Outlook for Mac workflow

[cortig]

Hi All,

 

 

I created three simple workflows to search for either Messages, Contacts or Events in Outlook for Mac.

 

The workflows are for Outlook 2011. They assume your identity is named Main Identity (I purposefully wanted to avoid searching backed-up identities, but the search scope can easily be edited).

 

The workflows are available here. (zipped archive)

 

 

          Corentin

 

 

[R4z3r]

Nice! Thanks!

[harringg]

Very useful.  Thanks! 

[abneyj]

I just downloaded the workflows. I was able to import the Message and Event ones. When I try to import the Contacts one it actually replaces the Messages one. I can see an information text in red in the import window that says it's going to replace the Messages workflow. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[cortig]

I just downloaded the workflows. I was able to import the Message and Event ones. When I try to import the Contacts one it actually replaces the Messages one. I can see an information text in red in the import window that says it's going to replace the Messages workflow. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

 

You're not doing anything wrong. It's my fault… I created the workflows one after the other, duplicating the first one and editing for the next one and forgot to update the bundle ID for the Contact workflow 

I just corrected the problem and re-uploaded the workflows on the server. Thanks a lot for the heads up (and I wonder why I didn't get any sort of warning on my own Mac)

If you redownload them from the same link, importing should be fine now.

Sorry about that.

 

(and BTW, I'm glad people find these workflows useful!)

 

 

          Corentin

Edited March 18, 2013 by cortig

[abneyj]

Thanks! That works for me now. And yes, I'm finding these workflows very useful. Thank you very much for developing them!

[rosenkrieger]

I would like to use this with Entourage 2008, any chances someone with more abilities than me can achieve this? 

[cortig]

The workkflows can be adapted to Entourage of course.

It requires changing the search scope (the indexable files are somewhere in the Cache I believe. Not sure) and the File Type.

I don't have Entourage on my computer right now and I need to find one around me that has it, but I'll do my best to create new Entourage workflows.

 

 

 

          Corentin

[cortig]

I would like to use this with Entourage 2008, any chances someone with more abilities than me can achieve this? 

 

OK, I started playing with it.

Let me provide some details:

I don't have Entourage on my Mac. I am therefore quite limited for quite a few of the technical aspects, which include: 

- I can't test the workflow. It's a simple search, so it can't do any damage, but I can't even test that it works at all and all the machines I found with Entourage on them weren't recent enough to run Alfred.

- I can't use the corresponding default Entourage file icons, so the workflow I put together for testing doesn't have cusomized icons.

- I had to use ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage/2008 as the search scope. I didn't want to restrict it any further because I can't guess what name your identity has. In outlook, it's a lot less likely that people will huse alternate names for their identities, but I have seen it in Entourage far more frequently.

That could turn out to be an issue with backed-up or alternate identities. I'm not sure whether they have Spotlight index files there (and obviously I can't test it).

 

Here's a "preview" of the workflow — only for contacts at this point. If anyone could test it and let me know what works and what doesn't, that'd be great…

It's in a temporary location on my server — not a permanent link: http://www.cortig.net/temp/Entourage2008Contacts.zip

 

 

 

          Corentin

[Darrenasmithmtm]

Hi. I have just bought Alfred. My main objective was to be abel to search for emails in my Mac Office Outlook files. I downloaded your workflows, thank you. Could you help me a little further please?

 

I would like to type into Alfred a specific email search, e.g. From: Mike, Subject: Top score, Date: 23-06-13, or anyone of these parameters - Is this possible?

[Southgirl]

I'm using PostBox instead of Outlook. I was wondering what things needed to be changed so this can be adapted (if at all). Is it possible?

[cortig]

Hi. I have just bought Alfred. My main objective was to be abel to search for emails in my Mac Office Outlook files. I downloaded your workflows, thank you. Could you help me a little further please?

 

I would like to type into Alfred a specific email search, e.g. From: Mike, Subject: Top score, Date: 23-06-13, or anyone of these parameters - Is this possible?

 

For these fields, I know which Spotlight attributes to play with:

kMDItemAuthors

kMDItemUsedDates

kMDItemTitle

 

but I'm not sure how I would put things together in Alfred within requiring a syntax that would be fairly complex…

 

This is easier done in Outlook itself and sort of defies the purpose of having a quick and simple query in Alfred.

 

FYI, you can create the search in Spotlight using this simple syntax:

kMDItemUsedDates:2013-06-23 kMDItemAuthors:Mike kMDItemTitle:"Top Score" kind:Olk14_Message

 

 

          Corentin

[cortig]

I'm using PostBox instead of Outlook. I was wondering what things needed to be changed so this can be adapted (if at all). Is it possible?

