What are Shortcuts and How to Build Them - Shortcuts 101

Let's talk about what shortcuts are and how to build them!
#Shortcuts #iOS14 #Homescreen
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[@ChrisLawley]

What all would you like to see in future Shortcuts videos?

[@gabrieltataru7366]

Some shortcuts for sharesheet ? :D

[@veritas.ve.42]

Continuing with the notes example, how to get the shortcut to first choose from a list of existing folders and then create a new note (typed or dictated) or clipboard either within a specific existing note or as a new note? E.g. open a folder called “Ideas”, then open a note called “scratchpad” and create the new note or clipboard within scratchpad. Or alternatively create the new note or clipboard as a new note within folder “Ideas”.

[@astra1360]

I'd love for you to review the now very prominent Icon Themer shortcut. It is extremely powerful and really shows what shortcuts are capable of. Also it seems quite useful but many people have reservations about how it works. Just a thought - looking forward to anything!

[@cbasacik]

API’s ?

[@jakepe88]

How to use multiroom streaming “zones”

[@GameKingFaiz]

Wow, as a Software Engineer, I think it's really intuitive how Apple simplified what essentially is basic programming!

[@yukaritakeba8880]

Stop the cap

[@hi-its-matt]

@@yukaritakeba8880 nah it’s not bad, it’s pretty much just scratch but actually functional lmao

[@palmyrene]

@@yukaritakeba8880 err what

[@pabloduarte4470]

Real programming is easier

[@sebastianozorro2138]

Totally agree. After switching from Android I was amazed by the possibilities of custom automations.

[@Jsmithphotography]

My wife and I were just talking about how I really enjoy your videos and that there hasn’t been another person as in-depth and productive with the vast amount things you can do with the iPad. I love your vids!

[@ChrisLawley]

Thank you!! 😃👍

[@whatbensees]

I was literally thinking about watching a video about this topic this morning and boom, 2 hours later, it appears!! Thanks for the consistent great content!

[@ChrisLawley]

Perfect!

[@samuelmanny6231]

Google got so good in spying 😂😂😂 and recommending

[@kaitlynk2145]

So thankful this series is starting!!!

[@ercanyurttaser6872]

FINALLY! Always loved your shortcuts this was literally one of the main reasons why I subbed 😄

[@ChrisLawley]

Glad you like them!

[@stephonchatmanm4773]

@@SpanischlehrerinYasemin scammer

[@soculese]

I’ve been getting into shortcuts finally. My favorite one that I built turns on stage manager, cranks up the display brightness, volume, and starts playing white noise type sounds on my HomePod. There is an inverse automation that resets everything back and locks the iPad when I disconnect the display. Saves a bunch of swipes and taps.\

[@adwinalias]

Thank you so much for this! Can’t believe I just automated how I use Evernote. Can’t wait to see the rest of the series

[@Moriningland]

I never use shortcuts because I simply can’t get them to work. I’ve tried a few times over the years to figure them out and I just can’t. Even now, I tried the gallery option to open two apps side by side, followed the prompt and the apps just don’t open up together. Tried it twice with different apps and it just doesn’t work. Nice idea but they are just too confusing to create and implement

[@bradsheffield246]

Great job on the basics of shortcuts. Looking forward to more of these

[@stupacmoto]

Yes!!!! This is what ive been waiting for... thanks so much. Looking forward! 👌🏽

[@ChrisLawley]

Hope you like it!

[@stupacmoto]

Christopher Lawley love your videos. I know i will enjoy it. Thanks for your content. Keep at it 😀

[@crocandy1]

Me too. I've always watched the videos and thought that's amazing but probably beyond my ability.

[@ToddMcKeever]

Truly glad I found your channel and have learned so much from you. I must admit this time with this video on shortcuts I was extremely excited to watch. This time you lost me and this was suppose to be shortcut 101? I will rewatch again. Overall, keep up the great job you are doing.

[@ayschan]

One of the most underrated KZbinr. I am sure you will be rising in the KZbinr world just like the Tesla in automotive industry. Just subscribed to witness that.

[@scottsimons2681]

Hi Chris, can you make a shortcut to open the app Zoom and log into a reoccurring meeting or something similar? I think this will be helpful. Thanks bud.

[@NeuroBoy314]

Great video Chris, with this series all be able to make my own shortcuts instead of stealing yours from your web site. Shortcuts is awesome BUT it only works with very few apps, I'm a Google and Microsoft ecosystem user and shortcuts is almost for Apple apps!

[@Geiir]

YES! This is exactly what I needed. Thanks for your always amazing content 😄

[@TheGiftedRN]

Can you do a updated version of this for external links used in GoodNotes (apple & fantastical calendars for events, ynab, things 3, message, email, music, etc.)

