Do I need to write a script for...[Mail address processing]

[Maritan]

I'm using Mail to receive and send email on my PB 15" running 10.3.2.

Now, with the start of a semester and me being a TA, I want to tell my students to email me with a particular subject line. I have set up rules in Mail that will move the email to its appropriate folder. I also want to automatically take the email address and put it in a group that I have already created in Address Book.

If I had about 10 students, it wouldn't be a problem - I would move the addresses manually, but I have 144 students this time!

So, I need to automate this process. I have looked under Mail ->Preferences ->Rules to see if I could automate it, but I didn't see anything.

Have I missed something obvious? Or, do I have to read up on AppleScript and write my own script for this? Or, is there already some sort of script that does this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[robotrenegade]

The best advice I have is, once you get the stundents emails hit the add to address book button to move it. Then in address book make a new group and move them to that folder. I hope this helps.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Did you check out the "Sender is member of group" option for the rules?

Seems that should do it for you...

[edit - Nevermind, I read your problem backwards.]

 

[Maritan]

Robotrenegade - That is precisely what I don't want to do. 144 students is a little too much to do manually. I'm too lazy!

Rower_CPU - The "Sender is member of group" option is to check if the sender is already a member of a group. So, the address has to already exist in the group and based on that Mail will complete some action that I specify. This option does not give me the possibility of moving the address of the sender to the Address Book.

Edit - Rower, alright you realized.

 

[Maritan]

Bump!

Anybody, have any ideas?

 

[Rower_CPU]

Have you tried searching an Applescripting sites, Google searches, etc? Seems like what you want is a pretty unique behavior.

I found one thing on Apple's site that might get you part way there:

http://www.apple.com/applescript/mail/
Create New Mailing List Mailbox - This script will look at the selected messages for headers that indicate it is from a mailing list. If present, it will create a mailbox named after the mailing list, and create a rule that will direct future messages from that mailing list into the newly created mailbox.

 

[Maritan]

Thanks Rower, for

1. Making the title more specific. I knew I should have. My bad.

2. For directing me to the script. That does seem to be a good starting point.

I still do need to figure out the syntax for AppleScript, and also how scripts work with the Address Book. Better get busy with that!

 

[Rower_CPU]

No problem, and have fun scripting.