I use Mail.app for all of my organization, or at least all of it that happens at my computer. Having a physical inbox and a virtual one can be a pain, but having multiple virtual inboxes is sheer madness! For a while now, I’ve been sending my self todos via iCal, but thats not good enough – it requires a net connection and it doesn’t cover many usage scenarios, ie:
• I want a task that doesn’t have a particular due date
• I want a task that can be filed or tagged (using Mailtags, of course)
• I want searchable notes attached to my task
I’m sure you can think of more. So I decided to write a little App that lets you quickly write tasks and send them off to your inbox to be delegated, filed, etc. Meet Note to Self. Now, you might ask:
Why Doesn’t it do RTF? That would be cool…
No kidding. However, so far I haven’t found a way to successfully bring rtf(d) data into a mail message besides manually parsing it, using UI scripting to style the text, and the attaching all the files. Yuck. Actually I really tried hard to implement this feature (hence the toolbar and the drag-friendliness of the app) but it just doesn’t seem possible. I might consider doing just attachments though. That’s why its v0.5.
Why do tasks sometimes end up in my drafts folder instead my inbox?
I don’t know?!!? I spend several hours trying to script around Apple’s buggy Applescript support! Its crazy, unpredictable, and seemingly unpreventable, but sometimes a new task will not get moved to the inbox after being created. So I did the next best thing: every time Note To Self creates a task, it will look for ones that were left behind and try to move them again. Usually it works fine. Another reason for making this version 0.5.
Can I use this with Smart Folders?
Of course! Make a smart folder who’s criteria is any recipient containing ‘Yourself’. Since all the tasks get sent to that, your golden! You could also set up actions this way, and even have Mail auto-tags your task for you!
Doesn’t writing emails to myself mean I’m crazy?
Only if you reply to them.
Can I pay you for this?
No. Do not click here:
Download Note To Self:
My Host
MacUpdate – Link Coming…
August 7, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Greetings, and thanks for an interesting app. By the way, I am ALWAYS getting my new notes sent to Drafts and not the Inbox. Weird. I love the idea to use Smart Folders, and an awful lot of other information shows up in Mail for me, like with you.
I have one question, though. Why can’t I make a new Note to Self? I have to quit, then open again (I now use a Butler keystroke, consistent with my other “launch a template” keystrokes) to get a new Note. I also can’t get the past Note back in front without choosing Customize Toolbar to get the window back to where it’s visible.
I hope the feedback is useful. I love the idea of this app – though I’ve used a similar idea with Mail alone. I have a “template launch” of a blank email and type madly in there when on the phone, for example. It time stamps the action, for example.
That brings up one last question: is there a way to change the date of email messages? No matter what I edit, it’s not sorting differently. Any idea?
August 7, 2006 at 4:28 pm
I’ll fix that in the new release. As for it always going to your drafts box, what version of mail are you running, and what OS? The applescripting for Mail is really unpredicatable but I’ll try to make it work for as many people as possible…
August 9, 2006 at 3:49 am
I have an updated version I am testing. Please email me if you want to try it out and test it on your system (since the script it was using seems to have totally different problems on different machines).
August 9, 2006 at 9:26 am
Hi William,
Just to say that you can put your apps in http://www.iusethis.com . It’s like “Macupdate” or “Versiontracker”…well it’s not like that at all, It’s a free and groing social web site for Macintosh apps.
Meditation Timer it’s already there.
Thanks for the usefull utilities.
pedro
August 9, 2006 at 11:55 am
I am getting the first message sent to the Inbox, but additional notes get sent to drafts. Also, MailTags doesn’t seem to work. I have rules set as follows:
If Any recipient is set to Yourself
Then color the message and set the project to ActionReq.
I have a smart folder set up looking for the ActionReq tag and none of the rules apply and the smart folder doesn’t work. I am using MailTags 1.2.2 and Mail.app 2.1 275 on Tiger OSX 10.4.7
Thanks for a great concept!
August 9, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Great lil’ App. I love the idea behind id. It works fine for me other than it going to my drafts folder….
austinnate@mac.com
I plan one giving a full donation once the final bugs get worked out….
Thanks again!
August 9, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Dennis – please try Any recipient CONTAINS Yourself. I’m not entirely sure why but for whatever reason it won’t work with IS EQUAL TO.
August 16, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Will,
Like this concept but it hangs up after the second time I use it and I have to force quit. I am using the latest OS on a powerbook g4. Mailtags is not available when writing the note either. Maybe I am missing something….
September 5, 2006 at 11:46 pm
I just dl’d Note to Self and it’s writing to Drafts folder here.
December 24, 2006 at 8:19 am
I’d like your app to be able to add a date, i.e »send this not note me on 3-8-07«. Is that possible?
May 21, 2007 at 12:26 pm
It’s a nice concept — unfortunately MtS 0.5 quite often crashes Mail (2.1.1, 752.3; OS X 10.4.9 Intel); notes end up in Drafts, sometimes.
June 29, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Maybe I missed something, but where can I get this application? I did not see it linked to this post. Or is it included in Mac OS X?
Ecrivaine32@gmail.com
May 10, 2008 at 12:17 pm
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