[@rodgaray]

Thank you so much for this series of videos Chris!!! I’m really want to use the everyday, I’ll follow this series of videos very thoroughly! Again, thank you so much

[@kevinwagner5023]

well done, thanks for taking the time to make a high quality presentation that hits all the key points

[@georgee3401]

Excellent tutorial. Many thanks!

[@peter.organist]

Excellent intro to Shortcuts! Thank you!

[@kriscastro]

thanks for this! perfect timing because i've been binging your recent ipad videos and was curious about what shortcuts i could use to improve my workflow and how to even make them

[@ChrisLawley]

Great to hear!

[@03cobrah]

Now that the action button for the iPhone 15 can utilize shortcuts. I’d love to see more tutorials utilizing this

[@niteshsunka]

Well its like programming a code. It bloody so difficult. Thanks bro. Atleast our mind are ready to learn this rocket science😁

[@lucasbouche2255]

Perfect tutorial/presentation/initiation

[@ChrisLawley]

Glad you think so!

[@lucasbouche2255]

Christopher Lawley hey thank you your channel is amazing. I became a productivity master of IPad and I review and train my English with you (I’m french)

[@milgat]

I would love to create a shortcut on Todoist - to add specific items on my existing projects

[@farbencut]

So many people under-estimate the power of shortcuts. But this is kind of awesome!

[@blankcheckguy69]

how do I make a shortcut that links my icloud notes with my Obsidian brain?? can u help me out Christopher? big fan. been following awhile.

[@terrywarnold]

I figured out how to add a shortcut for2 apps to open in split screen but, is there a way to make the apps connected to that shortcut perform a specific action? Example, the shortcut I created was for the Notes app and Calendar to open in split view. I would like that every time I run the shortcut, the Notes app opens to a specific note cause it’s notes that I refer back to pretty often. Thanks!!! Great video btw!!!

[@rustycage55]

bro u da only one who knows how to explain shortcuts in whole youtube

[@chaskinsnc]

IOS 18 features of Calendar and Reminders for creating a Meeting Note? Can a note be created with a basic template and assign a Tag?

[@b1nzy]

Are you using an external mouse & keyboard with your iPad? If so, which ones? Thanks

[@rabii3983]

Could you do a tutorial so it can remind me to wear Sunscreen every time the UV index is equal to 2 or above from weather app? I did it by accident correctly (I think) but can’t make it again.

[@edwardwillard243]

Thanks for the video. I've learned how to setup shortcuts, now, but wonder why there doesn't seem to be a way to create a shortcut where you could have your wallpaper change every hour, or every time you turn on your iPhone i.e.?

[@baldfvi]

How can I create a link that opens an app already installed in my iPhone? I want to use this link in a daily reminder I already configure on the Reminders App. Appreciate any help!

[@astra1360]

great Video man! Looking forward to the advanced ones!

[@Mossfam86]

I like your video. I’m trying to set up some different “scenes” if you will in my house with shortcuts. Example is morning coffee time, I’d like a slideshow of a photo album to play on my Apple TV, while a pre selected music playlist plays on my HomePod. I can’t seem to get this to work, but I have a lot of these scenes that I’d like to set up.

[@zoulhhh]

Nice explanation. Looking forward for more. I always found shortcut tutorials confusing. But this is great. Thank you.

[@hexxxis1]

I am trying to figure out how to make a shortcut that downloads twitter videos from the documents app. Please do one if this is beneficial.

[@shinymetalvids]

I’d like my watch face to change (to what I set in advance) depending on a date range (a different face for each season) and to also be yet another face within each season on the weekends. Additionally to be another face on set dates (birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas). An extra bonus would be if on a standard date (all faces set at sunrise) it auto picked from two depending on if rain was forecast. There has to be a better way than a huge list of "if-otherwise".

[@lilahmae411]

I want to make a shortcut where its like 5:00 AM to 12:00 a certain image i choose puts itself on my lock screen, and at night, like 7:00 PM to 5:00 AM it change.

[@Robynia777]

Can I make an action that will tell me a food order when I pull into a specific restaurant?

[@Stefano-nz9kg]

It is possible to make a shortcut for selecting a specific Bluetooth device?

[@rayflanagan9970]

Great tutorial. Love the menu option. Quick question: When using the clipboard option, the note takes on the name "new note." I don't see a way in NOTES to rename that note to something more relevant. Am I missing something?

[@rayflanagan9970]

Disregard..... found it.

[@Dr-CAPT-Bret]

Please teach us how to generate a shortcut to create a journal into Notability

[@ARC928]

Can I create a shortcut to change location settings for a specific app?

[@jeff2tc99]

great job Chris. Suggestion Countdown from a number at a selected interval. Great for counting reps for an exercise so you can watch/read something instead counting.

