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Mocktail Shortcut

March 26, 2019 by Jeff Perry

Jodan Merrick writing on his blog found via Supercomputer:

Instead of framing screenshots using just these images, I wanted to create mockups using different product images that are more distinctive and, in some cases, three-dimensional. The result is Mocktail, a shortcut that creates framed iOS screenshots using various device images I’ve sourced from Apple’s website (e.g., product landing pages or the online store).

This is some of the most extensive and beautiful work I have ever seen in a Shortcut. Jordan has created something incredible and I plan on using it every chance I get.

Just look at these screenshots I used with this Shortcut

Mocktail1

Mocktail2

Download this Shortcut now and follow Jordan’s blog post on getting it setup.

Filed Under: Workflow Wednesday Tagged With: shortcut, workflow wednesday

Manage Subscription

December 5, 2018 by Jeff Perry

Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels came up with a really sweet solution on how to quickly access your iTunes subscriptions. IT seems like a simple Shortcut once you get into it, but I think some of the best Siri Shortcuts are those that are so simple you wish you’d come up with it.

Apple Subscription Siri Shortcut

What this shortcut does is open a URL to Apple’s Subscription Page and from there iOS users automatically get sent to the iTunes Store app and it shows your subscriptions.

Again, a simple URL allows you to access something that would take several menus and taps to get access to otherwise. Which, to me, is a perfect example of what automation can do for you.

You can download the shortcut here and give it a go for yourself.

Filed Under: Workflow Wednesday Tagged With: shortcut, workflow, workflow wednesday

Podcast Show Notes – Workflow Wednesday

October 24, 2018 by Jeff Perry

One of the biggest things I do when I make podcasts is write show notes. I do this on both my podcasts A Slab of Glass and Getting Caught Up. Writing show notes can be a tedious affair and difficult to search through the backlog of episodes, but with this shortcut it allows me to be able to search and find every single episode’s show notes in seconds.

What this Shortcut does is take a specific formatting I use when writing my show notes and makes those top 3 lines the name of a file, with some text formatting.Format Used for Show Notes in Drafts 5[/caption]

After I have my show notes written in Markdown format, my format of choice when writing, it is time to make the magic happen. It first gets the line count of the text I have shared to Siri Shortcuts. From there it saves it as a variable for the count.

 

Once done, the shortcut grabs the first line of text from the input, in this case it is the podcast name. From there, it saves the first line as a variable called “Podcast”. Now it is on to the next line, the episode number.

For me I like to write it as “Episode ##” so that it is clear for me to read, but I don’t want the word “Episode” in the name of the file when saving it. So to remove it I use a Find and Replace Text action to find “Episode ” and replace it with nothing, effectively deleting everything but the literal episode number.

Finally, it takes the 3rd line, which is the episode date. I format my dates the way I am most comfortable with (MM-dd-yyyy). However, I am using hyphens as a means to break up the three different areas of information, so to avoid using hyphens in the naming process of the date I find and replace hyphens to make them underscores. Now the formatting of the date is MM_dd_yyyy.

Now, with all these lines saved as variables, the shortcut takes the original input of the text (all show notes, including the top lines), and sets the name for it to be the three variables I have saved, all with hyphens between them. Which makes it look something like “A Slab of Glass-19-10_19_2018.” When equates to A Slab of Glass, Episode 19, released October 19th, 2018. From here I save the text as a .txt document in Dropbox for safe keeping and search-ability if I ever need it.

Once saved, if you open the .txt file you will see it has everything as it was when I wrote it, just with a name that is now searchable and easy to distinguish among other files when needed.

You can find the workflow here and try it yourself. If you make some improvements or changes feel free to let me know on Twitter.

This shortcut is just something that shows the power of Siri Shortcuts when it comes to editing text and making it your friend in the world of automation.

I plan to add more to this later on. Things like saving the file in the podcast’s respective show notes folder in Dropbox, and adding the podcast episode title in it as well. For now though, this is something that allows me to be organized and never have to think about where I left those show notes again.

Filed Under: Workflow Wednesday Tagged With: podcasting, workflow wednesday

Post to WordPress on iOS – Workflow Wednesday

April 11, 2018 by Jeff Perry

If you blog on iOS, sometimes you want to send a quick post to your WordPress site as soon as possible. The WordPress app on iOS has come a long way in recent years, but when you are just sending a quick post dealing with the app can be cumbersome. This is where my workflow comes in.

What it is

This workflow is quite simple on the surface. However, thanks to Workflow’s integration with WordPress, you can handle even the most advanced options on every post you share. Things like the slug, post format, tags, excerpt, etc. are all options with this workflow.

What it Does

The Workflow starts by asking you the title of the post, which is then saved for later use as a variable.

After that it asks if you have a featured image for the post. This is an option of yes or no. If you say yes, it then opens up the Photos app to select the photo you wish to be the featured image.

Finally comes the fun part. Posting a blog post on WordPress can be fairly easy, but this workflow also allows you to handle the minutia if you so choose.

Once you connect your WordPress site to Workflow you’re ready to start blogging your heart out!

Tweaks You Can Make

I have set this workflow to only ask for the categories and tags, but you can edit this workflow to ask you for more information if you want to have more control in each post you make. Simple go to the section you want to integrate with your workflow and tap the “Ask When Run” option. This will now ask you for an input every time you run the workflow.

I have also made this workflow with Rich Text in mind, if you prefer to write in Markdown you can add an action to convert rich text to Markdown if you would like. Everything I write is in Markdown, but I wanted to leave the option to you.

Also, if you prefer to select images in your iCloud or Dropbox folder instead of Photos, simple replace that action with a “Get File” action within Workflow.

You can download the workflow here. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below, or contact me.

Filed Under: Workflow Wednesday Tagged With: blogging, shortcut, wordpress, workflow

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