learnings
iOS 16 introduced new lock screen widgets! Rather that installing various third party widdgets, I want to create my own using Scriptable. Here is a simple “universal” widget to launch an application or a Shortcut (bonus: or even the home screen too!)
In my last post, “Re-mapping physical function keys on MacBook Pros” I used the hidutil tool to re-map the function keys on a Mac without a touchbar. I’ve since created a script to more easily apply changes.
One common ask from M1 (Apple Silicon / ARM) MacBook Pro users is to be able to re-define what the top row of physical function keys do, for example, to change the Dictation (F5) key to decrease the keyboard backlight brightness and DND (F6) to increase it, similar to other Macs. Here’s how to do that... and more!
I was not satisfied with my last macOS Shortcut to convert image format and paste. The simple version forced me to choose between PNG and JPEG, and the complex version was too slow - specifically, the Find All Windows action. So here we go again...
In the macOS Monterey Shortcuts Gallery, there are Shortcuts to “Tile Last 2 Windows”, “Tile Last 3 Windows” and “Tile Last 4 Windows”. This is my single combined version for any window (not just the last x).
I have a hangup about Microsoft Office on macOS - it often elects to paste images from the clipboard in TIFF format, instead of PNG or JPG, which results in massive files, be it PowerPoint .PPTX presentations, Word .DOCX documents or Excel .XLSX spreadsheets. Enter: A new macOS Shortcut to convert clipboard images to (lossless) PNG or (lossy) JPG.
This is an opinion piece on Shortcuts v5.0 (1144.2) for macOS Monterey v12.0.1. Readers of my blog know I use Automator, AppleScripts, and shell scripts to get stuff done. So I was curious to see if I could replace all these with just Shortcuts. TL;DR: no, no I can’t.
Here is a macOS Shortcut to take a screenshot and extract text from it using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). I find this useful to copy text from e.g. a presentation or video during a virtual call, etc.
I’ve been trying out Shortcuts on macOS 12 Monterey! I have written about Shortcuts on iOS/iPadOS in the past, so was keen to migrate my automation scripts from Automator or osascript to Shortcuts. Here is the first one: A Shortcut plus global hotkey to an application, leveraging AppleScript/JXA.
Here is a quick iOS Shortcut to join Cisco WebEx personal rooms by email name. In my organization, once logged in to Cisco WebEx, we can join a colleague’s personal meeting room just by his or her email name. Here is a shortcut to either:
Here’s how I “changed” an app’s home screen icon on iPhone. I’m so OCD that I want my home screen dock icons (the tray at the bottom) to be all of the same colour! Actually, changing an icon is not possible, but creating a new shortcut with an icon of my choice is!
It's pretty easy to get Picture in Picture (PiP) in Safari on macOS - just a right-click twice - and if that didn't work, I described simple workaround by disabling JavaScript. Here I have a Workflow.is App based workaround to enable PiP in YouTube in Safari on iOS. This allows me to surf (or work) while having a video running in a tiny floating window on my iPad.
In August 2016, GE's CEO said he wanted every new hire to learn to code. And I must say, I do agree! In today's digital, data-driven, self-service world, everyone should learn to code. But, to clarify, I'm not necessarily referring to programming in C# or Swift (like I do), but rather "coding" for automation.
By now you have realized that the latest version of the Workflow App no longer has deep integration to Google Maps. That's not too big a deal, since you can make do with the Workflow Open URLs function. Here's how...
Does your service provider differentiate between standard or "premium" IDD and "budget" IDD like mine does? Typically, the standard + international call prefix will default to the premium option, but to use the the cheaper option, usually via voice-over-IP (VoIP), one has to specific a different carrier-defined prefix, e.g. 12300 (I just made this up, check with your telco). I can't find a built-in way to do this on iOS... enter the Workflow App!
Here's how to retrieve and display the latest exchange rate for two currencies with the Workflow App (though one could just use Numbers on iOS or macOS too).
I've been playing with the Workflow.is App recently, and this one is pretty cool - using Workflow to scan and generate a QR Code with Contact information.
I love that iOS includes the Oxford Dictionary. I dislike that iOS has not provided a simple way for me to lookup a word, unlike on macOS, which has Dictionary. Here's the fix with the Workflow.is app!
Apple acquired Workflow today, and Workflow is now free in the App Store! Workflow (http://workflow.is)is a powerful yet simple rule-based automation tool. One pre-built workflow is to lookup your next calendar meeting, retrieve the location if there is one, and pop up directions in Maps - all this from a single button click.
If you are new to Workflow, here is a short tutorial to use Workflow to track travel expenses.