Today at 10am PST, I’ll be streaming with Apple blogger/podcaster Jason Snell to walk through using the WordPress XML-RPC protocol to post directly to one’s blog.
We’ll be live on YouTube for a half hour or so, while I recreate Jason’s shortcuts he shared on his website Six Colors for my own WordPress installation.
Join us on the stream and ask questions in the chat, or catch the replay at this link:
See you there!
This Wednesday at 12pm/7pm GMT PST, I’ll be hosting a members-only livestream on YouTube to cover some of the meta work involved with being a Shortcuts creator.
I’ll be scraping data from a .shortcut file, plus potentially going into my Airtable logging process and how I save Action data as well.
Members can access the stream live below to get a reminder when it’s live or get back to this post at the right time using shortcuts.live:
Become a member to get access to access to the stream, plus:
Welcome to Issue 44 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – I’ve returned after a week off and am back at it again!
This week we got a new beta, but it’s a bit rocky still – I’m seeing slowdowns, missing Apple Watch actions, and tweaks to permissions mean beta users have to reauthorize every step yet again.
But there’s still more to learn thanks to a handful of podcasts that’ve come out the last few weeks – and there’s some big changes to the Shortcuts Catalog I want to tease:
Welcome to Issue 43 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week we saw developer beta 4 and another public beta, bringing a new action to Shortcuts, a new feature, and stability improvements.
Plus, the newsletter finishes off with a set of Power automations, both with full screenshots and linked shortcuts you can copy yourself.
But before we get into everything, a programming note – I’m out next week on vacation, so I won’t be sending an issue next Friday, August 6th. After that, I’ll be returning to the normal schedule on August 13th.
Until then, here’s what’s new this week:
This week, I spent a lot of effort furthering my Home Screens – and I think I got to a pretty good place to write things up soon.
I also spent my time researching Shortcuts for Mac, building out Apple TV shortcuts, and working ahead on some new guides for the future.
Otherwise, there’s lot’s to share this week – let’s dig in:
One of the excellent features coming to Shortcuts for Mac is the addition of a scripting capability for the Shortcuts app itself – Apple has added AppleScript support for commands like opening and running shortcuts, even without opening the app at all.
Naturally, I immediately got excited to bring this possibility to life using the Stream Deck, a USB device from Elgato with hardware keys that can be customized to your heart’s extent (including using folders and subfolders):
The Stream Deck software for Mac allows users to add third-party plugins offered by the community, including one such plugin called “Run OSA script” that lets users input a script that gets triggered when the button is pressed:
To take advantage of this plugin, I’d need to write my own AppleScript – something I’m not super familiar with.
Thanks to this tweet from Alex Hay, developer of Toolbox Pro, I knew to use the Script Editor app to look into the capabilities of Shortcuts app by examining its’ AppleScript dictionary – here’s how:
Welcome to Issue 41 of “What’s New in Shortcuts”!
This week we saw the release of developer and public beta 3, which has brought some overall stability to iOS, but unfortunately more bugs in Shortcuts as well.
Read on for my set of free shortcuts, new member shortcuts, feedback I’ve submitted to Apple, more apps adding Shortcuts support, new automation ideas, and a spotlight on cross-platform actions with a note from the Things team – lots to enjoy this week:
Welcome to Issue 40 of “What’s new in Shortcuts” – and to mid-summer!
With the public betas out last week and another developer beta still on the way, we’re in between the latest features and fixes for common bugs – but this time I’ve pushed through the issues and made some new shortcuts for all you folks.
Plus, I discovered a handful of actions for Apple Watch and Files that I’d missed – read on to get all the details:
Welcome to Issue #39 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – the public betas are out!
The brave-hearted can sign up here on Apple’s website, but be cautious as there are many Shortcuts-related bugs specifically that you are almost guaranteed to run into.
That being said, the more Feedback filed to Apple, the merrier we’ll be with a fully-operational version of Shortcuts – I’m submitting my own regularly, so I hope you are too.
