As July closes, my life is starting to calm down a little.Towards the end of July I moved house, and this is obviously quite a stressful undertaking with a family, job, and all the other wonderful elements of daily life that need to continue. We have moved from a rented place we had been in for many years to a home of our own, so whilst the move in took several days, it has taken easily twice that again to do a deep clean of the old house and sort out some issues. As a result, the expectation going into July was that I would be quite limited in my flexible time for helping people and creating stuff as I had more then enough of my own tasks and challenges to fill anyone’s day.
ThoughtAsylum
July saw just the one blog post published. This one is something I think I’ve mentioned in passing previously. It describes the details of an automation I created that allows me to shift an in progress blog posts to another date. Not infrequently I will start writing a post with the intention to publish it on a particular date only for it to not be quite ready for the date. Because of the tooling I use to publish the site, and the meta data and naming conventions I choose to use, changing the date for a blog post involves changing the file name, the file meta data, and the file names of other resource files such as thumbnail and embedded images and their references in the blog post. The longer and more media heavy the post, the more effort that is. Naturally, I automated it using a bit of Keyboard Maestro and a good dose of shell scripting.
I don’t expect many people to have a benefit from my exact setup and automation, but I do hope that this post is a useful one to get some ideas about what these tools can do when used together and how you can build really powerful automations by tailoring them to your own specific needs.
Forums
Given the limited time I had this month, it feels like I’ve been more active than usual on my usual online forum haunts, and in particular, the Shortcuts influx on the Automators forum was definitely tangible, so much so, that I have split out the conversations I was involved in to a subsection.
As a side note, these are not the only forums I use. I have a handful of others that I drop in on every day or two, but I’m definitely more of a lurker on those right now. After all, I do have a day job and some semblance of a life to fit in.
Drafts
A query on how to open a draft in a new tab via an action was an easy answer - I do like the availability of good documentation with Drafts.
With a pointer to some other documentation, one user was able to create some Drafts script to use Azure OpenAI.
I made some suggestions around saving custom metadata for a draft; a topic that has surfaced at least a couple of times in the past.
One user wanted to create an action step to type the pipe character in to a draft for quick access on their iPhone - looking at existing similar actions, the action steps documentation, and even the list of available steps yields a leading candidate.
One user had an issue “changing case in another Language” - i.e. when the letters have diacritics. Fortunately, I had an action in one of my libraries capable of doing exactly that.
There was a good discussion on tag filtering for “(tag1 OR tag2) NOT tag3” where I learnt something new.
A returning user to the forum resurrected a topic on bulk exporting multiple drafts as individual text files, and started a related, new topic on on selecting all drafts. Over the course of many responses, they were provided with numerous ways to export their drafts, including a way tailored for them (by yours truly), but they insisted that they knew what a “standard” export from Drafts should be. A strange stance given I had provided numerous variations that different people could think was standard, but their position was apparently the only one that could be considered “standard”, and that was not covered by the actual standard export options available (which actually were in so many ways more open, encompassing and standardised). The topics in concert make for an interesting read, and you can probably see where I simply stopped engaging.
Another resurrected post on how to use Drafts as a repository notes app got into a discussion about breaking drafts down into smaller tangible elements. Where does one draw the line? I am a huge proponent of PKM and like many, I have been evolving my PKM practices since I was a child. But some of the thought leaders and platform builders in this space have a lot to answer for in my opinion with their ‘bleeding edge’ ideas that simply hold no merit as they are really just redefining terms in a cycle. Something I do have some notes to write up my opinion on at some point.
There was a query about inserting a date in the “simplest way”, but was left open ended after I queried about the actual format.
There was a brief discussion of why someone’s code blocks don’t render in preview. There is definitely a need for people to understand, syntax, themes, Markdown conversion, and HTML preview. I think more than a few people simply never stop to consider this and expect a Microsoft Word-like WYSIWYG editing experience - which is very purposefully not what is available.
Workspaces also seem to be a sticking point for many users. A pretty typical discussion on workspaces came rip again this last month. Workspaces are saved filter searches where you can also apply default application options (theme, syntax, etc.) What would you use them for? Well, different types of work of course.
I was able to provide an answer on inserting text into a draft from an Apple shortcut. Again, reading the documentation is helpful, and interestingly, I use the setup for creating this very part of these posts as I use an Apple Shortcut to process my forum activity for a month before passing a processed set of information back into Drafts for me to expand upon.
A new user asked for some help on modifying text before sending to Airtable. I had a basic idea for the simplest way to do what she was asking, but I will own up to taking a guess at one aspect, trying it out, and it worked beautifully, and so I posted as an option. I think she may have chosen a more manual option in the end (why?), but without more details, I couldn’t tell for sure she had or why she had.
Someone asked for a “Cut” action as they want to reuse a draft (not sure why) after dictating to it. You may be surprised to learn that there were a few options offered by the community.
Someone had a query about getting data from Drafts to Numbers I pitched in with a relatively simple suggestion for.
Do you want to use Basecamp and Drafts? It looks to be possible.
The Mac keyboard shortcut to open the current draft highlighted to me once again of how there is often a barrier between a user and their ability to accurately describe what they want.
One user wanted to export everything in their archive to a CSV.
The using OpenAI-ChatGPT with Drafts continues, and once again, it looks like people are not reading the topic first and just posting the same sorts of issues (which the thread explains what you have done wrong). I don’t know if it is the fault of users, or Open AI’s product/license naming.
As noted last month, I also fixed my Tot-ality action group.