 

I don't use Postbox myself, so I have no idea what the right syntax would be.

You could somehow figure it out using the mils command on a postbox message to see what's exposed to Spotlight though.

 

          Corentin

[Darrenasmithmtm]

I really appreciate your help, thank you

[Southgirl]

 

For these fields, I know which Spotlight attributes to play with:

kMDItemAuthors

kMDItemUsedDates

kMDItemTitle

 

but I'm not sure how I would put things together in Alfred within requiring a syntax that would be fairly complex…

 

This is easier done in Outlook itself and sort of defies the purpose of having a quick and simple query in Alfred.

 

FYI, you can create the search in Spotlight using this simple syntax:

kMDItemUsedDates:2013-06-23 kMDItemAuthors:Mike kMDItemTitle:"Top Score" kind:Olk14_Message

 

 

          Corentin

 

 

Well, this too technical for me, but I'll see if I can figure it out. Thanks.

[cortig]

It's not as hard as it looks.

Spotlight uses special keywords to restrict the searches.

You could enter all that string straight in Spotlight:

kMDItemUsedDates:2013-06-23 kMDItemAuthors:Mike kMDItemTitle:"Top Score" kind:Olk14_Message

 

The first keyword has the date of the item, in computer format.

The second one is for the author

The third for the title and the "Kind" restricts the search to Outlook e-mails.

 

Once you know what keywords to use, you can play with that extensively in Spotlight itself. As I was saying, you introduce too many parameters to make it practical in Alfred itself but it should be easier to use in Spotlight.

 

          Corentin

[hubutz]

Hi Corentin,

 

I tried to use the search mail workflow but it doesnt work. I can enter "oklm" and it shows up searching mails, but as soon as i enter something more it just tries to search with google. Don't know what I've done wrong. Could that be because I have a german OSX?

 

Cheers,

 hubutz

[cortig]

Hi Corentin,

 

I tried to use the search mail workflow but it doesnt work. I can enter "oklm" and it shows up searching mails, but as soon as i enter something more it just tries to search with google. Don't know what I've done wrong. Could that be because I have a german OSX?

 

The language of the OS shouldn't matter the least.

After the search keyword (oklm here), you should enter a space, then the query itself.

Eg: oklm Corentin

searches Outlook e-mails for Corentin.

 

          Corentin

[hubutz]

Hi Corentin,
 
this isn't working for me. I'd like to post screenshots but i don't get how to attach some. If i enter olkm it's all fine, even after entering olkm+space, but if i then start typing it wants to search with google.
 
Cheers, 
hubutz

[cortig]

Hi Corentin,

 

this isn't working for me. I'd like to post screenshots but i don't get how to attach some. If i enter olkm it's all fine, even after entering olkm+space, but if i then start typing it wants to search with google.

 

Cheers, 

hubutz

I really tried, but I can't reproduce the problem.

Alfred is not localized at all, so it's one more reason why having the OS in German shouldn't have any impact.

You could easily test this out by using your OS in English for a while.

 

Even with my System in German, it's working here as intended and I don't remember hearing (reading) that anybody else had the same issue.

Any chance another workflow could be intercepting the shortcut? Another app like TextExpander or Keyboard Maestro maybe?

Have you tried changing the keyword to see whether you still had the issue?

 

          Corentin

[hubutz]

Didnt have the time / chance to change the keyword yet, will try this tomorrow. TextExpander is installed but there is no shortcut for "olkm" at all.

 

I'll let you know if it worked.

 

Cheers

[hubutz]

Hi Cortig,

 

this is not changing anything. Just using Spotlight for mails then.

[cortig]

Hi Cortig,

 

this is not changing anything. Just using Spotlight for mails then.

 

I can't figure out what go be wrong in your case. I simply cannot manage to reproduce the issue.

Are you having simialr issues with other workflows, or just this one?

Have you tried the other Outlook workflows (contacts and events)?

 

          Corentin

[Michael Aaron]

Hi - is it possible to include a workflow's results in your default/fallback search results?

 

For example, I installed the Outlook workflow to search messages, events, contacts.

 

I need to type the shortcut "olkm" to search messages.  Could I just set it up so that those are always in my default search without typing the shortcut first?

[cortig]

 

Hi - is it possible to include a workflow's results in your default/fallback search results?

 

 

I'm not sure you can do that with a workflow at all. Though you can change the keyword for the workflow: simply select the workflow in the list of workflow in the Preferences of Alfred, then double-click the File Filter that says olkm. In the Basic Setup you can enter whatever shortcut (e.g.: simply o).

 

         Corentin