Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Tip 17
Create Reminders Ultra-Quickly
Imagine the situation: you receive an email from a friend reminding you to
pick up a book for him from the bookstore. Being a Mac OS X user, you know
exactly how to handle the situation: you can add an entry in the Reminders
app, which will then be shared with your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. No
more forgetting!
There's just one problem: starting Reminders and then creating the actual
entry on the list is a lot of effort and far from the casual single-click we might
expect of Apple technology.
There are two solutions to this terrible problem, as follows.
Dragging and Dropping to the Reminders App
If the mail you've received has as its subject line the nature of the reminder
(e.g., “Don't forget to pick up the topic!”), you can drag and drop the email
from the list within Mail to the Reminders icon on the Dock, or you can drag
and drop the email on top of the Reminders program window if it's open. This
will instantly create a new reminder named after the subject of the mail, and
you'll even be provided with a link to the original email within the reminder
(click Show in Mail).
If anybody has replied to the original email or if it's part of a series received
from the sender, then this trick needs a little modification—click the email
in the list so it's visible in the preview pane on the right side of the Mail win-
dow. Then move the mouse cursor over the left side of the email preview, near
the Subject and Reply-To headings. The cursor will change to a hand grabber.
You can then click and drag the mail to the Reminders app, as described
earlier.
Adding a “Create Reminder” Entry to Right-Click Menus
As easy as drag and drop is, wouldn't it be handy just to be able to select the
text in the email (i.e., “pick up the topic from the store”), then right-click, and
select a menu option that will instantly create a Reminders entry—even if
Reminders isn't running? This function isn't built into OS X but can be easily
created and will work in almost any app. The following are the necessary
steps, although there are actually two methods—the first will simply add a
 
 
 
 
 
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search