I do feel that at some point I need to write a post explaining some useful differences when it comes to text. I often find it frustrating to have to explain to IT staff what the difference between a text delimiter and text separator is, and if I had a post about the differences between lines (and line breaks/new lines/line feeds/carriage returns/etc.), paragraphs (and paragraph separation), pages (and page breaks), and apparently a horizontal rule, that could have been a little help in helping to determine if it is possible to “do a Line Break” using a “keyboard command”.
I helped a user modify a ChatGPT script to meet their needs - one day maybe I’ll try this ChatGPT tool, but to date it doesn’t seem to do anything that I can’t do more reliably with my own brain and existing tools - though I’m reliably informed its ability to translate between languages is worth checking out.
Automators
One user reached out about where to get help with a Conductor problem. Since I’m the creator ofConductor (an Alfred workflow for launching Keyboard Maestro macros), I stepped in. It is a strange one as no one else has reported such a failure, and the initial information he shared based on my directions does not point to anything in the content causing it, yet it must be as that is the only local factor given the diagnostics. With my move activities dying down it is something I’ll be returning to in August.
I provided a bit of command line know how to wake a Mac for Automation. There was a follow up in August (effectively a previously unspecified requirement), but I reckon the original question was answered … and I have provided a suggestion for the additional requirement.
It may be beta season for macOS, but getting the current focus mode via script is not yet, and may not be entirely obsolete for some time to come … if you believe me that is.
There was a somewhat strange little discussion on displaying a “busy” screen on an iPhone screen - I didn’t see how the original request would help, so I made a suggestion based on something I’d seen done in an office I worked in 20 years ago.
I made a suggestion of a shift in the approach for a request to show and hide notifications from a download triggered in Scriptable.
I added some additional information about FastScripts to the episode 133 discussion thread.
Shortcuts
I gave a new forum poster a hand with a quick action to remove the background from an image in macOS using Shortcuts, and then a bit of a pointer on a key instruction they had missed when posting about a shortcut to add an icon to a folder on macOS.
There was a bit on querying a video’s dimensions in Shortcuts.
I made a suggestion for a bit of a workaround in checking if a Timery timer is running, once again utilising Shortcuts.
I explained how the combine action in Shortcuts works in terms of the concatenation of a string with a list.
One user asked for help with a Shortcuts automation problem, but it was one of the strangest standalone posts I’ve seen.
One forum poster was creating a shortcut for a set of repeating alarms. I suggested a way to handle days, and noted the quantity of alarms they will end of generating with their approach - it will add multiple alarms each day ad infinitum.
I suggested a Toolbox Pro (call out to the late Alex Hay) solution to capture a selected folder name in Shortcuts.
I provided a set of guidance to someone wanting to include calendar appointments in a daily note using Shortcuts.
I used a bit of internet-fu to help a user looking to access a shortcut in an older post on changing Slack status when focus mode is on.
I created an example shortcut for someone wanting to create a quick messaging shortcut for WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram.
I made an API suggestion for someone trying to find an AI image generation app which can be run from a Shortcuts action.
A query from March jumped back to life about calling a Shortcut from the print menu, which required a bit of direction around the Shortcuts user interface.
I explained why linked local CSS content would not work for HTML previewed in Shortcuts.
There was a discussion of an iOS VPN app Shortcuts automation issue.
I made some third party helper application recommendations for moving a file to Google Drive using Shortcuts.
I had an extended discussion with a user on determining Internet connectivity in Shortcuts. I' think we reached an OS version dependent solution, but there was a bit of additional discussion besides. I’m hoping that the next major release smoothes off the numerous rough edges we have on Shortcuts today.
I had a security-related note on using Gizmo Pack as an external data server for Shortcuts that does not require a common iCloud account. I really should have added Airtable as a suggestion too.
A problem with use of sunset and sunrise in Shortcuts automation was resolved with the help of Apple support, though if the user had read the linked detail of my first response, then they could have resolved it exactly how I’d suggested to another user in the past. The moral of the story folks is always read the answer to the question if you actually want to know the answer.
There was an interesting query about filtering calendar events in Shortcuts that cross into a specific time period. This was an interesting question, for which I think I give a pretty effective example solution. If you take a deeper look at just one shortcut from this list, this is probably the one you want.
I made some suggestions about some options for notifying when a freezer’s temperature is above certain temperature using Shortcuts and other options.
And, as usual, someone needed a nudge after they posted a problem about an error in the iOS 17 beta (converting audio to text). First rule of Apple beta club - always report your problems to Apple … no one else has access to fix the issue, and by agreeing to be part of the beta, you are agreeing to do just that.
Other
As noted above, July was very much about my house move. Breaking down and packing technology is certainly a time consuming activity, and it was also something I did with trepidation. For the next few months at least, I will be working out a temporary office space. This is because we plan to convert our garage into an office space. To do that we will need to clear it of a lot of content that is being stored there temporarily, then content that will be intended to go there, and then convert it. Only then will I really be able to unpack all of my technology, and in the interim, I’ll be gaining some new technology as I can finally apply a bit more home automation than I could in rented accommodation.
Upcoming
I’ll be squeezing back into things in August. I don’t expect to be suddenly upping my game on content production given the amount of unpacking and new house stuff to be done, plus potentially getting an actual break for a few days. But I am hoping to make a start on some deeper exploration of novice-level home automation, and getting back on with my big background project so I can actually get it out into the wild before the end of the year!
As always, thank you to everyone who has bought me a coffee. As things calm down I’m hoping to get a bit of a routine going again where I can get out to a coffee shop and get that regular creative context shift back in play. I’m sure I have lots of things still to talk about and share, the question is just figuring out what time I have to do something justice and get it out to you all.