Every once in a while, the idea for a script comes to me while
I'm sitting there looking at the pile of phone messages on my
desk. Well at least that's how it happened this time!
At first I started thinking that I should buy some of those
"While You Were Out" pads
for the guys in the office.
Then I started thinking about what that would accomplish. Sure
the
little pieces of paper would be prettier and pink, but what
would that really change beside making my desk look girly as
well as cluttered? I still wouldn't be able to read the notes
scribbled on them and I still wouldn't get my messages until I
got back to my desk and found them stuck to my monitor. So
forgetting for a moment about the fact that I actually have
voicemail, I decided to whip up this little script to send
phone messages to people via email. That's really all it does,
but that's really all it needs to do.
The format is really up to you, but I happen to like those little
pink pieces of paper so I modeled my form after one of them.
While I couldn't bring myself to actually make it pink, you'll
find all the usual spaces replicated in this electronic version.
Once I had the basic script written, I knew that as soon as
I posted it I'd get a request for it to read in the names
from a DB or text file. So that ability is in
here too! (The recipient isn't being used so that you can
actually play with the script online, but the code's there for
you to use once you post this to your intranet.)
It's definitely for smaller businesses or for a single
department, but if you're company is as email centric as
ours is, you might just find it does the trick and if you really
miss the little pads, just change the background color to pink
and you'll feel right at home.
