DesktopEmailApp

Kay C Lan lan.kc.macmail at gmail.com
Tue Jun 16 01:44:36 EDT 2009


On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Joe Lewis Wilkins <pepetoo at cox.net> wrote:

> With OSX Leopard, I believe iPhoto has features that let you do this
> already. Just drag your photos over from iPhoto and drop them onto your
> email.
>
> As Joe pointed out, in iPhoto you can simply select a range of photos or an
'Event' then click on the Email icon lower right and it will automatically
open Mail with the attached photos ready for you to add Subject, To and any
necessary text.

If you wanted something a little more automated you could use... Automator.

I did the following quick test:

created a new custom automator task.

added 'Ask for Text' from the Text Library and filled in the Question and
default Answer boxes. I deselected 'Require an answer'

added 'New Mail Message' from the Mail Library and included a default
Subject - 'Latest Photos'

added 'Get Selected Items' from the Photos Library

added 'Add Attachments to Front Message' from the Mail Library

added 'Get Specified Address Book Items' . I created a custom Address Book
group, RevTest and then in this Automator action clicked the Add... button
to include this group of emails. NOTE my first test failed because there
some addresses in there that didn't have email address so you need to ensure
any group you include, all members have an email address.

added 'Group Mailer' from the Mail Library and deselected Add Greeting.

For my test I stopped here because I didn't actually want to send out any
emails but you would need to finish with 'Send Outgoing Messages' from the
Mail Library as the last action.

Then from the File Menu select 'Save as Plug-in' with a suitable name like
'photos2RevTest' - that way you could create several plug-ins if you had
several different mail groups you might send to. Select the 'Plug-in for:
Finder button to 'Script Menu'. If you don't already have the 'S' script
menu icon up near your menubar clock, it will now appear with the newly
created plug-in listed at the bottom.

To test (I suggest first without the 'Send Outgoing Messages'), start
iPhoto, select an Event with a couple of photos and then go to the 'S'
script menu and select your plug-in. As each action runs the name of the
action appears in the menubar with a STOP icon next to it if you need to
stop Automator.

You see Mail start up, a new message created, your text added to it, your
photos appended to the bottom, then a copy of the message is created for
each address you wish to send it too.

THE PROBLEM here is obviously that the system was designed so that you can
create an 'individual' email, personalised for each person, not send one
generic email with a bunch of addresses (SPAM). If you are only sending to a
few people this may work for you.

HTH



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