Purpose

Notes & Clipboard Assistant is a versatile shortcut that can be used to create and update iOS Notes or any other iOS application that uses text. It is particularly useful for creating consistently formatted time-stamped logs/lists. This help includes seven possible uses:

• Dictate and create a quick note
• Append to a bulleted list
• Insert an annotated URL into a favorite list (using Safari)
• Share the Clipboard and a YouTube video using Messages
• Save links to interesting iOS applications
• Convert a PDF to a note
• Save a link from a third-party application

Notes & Clipboard Assistant was designed to do its tasks quickly and with minimal shortcut interaction. It can be customized with several Configuration Parameters, described at the end of this help.

A video overview of Notes & Clipboard Assistant is available here.

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Description

Notes & Clipboard Assistant can assist in the creation (or prependation or appendation) of a note in the iOS Notes app or text in the iOS Clipboard which can then be optionally shared with an other iOS app that uses text.

As the shortcut runs, it constructs text that includes the following optional elements:

[Start of Prefix][Current Date] [Current Time][, Note Author] [Dictated Text] [Shortcut Input**]

* When the shortcut runs, the Start of Prefix can be specified from the main menu or by speaking a dictionary key at the beginning of the dictated text. That Start of Prefix DICTIONARY and the Note Author are defined during initial shortcut configuration or later by using Details > Customize Shortcut or by manually changing actions in the Configuration Parameters section of this shortcut. All other text elements shown above are set during shortcut execution.

** If the shortcut is started from the iOS Share Sheet.

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Example Usages

The versatility and configurability of this shortcut is most easily described using examples. This section is not exhaustive, but does demonstrate several possible uses of Notes & Clipboard Assistant.

Example 1 -- Dictate and create a quick note

The main menu is normally used to select the note prefix. The menu Date and Time are dynamic and the Author reflects the configured name. Once the prefix is selected, the Dictate text screen appears. The red square is used to stop capturing optional speech.

Note: The dictation quick reference at the top of the man menu will be discussed in subsequent examples.

In this example, the Start of Prefix was not changed, thus the default value, twenty dashes{newline}*, is used and indicated at the top of the action menu. In this case, New Note • ⒯ is selected, thus the generated text is inserted into a new note in the iOS Notes app. The text is placed on the second line so that the title can be manually added by the user.

* The Start of Prefix options and other values can be changed via shortcut Configuration Parameters.

Example 2 -- Append to a bulleted list

In this example, the Start of Prefix needs to be changed to a •{space}. The Start of Prefix DICTIONARY can be accessed from the main menu.

Once the Start of Prefix selection is made, the main menu reappears. In this example, no Date/Time/Author prefix is needed.

Occasionally when using Dictate text, the speech is incorrectly captured. To correct this issue $. can be used to effectively restart the dictation process: say dollar sign period

Note: The top of the main menu (above) includes dictation quick reference. $. Rstr used in this example is indicated along with other items that will be discussed in subsequent examples.

The red square is used to stop capturing speech and continue to display the action menu that includes the Select Note • 🅽 ⒯ option.

Note: Blah blah blah was spoken in this example for $. demonstration only.

After selecting one of the existing notes, the new text, • A new bullet, is appended and the updated note is displayed.

Note: The notes that appear at the top of the Choose list include a 📌, Log, or List in the name. This is because these have been set as Priority Notes during the shortcut configuration. Refer to the final section of this help for more information. If a target note does not appear at the top of the list, the list can be scrolled or the Search filed can be used to locate the note.

Example 3 -- Insert an annotated URL into a favorite list (using Safari)

In this example, Notes & Clipboard Assistant is started from Safari using the Share Sheet.

Note: Below in the Share Sheet, Notes & Clipboard Assistant appears just after Copy. This was changed by modifying the order of the actions using Edit Actions... that always appears at the bottom of the Share Sheet.

Once a prefix option is selected from the Notes & Clipboard Assistant main menu, Dictate text appears. In this example, an alternative method of specifying the Start of Prefix is demonstrated. (In the example above, the main menu was used.) This is done by speaking the Start of Prefix DICTIONARY Key followed by a period as indicated in dictation quick reference at the top of the main menu: /n. SoP

To summarize, in this example, the following was spoken before tapping the red square: slash zero period micah 6 colon 8

Since the Safari Share Sheet was used, the URL passed via the Shortcut Input is shortened and presented as an alternative to the Native URL. After selection, the URL choice and the dictated text are reflected at the top of the action menu. Then one of the Clipboard options*, Replace:⒯ ⇢ ⌘🄲 / Prepend:⒯ 🅲🅱 ⇢ ⌘🄲 / Append:🅲🅱 ⒯ ⇢ ⌘🄲, combined with Select Note, could be used to insert the text generated by this shortcut. In this example, ⒯ ⇢ ⌘🄲 • Select Note is selected.

