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cypriot

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
242
30
Hello,

I had snow leopard on my macbook but I have switched to lion and now Mountain lion. When I was using SL I created a shortcut in services menu to send a new mail with attachment from the selected file. I selected the file and pressed CMD+SHIFT+E and it opened a new mail attaching the file selected.

Because of my work I send files all day and I got used to this method. I still look for it every time i send a mail with attachment. I know its not hard to click and add attachment from share context menu but I really prefer and look for the old method.

Is there a way to create such shortcut again or should i get used to this one? Why would they change this? I mean it is just an option and why would they take it back.

Thanks for your help.
 

James_C

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2002
2,815
1,819
Bristol, UK
Unfortunately Apple for some reason took this service away in the current release of mountain lion, but it is easy to add it back with Automator.

Open Automator and select service for a new document, then click the choose button.

Automator Choose Service.png

Then under Service receives drop-down select files or folders and leave in any application selected.

Then from the Library panel on the right, select Mail and drag the action New Mail Message to the workflow window.

Automator Workflow Build.png

Now save the service to something like 'Attach and Mail'

Attach_and_Mail.png

Now go to your system preferences folder  > System Preferences, and select keyboard, then keyboard shortcuts.

Click on Services and you should see the new service that you created - 'Attach and Mail'. Click on the button that says Add shortcut and enter ⇧⌘E.

Keyboard.png

Now each time you select a file and hit ⇧⌘E a new email will be created with your attachment. You can even use the new email form in Automator to pre- populate some of the email details.

Hope this helps.
 

cypriot

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
242
30
mail

Hello,

Thanks for your efforts. It is a really good description. However I couldn't get it to work. I followed your guide step by step and I checked if everything is fine a couple of times. I will try once more and see what happens.

I really can't accept this idea that they taken back an option freely available. I think it might be a mistake or a bug that has gone unattended. Thanks anyway.

Ok i have been able to do it. I did mistake in changing the option above the mail box screen. I guess many tricks can be done via this automator. I will start to discover it now. Thanks for your help.
 
Last edited:

James_C

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2002
2,815
1,819
Bristol, UK
It definitely works for me. Either there is a problem with the service or your shortcut is not working. To check the service is working correctly run it manually. In finder find a file that you want to email. The run the service manually, Finder>Services>Attach and Email (or whatever you named it).

See screenshot

Fullscreen_11_01_2013_09_45-4.png

Also in Mail preferences make sure that under the general tab that your default mail reader is set to Mail.
 
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