My site logo
Jpshlk
Published on

I Guest-Host A Podcast About Shortcuts

Authors
  • avatar
    Name
    Josh Pasholk
    Twitter
    @jpasholk
  • Digital Duct Tape at Plantonix

I started helping out with the RoutineHub Live Review Sessions Podcast sort of by accident a little while back. To make a long story short, I tuned into an episode and discovered they were discussing a Shortcut I created. I ended up joining the conversation and it went from there.

Now I try and help out with every episode I can. It’s a lot of fun, and I hope we are able to do them more often soon!

RoutineHub Live Review Sessions - Episode 5: Focusing On Simplicity

In this episode we cover some simple Shortcuts that are fun to use or perform a simple task quickly. The idea is to show something to people who aren’t into automation in general and make them go, “How did you do that?”

Show Notes

Here are the Shortcuts we reviewed, along with a few notes on how they work. We start with some very simple Shortcuts, and move on to others that are a bit more complicated, yet still conceptually easy to understand.

1. Speak Text

  • Sets Media Volume to 100%.
  • Asks for text as input, then has Siri Speak what you entered.

2. Sag Greg (Trombone)

  • Sets Media Volume at 100%.
  • Text action with a base64 string of the Sad Trombone Sound.
  • Decodes the base64.
  • Plays sound.

3. QR Wifi

  • Text action with your WIFI Name and Password in a specific string for QR codes.
  • Generate QR Code.
  • Show QR Code.

4. Calculate Tip

  • Asks for a number with the prompt “What is the bill amount?”
  • Choose from menu with tip percentages:
    • 12%
    • 15%
    • 18%
    • 20%
  • Then multiplies the bill by the the chosen percentage.
  • Shows an alert with the tip and the total.

5. Combine Photos

  • Select Photos.
  • Combines them horizontally or vertically.
  • Shows it in Quick Look.
  • I did add share sheet functionality to make it easier to use from the Photos app.
  • Let’s you easily upload a photo to imgbb (requires an API key).
  • Generates a markdown link with optional placeholder and alt text.
  • Copies the link to your clipboard.

7. Shortcut Calculator

  • A complex-yet-simple Shortcut to calculate a lot of different things quickly and easily.
  • Some of the features are:
    • Calculate An Expression
    • Generate Random number
    • Round Number
    • Convert Time Zones
    • Calculate Tip
    • Calculate Interest
    • Fractions To Deimals

8. Psswd - Protected Book

  • Create text-file-based notes that are password protected. (Text files are stored in iCloud)
  • Search or view notes.
  • Delete notes.

If you like this sort of thing and want to learn more, check out the RoutineHub Discord. There a lot of nice and helpful people who love talking about Shortcuts.

As always, thanks for stopping by and I hope you check out this episode. If you enjoyed it let me know what you think in the comments below.

Have a good one, peace! 🤙