Apple Mail – Select Current Line in Front Outgoing Message

Macro Library
,
1

Hey Folks,

I use “select line” all the time in my programming editors and was recently missing it enough in Apple Mail to do something about it.

Unfortunately using simple key aliases in a macro caused some side-effects due to all of my customizations, so I wrote an AppleScript that requires the front window to be an outgoing email.

For speed I put all the actions in the AppleScript as raw XML and run them directly with the Keyboard Maestro Engine.

This will run a trifle faster if you convert the text AppleScript to a compiled script.

I'm running it from FastScripts myself, and that's a little faster yet on my machine.

Basically all I'm doing is running the emacs emulation available in Cocoa apps.

⌃A
⌃⇧E

And this will select a paragraph if there is one.

To select only the current line use this key combination:

⌘⇠
⌘⇧⇢

Enjoy.

-Chris

Select ⇢ Current Line ⇢ Outgoing Message v1.00.kmmacros (6.9 KB)

2

Chris, can you please post just the AppleScript you used without the XML?

Chris, are you saying that this does not work for you?

Works fine for me manually, but have not tried it in a script.

3
AppleScript complete with XML for Keyboard Maestro Actions. 
----------------------------------------------------------------
# Auth: Christopher Stone
# dCre: 2019/02/25 09:41
# dMod: 2019/02/25 09:41 
# Appl: Mail, Keyboard Maestro Engine, System Events
# Task: Select the Current Line in the Current Outgoing Message.
# Libs: None
# Osax: None
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @Keyboard_Maestro_Engine, @Mail, @System_Events, @Select, @Current, @Line, @Outgoing, @Message
# Vers: 1.00
----------------------------------------------------------------

--» XML for Keyboard Maestro Actions to run Directly from AppleScript.
set macroXML to "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC \"-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN\" \"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd\">
<plist version=\"1.0\">
<array>
   <dict>
      <key>KeyCode</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
      <key>MacroActionType</key>
      <string>SimulateKeystroke</string>
      <key>Modifiers</key>
      <integer>4096</integer>
      <key>ReleaseAll</key>
      <false/>
      <key>TargetApplication</key>
      <dict/>
      <key>TargetingType</key>
      <string>Front</string>
   </dict>
   <dict>
      <key>KeyCode</key>
      <integer>14</integer>
      <key>MacroActionType</key>
      <string>SimulateKeystroke</string>
      <key>Modifiers</key>
      <integer>4608</integer>
      <key>ReleaseAll</key>
      <false/>
      <key>TargetApplication</key>
      <dict/>
      <key>TargetingType</key>
      <string>Front</string>
   </dict>
</array>
</plist>
"

set continueMacro to false

tell application "System Events"
   tell application process "Mail"
      tell (first window whose subrole is "AXStandardWindow")
         if static text "To:" exists then
            set continueMacro to true
         else
            display notification "Front Window is NOT an Outgoing Message!" with title "Cmd-L" subtitle "" sound name "Tink"
         end if
      end tell
   end tell
end tell

if continueMacro then
   tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
      do script macroXML
   end tell
end if

----------------------------------------------------------------

AppleScript to Detect whether Mail’s frontmost window is an Outgoing Message (extracted from the script above). 
----------------------------------------------------------------
# Auth: Christopher Stone
# dCre: 2019/02/25 09:41
# dMod: 2019/02/26 05:42
# Appl: Mail, System Events
# Task: Determine Whether the Frontmost Window is an Outgoing Message.
# Libs: None
# Osax: None
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @Determine, @Detect, @Frontmost, @Window, @Outgoing, @Message
# Vers: 1.00
----------------------------------------------------------------

tell application "System Events"
   tell application process "Mail"
      tell (first window whose subrole is "AXStandardWindow")
         if static text "To:" exists then
            set continueMacro to true
         else
            display notification "Front Window is NOT an Outgoing Message!" with title "Cmd-L" subtitle "" sound name "Tink"
         end if
      end tell
   end tell
end tell

----------------------------------------------------------------

The keystrokes themselves work fine.

But if I activate them without making sure I'm editing text, they do unexpected things.

Hence the macro to MAKE SURE I'm working with an outgoing message.

-Chris