[@ChrisLawley]

Great suggestion!

[@deepakkhatri8194]

very informative. thank you for such a nice video

[@holgernikola6110]

Not sure if I‘m right here but it seems you’re pretty familiar with shortcuts. Is there a way to create a shortcut that enables the VPN connection and opens the mail app by pushing just one soft button? Appreciate your help.

[@BeekSizl]

Hi. Thanks for your video. Is there a way in shortcuts to find an Apple 1 music radio station and play the latest episode? Thank you

[@vvibin31]

Is there a shortcut to lock screen without using lock/unlock button?

[@ms20700]

Awesome... very good explanation... can u share your iPad wallpaper link?

[@ToasterEatingToasted]

Where is the done button😭

[@ChrisHolly]

Perfect tutorial, thank you so much!!!

[@ChrisLawley]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@louismarquez9562]

Hey Chris, really hope you see my comment cause Apple employees couldn't answer my question. I'm trying to create a keyboard shortcut on the iPad that would output certain text templates I have written on my notes app. It is similar to the "text replacement" feature in settings, but the only problem with that is that is the formatting (it wont let it paste multiple lines of text). Is there a way I can do it on shortcuts on iPadOS? I think I've seen people do it on MacOS

[@SirMopy]

Thanks man! Very easy to follow along and nicely explained!

[@terrancewilson6349]

Great videos.

[@MonkeeHang3r]

This was very informative, appreciate you doing these kinds of videos. Thank you!

[@stevendurbahn1957]

Hi Christopher, Do you have a shortcut to turn on or turn off "show my caller id"?

[@MichaelSchwark-yn3jb]

Whenever I have the shortcuts on my iPhone 8+ programmed they are properly executed but return an error message as a notification. I would love to know why that is. I know that some cannot trigger without manual confirmation but still all of them (even time related) result in an error notification. Is there a workaround? I have iOS 15 Beta 6 installed! Thx fort the great tutorial! Saludos!

[@apkoevoet3488]

Im using your today summary but when i have multiple events on my calendar it gets all mixed up, do you know how to fix that?

[@MrLbeazley]

I have about 4 different Bluetooth output devices i connect my phone to, would love to create a shortcut that just gives me 4 choices of speaker/output device, rather than diving into settings all the time - is that even possible?

[@sivakumarkathiravan]

Thanks a lot! Looking forward to your future videos.

[@kimbrown1225]

I need to make a very very simple shortcut, probably so simple that I shouldn’t even need the shortcut app to do it. Just can’t seem to find a way. Under the settings app in iPhone 12, there is a submenu that I use daily: Settings>Accessibility>Hearing Devices. This shows the current connectivity status of my hearing aids to my phone. My goal is to simply have a shortcut icon that takes me straight to that screen. Idk how to code, and the shortcuts app seems so complex to me. Can you help?

[@oliviermela]

Awesome! Thanks for this video.

[@MunroMcLaren]

I know how to make basic shortcuts, but the more advanced ones are so confusing.

[@AlanSpackman]

Chris thanks for your time explaining shortcuts. But wouldn’t it be faster just opening the app notes and listing what you would like to do. Why the run around entering data?

[@daryn78912]

@Christopher Lawley, where is the link you mentioned is listed in the comments?

[@openmfc]

Very useful - thank you.

[@davidtopp1972]

Chris, I am wondering if you could suggest how I can create a simple shortcut to Open an Excel file on my iPad. I am running iPadOS 17.5.1. I know I could do this in earlier versions just by doing: Open File in default app, but now that does not work.

[@davidtopp1972]

Chris, I have done some additional experiments, and have discovered that the issue seems to be “Password Protected” files. Excel files without passwords will open, but files with passwords will not open.

[@tuandinhhang2747]

I’ve been new to Shortcut lately and I find this video very useful and easy to understand how Shortcut operates. Thank you very much for you work! Btw may I have the link for your ipad wallpaper? It’s beautiful! Thank you!

[@SuRfDeMoNRB]

Awesome video thank you! This made me start playing with shortcuts and I’m trying to control things through google assistant. Problem I have is the google assistant opens and it does what I want but then stays open. Is there a way to get shortcuts to close an application once its done with it?

[@eloisedoolightful3233]

So I do a lot of studying. So I didnt know if I can use a shortcut to open the same app in the side by side screens (Goodnotes document containing textbook on left, and Goodnotes document containing notes folder on right) and then also have another app pull from the side screen that I can pull in and out when need to. Can I set it up to have two of the same app on the split and pull another from the side?

