I had emailed the developer of Mail Scripts (currently 1.3.7) about helping me with an AppleScript to automate the deletion of email in Mail. After a couple emails I am now helping him beta test his new versions of Mail Scripts, 2.0.

Beta testing software is great, especially if it helps you do work faster. I have beta tested Path Finder for some time now, and have contributed much to its design and functionality. Path Finder is another product that helps me save time.

Mail Scripts 1.3.7 are a set of AppleScript's for use with Mail and Address Book. They work pretty well. With the upcoming 2.0 scripts, they will now have a UI because the developer, Andreas Amann, has rewritten them using Panther's Xcode Tools, Interface Builder, and AppleScript. This makes these scripts into small applications, and makes them much easier to use.

Click on the name to see a screen shot.

Add Addresses - You can add multile addresses to Address Book. This, like all the scripts, reads the messages that you have selected and gathers the names and email addresses from the To, From, CC, and BCC (I think) fields.

Archive Messages - You can archive and export messages. Export options are to text or mbox format. You have the choice to narrow your archive/export by date, read status, and flagged status. The archived emails go into a newly created mailbox folder Archived Messages (Date Archived). This is very handy to me as I am archiving by month a lot of my mailboxes, such as my Sent box.

Change SMTP Server - This is a much quicker way to change your SMTP Server then going into Preferences, although it does the same exact thing. Why would you use this? When I go down to my dad's house, I have to use the SMTP of his host to be able to send email.

Remove Duplicate Messages - At first just comparing Message ID's, it now compairs the raw text of the message body as well. I found that it found a number of false positives with only the comparison of the Message ID's. You would think that every email has a unique Message ID, but in some cases, there are duplicate Message ID's that are not truly duplicate messages. Since this script compares the message body, it can take a while depending on how many messages you have.

Send all Drafts - This does exactly what is says, it sends all drafts.

Mail and Address Book have large AppleScript dictionaries which allow almost every aspect of these programs to be scripted, and these small applications show the potential of exploiting these AppleScript dictionaries.

Be sure to check the site for the final 2.0 version soon, and give them a try. They just might save you some time.

Originally posted on Breaking Windows.