
I started using the fantastic app “Wunderlist” for my personal Task Management on the Mac, of course with synchronisation to iPhone and the web.
Before I used to write all my To-dos simply into the Stickies.app – which worked, but was not too flexible. While migrating all pending Tasks from my notes, I realized that I’d love to be able to use the right-click-contextmenu to send the current text selection to Wunderlist. As I have done similiar things already for image manipulations, etc. using an Automator Service, I knew where to start for my new requirement
Thanks to a Blog post from James O’Donnell on Scribd, I got my hands quickly on the required AppleScript. However, I didn’t like the fact that he made the script ask for a new User Input which will be created as new task – rather than just taking the currently selected text. So I adjusted his AppleScript code as follows:
on run
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "c" using {command down}
end tell
set inputText to the clipboard as Unicode text
tell application "Wunderlist"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Wunderlist"
keystroke "i" using {command down}
keystroke "n" using {command down}
keystroke "v" using {command down}
keystroke (ASCII character 3)
end tell
end tell
end tell
end run
Don’t worry, you don’t have to build the Automator Service yourself – attached to this Blog post I included the finished workflow file you can use (which takes always the selected text as input for a new Wunderlist task).
Install Automator Service
→ Download my OSX Wunderlist Automator Workflow
- Unzip the file
- Double-click the .workflow file and confirm with “Install”
How-to use
- Select any text in any application (f.eg. Mail)

- Right-click the selected text & choose “Add to Wunderlist” from the context-menu

- Tadaa – the selection has been added as new Task in Wunderlist!

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I had to modify your script a bit to make it work on the latest version of Wunderlist:
on run
tell application “System Events”
keystroke “c” using {command down}
end tell
set inputText to the clipboard as Unicode text
tell application “Wunderlist”
activate
tell application “System Events”
tell process “Wunderlist”
keystroke “i” using {command down, shift down}
keystroke “v” using {command down}
keystroke (ASCII character 3)
end tell
end tell
end tell
end run
Awesome, thank you for the code fix!
It seems Wunderlist 2 is out! Though I have never used Wunderlist and never heard of it until your post here, I thought I’d let you know.
http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/14/wunderlist-2-lands-on-the-ipad-as-a-universal-app/
Thank you Martin. Actually Wunderlist 2 is already out for quite some time
Honestly I have to admit, that I stopped using Wunderlist as my Task Management App. I switched to Apple’s Reminder.app – and I am very happy with it.
Oh, since when has it been out? By the way: Reminders.app is good, but I still just use my brain. If you don’t use it, it will become weak!