MacMost: Shortcuts

You can use the Shortcuts app to create very simple Shortcuts to launch apps. You can then assign a keyboard shortcut to that and now launch or switch to that app with a single key press. Add as many as you like for quick access to your most-used apps.

While the Mac Finder handles zipping and unzipping files just fine, it fails to give you any way to see the contents of a ZIP file. You can use some Terminal commands to do this. Better still, you can use those Terminal commands in a Shortcut to make it easy.

If you want to share a photo from your Photos Library or a file on your iPhone or iPad, you can use this Shortcut to resize it and convert it first. A very simple Shortcut can be used to do it for one photo, and a slightly more complex one can do it for multiple photos.

There are many things you may need to remember to do before starting an online or in-person presentation on your Mac. But creating your own custom Shortcut, you can avoid forgetting to do something like quit apps, set the volume, turn on a Focus mode and change your wallpaper. You can also have it launch your presentation or website automatically.

Learn how to use the Shortcuts app to make photo collages from the Photos app or files. You can also build animated GIFs for sharing, or videos.

You can use the Shortcuts app to make QR codes that link to web pages. Once you have a Shortcut, you can easily reuse it to share a QR code, save it as an image, or even just copy to the clipboard to paste into a document you are working on.

Learn some Shortcuts programming by following along and building a Shortcut that adds a border and caption to a photo file and saves it as a new file.

You can use default text transformations on your Mac to convert text to upper or lower case, or to capitalize every word. However, it is better to use styling in Pages. You can also create your own custom text transformation with Shortcuts.

When creating Shortcuts for the Mac or iOS you can use voice input easily when you trigger the Shortcut with Siri.

You can test your network speed on a Mac using speed test websites or a simple Terminal command in macOS Monterey. You can also easily put that Terminal command inside a Shortcut and then easily run a speed test from the Menu Bar any time you wish.

A new action in Shortcuts for Mac allows you to add a row of data to a Numbers spreadsheet. You can prompt for information and then record a time and some data. Numbers version 12 is required. An older technique allows you to change existing data in a Numbers spreadsheet.

You can use the Shortcuts app on your Mac to create quick text inserts or replacements. The Shortcut can prompt for text, let you choose from a list, or include the current date and time.

There is no simple built-in command to center a window on a Mac. But you can use other techniques. Learn how to combine two window movements to center a window, or use scripted Shortcuts, or a third party app.

You can use the Shortcuts app to make it easy to add new Reminders. This could come in handy if you often find yourself recreating the same reminders every day or week.

If you have a list of items you need to sort, you can do it using what you have on your Mac or some free apps. Learn how to sort in Pages, Numbers, the Terminal, VIM, CotEditor and using a Shortcut.

Learn more about creating your own Shortcuts by following along with this watermark tutorial. Build a Shortcut that will add an overlay to an image file and save the file to the same location with a new name. This can be the basis for all sorts of image modification Shortcuts.

You can create a Shortcut that will allow you to capture a portion of your screen, and then the text from that image will be extracted and placed in the clipboard. This is useful where you can't normally select and copy text from websites and apps.

The new Shortcuts app in macOS Monterey introduces a whole new world of power automation to the Mac. You can build Shortcuts from actions that control your Mac and apps. Apple includes a gallery of sample Shortcuts for you to use and learn from. Making your own is easy for those with some programming experience.

You can create a personal automation in the Shortcuts app to change your iPhone settings when you launch an app, and then change them back when you exit. For example, you can increase the font size, but only for that app or a set of apps.

iPhone Shortcuts don't have to be long and complicated. Here are 10 one or two-action shortcuts that are easy to build and very useful. Also learn a good way to launch these from your Home screen.