[@271830066]

, do you have a shortcut to call a conference number and have the iPhone automatic switch the speaker phone on without me doing it. I can’t figure this out. Thanks

[@uLtRaSeXxX666]

Is there a shortcut you can make to toggle on/off show/hide caller id instead of going into setting and jumping through menus to get to it

[@jackkemp7256]

My favorite shortcut is through the little shop in Mushroom Mall

[@k31myx]

Hi Christopher, trust u and all your relative are well and safe. Thanks for all your tutorial, I am new to mac world and just got my iPhone 12 last December, and I am loving it, and a bit curious with all the shortcuts' automation however not able to create one. Please can u help to create a simple one that can disable all services and application possible and put in very low power mode, just leave emergence call from @pm till 07:00am and from 07:00am till @pm activate all the service back again but leave phone on lower Power mode. I really appreciate Many Thanks

[@6FootFungus9]

Is there a way to make the app send a notification which opens a note when I click it? It's 1AM and Im struggling to find this out.

[@levisaranas]

Hi! Is there a way to create a shortcut that will ask for input (time) and then it will create an Automation that will run a particular app/shortcut at the time given as input. Thanks!

[@KVergot]

Id love to have a shortcut for how to see metadata on your photos

[@TheOneGaming0]

I made a shortcut that opens a random app/game so when i dont know what to play i just use the shortcut

[@Overflow066]

Great idea

[@prayerwarrior741]

Hey, thanks so much for this tutorial , was very helpful! But I think I did something wrong 🙁. When I tap on the “clipboard” after tapping on the notes shortcut, a display pops up to please specify some text in the create note action. Help!! Thanks!!!

[@BiotechMoneyPrinter]

Wow! Such a great teacher! You certainly deserve way more than 142K subscribers. Thank you for creating this amazing video.

[@PiotrNawrot]

Hi Chris :) Nice video .. one question, do I have option to set up a keyboard shortcut to for example add a task to my Todoist app? I get used to do this on my mac but still could not find any option do this on my Ipad ..

[@richardlcraven3966]

Christopher - How do I edit a Shortcut? From time to time I have to add and delete URLs from a Shortcut that opens web pages in tabs on my iMac. The EDIT selection within Shortcuts does not work well or easily.

[@Mastertist]

Thanks for the useful tutorial. I have been trying to turn my now useless fn key to work as the globe key using a shortcut, instead of setting my caps lock to globe key. Is there a way I could use shortcut to turn fn key to globe; or create shortcut that would UPPERCASE my letters and then turn them back to lowercase when I am done using?

[@fisakdigital]

Great videos! Many thanks

[@friscodog]

I need to be able to open a new Numbers document using a specific Template I've created for my daily facilities checklist (looking for burned-out lightbulbs, water leaks, or any other problems).

[@shantanusharma2957]

Is there a way to create a shortcut that acts as a CRM so to speak? I mean if we can create a shortcut to create a contact that is automatically added to a group (clients, customers, cold contacts) and based on that group it creates a followup reminder to call/message/email him after 24 hours. And if all that can be tracked on notes or something like first contact date etc.

[@akaalx]

Hi. I need a shortcut for my disabled brother. We got him a iphone and I used the OK Google shortcut so he could turn on KZbin Music and Sirius XM, but there is no way to turn them off using his voice. Any ideas? Thanks.

[@jazzman3968]

Chris...teaching myself shortcuts, and your videos are really helpful. Can you give me some advice? I have a shortcut that asks for text that I append to a note that my shortcut has created. Is there an action that will change the format of that text (e.g., bold, heading size)? I thought the “Rich Text from Markdown” might help, but it doesn’t (or I’m using it working). Having new notes formatted in the style I want is the whole point of the shortcut, so figuring out how to do this is critical. Thank you!

[@BigG702]

Hi Christopher. I am trying to create a shortcut which will send me a email daily at 07h00 to show me my calendar events for the day, my reminders for the day and the weather today at my location .

[@SunshineFL]

In needed this great info. Thx.

[@5looodq828]

I wanted to make a shortcut that show a notification of different time zones but didn’t manage to do it can you help me please 😅

[@kevinshea5819]

I love you and shortcuts

[@ChrisLawley]

Thank you!

[@YolandaPlayne]

@@ChrisLawley lmao grow a clue

[@ianandsusanbroadway2508]

Short cut for hole 19 to start on my home course?

[@maxortner1997]

Would it be possible to create a shortcut which can control Spotify from an other app (from safari without to open the control center? Maybe with a keyboard shortcut) ? E.g. to skip a song or go to the previous one? Thanks!

[@dariuszkarnicki2532]

Actually I am interested in searching the internet using customized multiple search engines in one search action. If it is possible. Thank you for your help.

[@raycarter4030]

thanks for making something impenetrable even more so.

[@madnessintomagic]

hahahaha.. I feel the same. This seems more like shortcuts 103

[@sycrayt124]

Can you make a shortcut where whenever you turn on blue tooth it goes back off? Pls show me how.