Along with that, I’ve got a lot of links to share, updates on more Mac apps getting Shortcuts support, and a preview of how Mac users can script Shortcuts itself:
If you’re like me and have long relied on the Bartender app for macOS to clean up your Menu Bar, plus you tend to live on the dangerous side and install macOS betas, then you’ll want to grab the beta of Bartender so it works on your Mac again.
Looks like it won’t support every feature of Monterey until the full release, but it’s still worth grabbing now to clean things up as best it can.
Welcome to Issue #38 of “Welcome New in Shortcuts”!
We’re now two weeks out of WWDC and, with the second developer beta now out, there’s plenty to learn about Shortcuts before the public betas come out in July.
This week, I’ve got a new interview, tons of information about Shortcuts for Mac, great ideas from r/Shortcuts, more podcast coverage, tweets about the betas from Ticci, and one previously unknown feature coming to the Mac:
Mac users can now easily automate their window management, interact with Finder, make disk images, perform actions taken from Automator, and take advantage of deeper Mac automation – plus there’s two actions not yet found in the betas.
In this 4,800-word piece (about 20 minutes average reading time), I’ll explain each of them in detail, plus give you my initial thoughts on what bringing this functionality to macOS means for the transition to Shortcuts as Apple’s main automation platform.
Become a member to get access to the post, plus:
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Welcome to “What’s New in Shortcuts?” Issue 1 of the iOS 15 season!
Before we dive in to all the exciting changes announced at Apple’s WWDC, some housekeeping:
And finally, thanks for reading!
I love sharing what’s happening with Shortcuts, passing along everything new I’m creating for the Catalog and Membership, and hearing from readers about what you’re learning – I hope you get something useful from it every week.
With all that said, here’s everything you need to know about Shortcuts coming out of Apple’s annual developer keynote – let’s dig in:
This piece (4,700 words, about 20 minutes average reading time) includes my write up of the cross-platform actions, reordered into custom groups I’ve created – I’ll be covering the Mac-only actions next week.
I’ll also be adding screenshots and example shortcuts in a future version, so members can read up now and I’ll post the full guide once the public betas release.
Become a member to get access to the full post, plus:
On episode 80 of Smart Tech Today, Mikah and I talked about the following:
Follow-ups from Google IO, Google Assistant tweaks, and smart home changes this week. Plus HomeKit gear, Apple Watch apps, and our thoughts on the latest Apple products. And our smart home predictions and picks of the week.
Last time we covered the basics, got our database IDs, pulled & opened posts, and created new entries – check out the member post to get the shortcuts we created in the first session.
This time, we went into more specific data objects as well as updating pages and creating more of a Shortcuts system on the front-end.
Become a member to get access to the stream, plus you’ll get:
Welcome to Issue 36 of “What’s New in Shortcuts”!
I’ve had the new iPad Pro and the Siri remote for Apple TV in my hands for a few days now and I wanted to give members a digest of my thoughts before I create videos on each.
Plus, I’ve got a new set of shortcuts to go along with Flexibits’ apps, new Notion shortcuts, and a bundle of good links for you all – plus how I’m using Shortcuts with Apple TV:
On episode 79 of Smart Tech Today, Mikah and I talked about:
Hello folks,
This week we’ve got new iMac and iPad Pro reviews, my iPad Pro is arriving Friday, and we’re just weeks away from WWDC and new announcements for the next year of software for Apple devices.
Plus, there are new APIs to tap into, a new IDE for Shortcuts that more coding-oriented folks can use to build shortcuts, and I’ve been playing around with several fun shortcuts as I prepare for my last few videos before the beta season – check it all out:
Here’s my livestream for the Notion API where I guide you through how to use Shortcuts with the Notion API.
We covered API basics, learned details on Notion’s specific JSON architecture, and experimented with the type of content we create in Notion – we ended up with three shortcuts (linked for members):
Catch the replay below to go back through everything – and check out part 2 as well.
Access the stream by becoming a member – plus you’ll get access to all the members-only shortcuts plus: