For those on the Insider track with Microsoft, Outlook offers a new design option – but it seems that Hook does not work after switching to the new design. Are there any plans to update Hook to make it work with the new Outlook design on the Mac?
I looked into scripting this myself, but the new version doesn’t seem to support AppleScript — at least not until the option to revert back to old version is removed.
I had a promising experience yesterday with the “New Outlook” (the one you can toggle on at the top of the app window). I was trying it out along with the Todoist plugin, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Todoist plugin creates a task in Todoist that links back to the Outlook message across devices — sort of. I say “sort of” because when you click the link, the linked Outlook message opens in a web browser (the web version of Microsoft 365, in my case), not the Outlook app.
This isn’t ideal, but it is completely workable for me. I can use the new Outlook Mac app for most of what I do, except for those instances where I need to call up a message (in which case the message loads in a browser).
This link even works across my devices (iPhone included) in my limited testing. You still can’t move a message to a new folder without breaking the link.
I don’t have the know-how to see how Todoist is doing it, as there are no user-exposed links in the new Outlook. I suspect the app might be a web wrapper of some sort, but if someone were to figure this out and bring it into Hook, I would forever be in awe.
@LucB - FWIW, I am able to create a Hook link to a specific email using the “old” version of Outlook and open that same email with the Hook link on the “New Outlook”.
Does this mean that Hook might now be compatible with “New Outlook”?
For reasons too boring to get into here, I can’t switch back to the “old” Outlook to test this, but if Hook started working with the new Outlook, even partially via the methods discussed in this thread, that would be magical.
It looks like the next release of new outlook will not have AppleScript Support. We need to look into plugins, and try to elicit more support from Microsoft. I would hope that Apple’s June statement that AppleScript will remain will motivate Microsoft as it seems to have some other companies.
It seems that the only app that can link to an email in outlook is microsoft todo (perhaps also onenote).Other options to establish a link to an email is use the evernote extension, download to DT or print to a pdf.
If you are stuck with outlook, the options are really limited to integrate emails into workflows outside microsoft apps.
thanks, @ashish. One thing I haven’t looked at in a long time with Outlook is whether they expose the RFC-5322 ID of messages in a “show header” command, and whether one could actually trigger a search for that ID that would find the email by ID. If they have a plugin interface to search, then that would at least allow unidirectional links to point to outlook emails. One could then find the info in Hook using Hook’s search (or one could write an AppleScript or something to quickly invoke Hook on the ID). I am pretty sure I looked at that in the early days of Outlook integration but have not revisited this possible work-around, and Outlook has changed a bit since then so maybe that’s now possible (but it’s Microsoft so I am not holding my breath).
Related considerations are why we introduced the Copy a New Unique ID feature and “Search links”. Search links currently rely on spotlight, but that could be improved to be app-specific or multi-app.
Interesting. I’ve never really understood where Spotlight searches are useful, at least with the apps I use.
Have you used this in practice with email? What do you use for the search string? And how do you use Unique ID in this scenario to link to an email you receive, or is that just to tag emails you send?
It has been along time since I’ve tried it in mail. The idea came in pre Hook days, and then in Hook days as a way to find information for apps that we hadn’t integrated with. The idea was to include an ID in the PS of the email that could then be used in Spotlight.
Another example would be Ulysses which lacks an API for linking. One can rely on UX scripting. Another approach would be to create a unique ID and paste it into a document as an anchor. Spotlight can then find it. You’d want it to be hidden from the printout however. I don’t use Ulysses so I don’t know how to do the hiding. I think I covered other cases, particularly involving OmniOutliner, in screencasts in Cognitive Productivity with macOS: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge but I can’t remember now. I hope to update that book later this year. (I’m also working on a new book [very part time].)
Almost all the software I use day to day is sufficiently linkable that I don’t need the ID’s much.
I do sometimes use GUID’s for deep linking in .txt files. I put them in Markdown comments. Also in OmniOutliner comments. Between files, I paste a hook://file/ link, and I tack the GUID next to it, which I manually copy and then search for. They can also be used as tags since uniqueness is not strictly enforced (i.e., you can paste the same ID in multiple locations). The idea is similar to links in that often one doesn’t want to bother thinking up a tag or ID name. Just use some random string that clearly looks like an ID.
Microsoft added AppleScript support to the Outlook product roadmap in Ticket 88537 which is scheduled for General Availability in June 2022.
AppleScript is a language used to automate the actions of the MacOS and many of its applications. We will add support for this feature in the new Outlook for Mac.
Feature ID: 88537
Added to roadmap: 12/8/2021
Last modified: 12/8/2021
Product(s): Outlook
Cloud instance(s): GCC, Germany, GCC High, Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant), DoD
Platform(s): Mac
Release phase(s): Current Channel, Current Channel (Preview), General Availability
We encourage anyone who uses Microsoft Outlook and values interoperability to encourage Microsoft to make Outlook linkable. Please see Contacting Microsoft about making Microsoft Outlook emails linkable via AppleScript automation – Hook. Please feel free to share that webpage on social media , including Microsoft in the communications. If you have the twitter handle for the Microsoft Outlook for Mac prime , please include them.