shortcuts

Link

Get Apple News Original URLs Using This Shortcut

Andrew Orr ·

A Mac app called StopTheNews has been making the news rounds lately. It lets you open Apple News original URLs directly in Safari. I wanted to share a shortcut that does the same thing on iOS.

Share an Apple news article to this shortcut, and get the original URL back. Prompt at the end lets you pick between copying the URL to your clipboard or sharing it somewhere else.

Unlike macOS, you can open an Apple News article in Safari on iOS. Then from Safari you can copy the URL. But this shortcut removes that step, so you can share the article to the shortcut, then copy the URL to the clipboard or share it elsewhere.

Link

These Academic Shortcuts Help You Maximize Your Research

Andrew Orr ·

Last night I came across a website called Appademic, which shares academic shortcuts that can help students and researchers. One example is a shortcut that gives you better BibTeX citation keys for Pandoc.

This is the long awaited iOS Shortcut for Zotero to extract Better BibTeX citation keys for Pandoc. I know a fair few people have been waiting on this, apologies it has taken so long to post. If you need more detail, read on, otherwise the shortcut can be downloaded below.

Scriptable Can Make Shortcuts and Siri More Powerful
Cool Stuff Found

Scriptable Can Make Shortcuts and Siri More Powerful

Andrew Orr ·

Scriptable is an automation tool that enables you to write scripts that integrates with native features of iOS such as files, calendars, reminders, documents and much more. An extensive support for Siri Shortcuts enables you to present images, tables and more in Siri as well as making Siri read out loud a text when you run a script from a Siri Shortcut. Your scripts can be run from the Scriptable app, from a Siri Shortcut or from other apps using the share sheet extensive or Scriptable’s URL schemes. Features include writing and running JavaScript; auto complete of variable names, functions, keywords and properties as you type; access lots of native iOS features from your JavaScript code, including managing files, calendars, reminders, contacts, photos, location, pasteboard, web views and more. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)

Link

What Will Happen to Automation in macOS?

Andrew Orr ·

The next version of macOS will include more UIKit (iOS) apps. Rumored to be among them is Apple’s Shortcuts app. So what happens to Automator, AppleScript, and AppleEvents?

So what happens when iOS apps comes to the Mac this fall? It seems impossible that Apple will allow them to be controlled by AppleScript and Automator…Will “classic” Mac apps get the ability to be controlled via Shortcuts, too? Or will there be a schism between the two different classes of apps?

But whatever happens, it’s clear that iOS and macOS are going to face the future of user automation together, not separately.

Link

How to Use JavaScript When Creating Shortcuts

Andrew Orr ·

Redditor u/keveridge put together a nice guide on how to use JavaScript when creating Shortcuts. JavaScript lets you perform complex actions that would be hard to do with regular shortcut actions.

We make use of the Safari web browser, running within the shortcut, in order to execute the JavaScript. To do so, we:

  • make an HTML file that contains our code and provides an output;

  • pass the contents of the file to Safari as a Data URL;

  • use Get Contents of Web Page to render the page provide the output to the shortcut.

Link

Long Press Shortcuts for iOS Safari

Andrew Orr ·

I’ve covered iOS 12 tips and tricks that you might have forgotten. Now I’d like to resurface a tip from 2017 about shortcuts for iOS Safari.

You might not know it, but Safari has some hidden shortcuts tucked behind some of the icons. This will let you perform certain actions a little faster, like quickly access the desktop version of a website, add a bookmark, and even close multiple tabs at once.

Here’s a Wallpaper Generator Shortcut For Those Apple Logos
Cool Stuff Found

Here's a Wallpaper Generator Shortcut For Those Apple Logos

Andrew Orr ·

Redditor u/wexford001 made a neat wallpaper generator shortcut. It uses the Apple logos (all 370 of them) that Apple created for tomorrow’s event. Every time you tap the shortcut it generates a random image based on your device. There are both white and black versions, in case you have an iPhone with an OLED screen.

All the code to actually get the image from imgur was the work of u/hinapupina in his “imgur downloader” shortcut. I modified it a bit, but i don’t understand it well enough to have done this on my own. Thanks!

You can download the shortcut for white wallpapers here, and the black version here.

Tips

How to Add Application Shortcuts to Finder Windows

Jeff Butts ·

If you want quick access to an application on your Mac, you could put it in your Dock, of course, or you could get to it using Spotlight. But in case you didn’t know, program shortcuts can also go into the toolbar within Finder, and this can be pretty handy for your most-used apps! That’s the subject of today’s Quick Tip.