would be... ta-da! Apple.
Sorry, did I miss something in the question?
well, i was being sarcastic. my point with the question was that iChat used to be (and i guess might still be) fully supported in the Applescript program. So why not automator? I can think of a lot of useful tasks to automate with iChat.
I've had a similar problem trying to get Automator to search for e-mails with especially large attachments.
I love the idea, but here's hoping they add functions to Automator soon.
Originally posted by Sport73
I did find that option in Mail and have used it. The only problem I have with it is that I can choose when to run an Automator script, Mail rules are automatically applied, and (as stated before) and "older than" criteria is pretty standard and should be included.
You can script the enabling "older than 15 days" rule that you make:
(assume the rule is named "Old Mail")
tell application "Mail"
set enabled of rule named "Old Mail" to true
end tell
Run this script with the Rules window open and after it runs you will see the "Active" checkbox for this rule check itself when you activate Mail's rules window.
If you really want to not have it run. Although having it run with every new message won't harm anything.