Is it possible to email the file open in any app (ex. in word) directly without having to search it through Alfred?

[nlpat016]

Let's say I am working on Ms Word, and I want to email the active file to someone, is there an Alfred Workflow (or any other method) through which this can be done directly?

[vitor]

Welcome @nlpat016,

 

There is no global generic way to get the “active file”. How it’s done and if it’s even possible depends entirely on the application which has the file open. There’s also no global generic way to email a file, it depends on your email client.

 

So to the question “can I email the currently open file in MS Word with Mail.app”, the answer is “probably” (it depends if Word supports AppleScript to return the open document, which I think it does though I’m not sure). To the question “can I email any document open in any app with any email client” the answer is “no” because even if you added supported for documents in every app and every email client which can do it (each one implements it differently) there are still tons of apps who don’t support it at all (e.g. every Electron app).

[nlpat016]

Thank you, @vitor for your detailed explanation. 

[TomBenz]

If you want to do this for MS word/excel or Powerpoint file, you can try this AppleScript. For me it gives Sharepoint location and is used to communicate link quickly to a colleague.

 

There is MS word / excel share - send document / link option that can be used via UI.

 

tell application "Microsoft Excel"

activate

set frontWindow to front window

set workbookName to name of active workbook

if workbookName is not missing value then

set workbookPath to path of active workbook as text

 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"

activate

set emailSubject to "Excel Document: " & workbookName

set newMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:emailSubject, content:"Please find the attached Excel document at the following location:" & return & "\"" & (workbookPath & "/" & workbookName) & "\""}

open newMessage

end tell

else

display dialog "No active workbook found in the frontmost window."

end if

end tell