Use Automator to enable faster web link sharing
While browsing, I often send interesting links to a colleague of mine. Every time I want to do this I need to copy the URL, open the Mail.app, fill in his info, paste the address and send the e-mail. As I am doing this about 4-5 times a day, it starts to be a little annoying to do all these repetitive steps. There is an easier way to do this by using Automator. http://restdeals.us/deals/moes
I just need to note that this works with Safari. I am still testing similar scenarios for other browsers. First we need to create an Automator workflow. The first action we will use is Mail -> New Mail Message. Here we will setup the needed e-mail message fields, as well as the account that will be used for sending. Personal essay writer
The second action will be Mail -> Send Outgoing Messages. This action sends the e-mail.
You need to save the workflow as an application.
To make things easier copy the application link to the dock. As the Automator applications have the standard icon, it is best to change it, as it would be confusing to have two Automator icons in the dock (one for your new application and the other for the Automator app).
Now when you want to share a link with your colleague, just drag and drop the web site address icon located on the left side of the URL to the dock shortcut for your application.
Your colleague will receive the URL in Apple Webloc format and by clicking it the URL will open in the web browser.
Btw, as you probably figured out, you can use this application or a simple variation of it for sending any kind of files to the same colleague.
Comments
I discovered this on the internet.
cmd I sends the whole page in mail to whom ever you address the mail to.
shift cmd I sends just the link to that page to your recipient
Posted by: Anonymous | January 3, 2006 03:18 PM
This seems like alot more work than going to the File menu and selecting either "Mail Contents of This Page" or "Mail Link to This Page"
Posted by: Jason | January 3, 2006 05:52 PM
Well, when you do the Automator app, "my" way is a bit faster. It suits me better as it is just drag and drop. I also use this for sending other files to the same person. Before this app I used "Mail Link to This Page" method...
Posted by: Berislav | January 3, 2006 07:24 PM
Cool tool, but unfortunately i am a PC user and cant use it, anything like that for Mozilla Firefox
Posted by: srinivas | January 4, 2006 06:43 AM
This is fine and dandy if you only send things to Mac users. Other mail systems will just not interpret it correctly and the link will be useless.
Posted by: Bichufo | January 5, 2006 12:23 PM
Ever hear of bookmarklets?
The following should work for any browser and any mail client:
javascript:location.href='mailto:?subject='+document.title+'&body='+escape(location.href)
Just add the above as a toolbar bookmark, and click to email the link. Simple.
Posted by: Jeff Sauer | January 21, 2006 04:53 AM
Good article. I think responders missed the important point that you can make a custom email that will send a selected web page to the same person without having to type that person's name.
I have a similar Automator action in which every time I save an article to a particular folder, an email will be prepared and the saved file attached to it, and of course the editor's email address will be included. Nice, simple time saver.
Posted by: Bakari | April 11, 2006 01:29 AM