The mouse plays such an integral role in how we access our computers, it’s not likely that any one of us could make it through the day without it! But like any tool, the mouse has its place. There are certain applications where it does very well (graphics design), and others where it is more of a crutch. And while (at times) it may be a necessary crutch, if you lean on this thing to manage the brunt of your electronic workflow, one day, you will certainly… CLICK… YOURSELF… TO DEATH…!

Now somewhere along the way, Microsoft Entourage has become the nerve center (or perhaps, the epicenter) of my daily activity. And this makes perfect sense. Fifty percent of my Action Items start in my email Inbox, and MS Entourage is, quite clearly, an EMAIL-CRUNCHING SUPER-MUNCHER!

(you get the point).

One of the things that makes Entourage so appealing, is that it can cross-reference everything by category and by project. So naturally, these are the two fields that we click the most. And this is exactly where we’ll look to start de-mousing our user interface experience…

Assign Categories

Here we have the Assign Categories dialog. It comes pre-installed with Entourage and will be our first stop towards building a mouse-free workflow.

Here’s how it works:

1. Start by creating a sample task. Load Entourage and hit ⌘-5 to open Task View. Type ⌘-N and a new “Untitled” task window appears.
2. Hit ⌘-; and the Assign Categories window pops up.
3. Start typing the name of the category you want and watch as this line-item is instantly highlighted for you in the Assign Categories window.
4. To select (or deselect) the item, hit the Space Bar.
5. You can then start typing the name of the next category you want or hit Enter to confirm your choice.

Assign Projects

Likewise, we can use the Assign Projects dialog to cross-reference our task by project (entirely from our keyboard).

“Hugh…? What…? How!?” says Bill.

Okay, you got me. Entourage doesn’t have an Assign Projects dialog. But that doesn’t mean we can’t add one…!

I give you… Assign Projects 1.0. This script works in much the same way as Assign Categories. It displays a list of projects in Entourage; any project that is already linked to your selected item (task/note/email/etc.) will be pre-selected when the window opens. Start typing the project’s name and the dialog selects it for you. You can also make multiple selections by ⌘ (or Shift) clicking additional projects (although I don’t think I’d recommend this, and of-course it wouldn’t be… mouse free).

Requirements

1. The Assign Projects plug-in uses something called GUI Scripting to work its magic. It’s not really important that you know what this means, except that Entourage 2008 blows chunks whenever you try to run anything with GUI scripting in it from its script menu!

   To side-step this… uuuh… difficulty, you’ll want to download and install FastScripts by RedSweater Software. This utility takes the place of your Entourage Script Menu, and (unlike Leopard’s own Script Menu) it will also let you create a keyboard shortcut to launch the Assign Projects script (I suggest Ctrl-;).

2. Microsoft Entourage 2008 (of course)

Installation

1. Download and install FastScripts here.
2. Download the Assign Projects archive and unzip the file to your Desktop. Move the uncompressed file to your “~/Library/Scripts/Microsoft Entourage/” folder (go ahead and create this if it does not exist).
3. When you launch FastScripts for the first time, the Microsoft Entourage folder should appear in its the drop-down menu. Select “Preferences”, then “Script Shortcuts” and double-click the column next to the “Assign Projects” script to enter your desired key sequence.

   Close the FastScripts Preferences pane, and you’re done!

Usage

The first time you launch Assign Projects, you may see a message, warning that “GUI Scripting is not enabled.” Just click “OK” and you’ll be taken to the Universal Access pane in System Preferences. Check the box that says “Enable access for assistive devices”.

The next time you run the script, everything should work fine. Simply select the desired task/note/or event/etc. that you want to process (or create a new item with ⌘-N), hit the Assign Projects key sequence (you setup this up in FastScripts) and Voila!

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank Paul Berkowitz Matt Neuburg for their insights into GUI Scripting with Microsoft Entourage; and also to Colleen Brown for requesting this article.