* The iOS Shortcuts app does not include an action to prepend text into an existing note; Create Note and Append to Note are the only actions provided. Thus to prepend or insert text, the iOS Clipboard must be employed.

The shortcut generated text, dictated text + information passed via the Share Sheet (shortened), is used to update the Clipboard. When one of the existing notes is selected, it will be opened but not automatically changed.

The text generated by this shortcut and used to update the iOS Clipboard can be inserted using normal iOS Notes app editing actions.

Example 4 -- Share the Clipboard and a YouTube video using Messages

In this example, a URL for a video in the YouTube app will be appended to the contents of the iOS Clipboard. The resulting text will be shared using the iOS Messages app.

To start, within the YouTube app the Share button is tapped and the YouTube app Share dialog opens. Additional Share options are visible by dragging to the left.

Tapping the More (...) button displays the standard iOS Share Sheet. Here Notes & Clipboard Assistant can be started and the YouTube URL will be passed via the Shortcut Input.

Note: In this example Notes & Clipboard Assistant appears just after Copy. This was changed by modifying the order of the actions using Edit Actions... that always appears at the bottom of the Share Sheet.

Date Time will be added to the text. In the Dictate text dialog /0. (speak slash zero period) selects the respective Start of Prefix value, NUL.

After selecting the Shortened URL from the URL menu, 🅲🅱 ⒯ • Share is selected to append the text, Start of Prefix (NUL in this case) + Date Time + dictated text + YouTube Shortened URL, to the contents of the iOS Clipboard.

Note: With the last three actions, Share, Prepend to Clipboard • Share, 🅲🅱 ⒯ • Share, the contents of the Clipboard are used but the Clipboard itself is not changed.

Messages is selected from the standard iOS Share Sheet and the text from the shortcut is automatically loaded.

Example 5 -- Save links to interesting iOS applications

In this example, a link to an iOS app will be appended to a list of others. In addition, all of the items in the dictation quick reference (top of main menu) will be used to review how Configuration Parameters can be superseded using the Dictate text dialog.

In this case, Notes & Clipboard Assistant is started from the App Store Share Sheet.

Note: Below in the Share Sheet, Notes & Clipboard Assistant appears just after Copy Link. This was changed by modifying the order of the actions using Edit Actions... that always appears at the bottom of the Share Sheet.

Date is selected for the Date/Time/Author prefix. Although a bit contrived for demonstration, three different codes are used during Dictate text:

1. [ $. ] ignore preceding speech capture (used to start over when the Dictate text action occasionally misinterprets user speech)
2. [ /7. ] use the Start of Prefix value corresponding to the /7 Key
3. [ -. ] shorten the URL (bypass the Native/Shortened URL menu)

Note: Blah blah blah was spoken in this example for $. demonstration only.

The shortcut-generated text is indicated at the top of the action menu and Select Note • 🅽 ⒯ is selected. Then the existing note, Interesting iOS Apps List is selected.

Once the note is opened and the text is appended, it can of course be be modified and/or supplemented as with any other note in the Notes app.

Example 6 -- Convert a PDF to a Note

Leveraging the incredible power built into the Shortcuts app, this shortcut can even be used as a crude PDF to text conversion tool. In this case, a Mail message was saved as PDF to the iCloud Drive.

Using the iOS Files app, the PDF is opened, and Notes & Clipboard Assistant is started from the Share Sheet.

After starting Notes & Clipboard Assistant from the Share Sheet, the main menu appears and the prefix selection is made.

Note: Below in the Share Sheet, Notes & Clipboard Assistant appears just after Copy. This was changed by modifying the order of the actions using Edit Actions... that always appears at the bottom of the Share Sheet.

To override the configured default Start of Prefix, /0. (slash zero period) is used. The spoken text and the first portion of the converted PDF then appears at the top of the action menu.

A new note opens and it can be modified and supplemented like any other note in the Notes app. In this case a title is added. Note that the Notes app automatically sets the title to bold text.

Example 7 -- Save a link from a third-party application

Any third-party app that can access the standard iOS Share Sheet can share information with Notes & Clipboard Assistant via the Shortcut Input. Some applications pass more than one element. For example, the Reeder app, shown below, passes a Article Title as well as the URL.

For the Reeder app, access to the standard iOS Share Sheet is done using the More... item.

Notes & Clipboard Assistant is started and the Date prefix is selected.

Note: In this example Notes & Clipboard Assistant appears just after Copy. This was changed by modifying the order of the actions using Edit Actions... that always appears at the bottom of the Share Sheet.

$. is used to restart speech capture and /0. and -. were also spoken to supersede the default values for Start of Prefix and URL Form, two of the Configuration Parameters.

* The Dictate text action will normally capture slash zero period speech as /0.; however, occasionally this speech will be captured as indicated below: /Zero. That is not a problem; either format will be properly interpreted by this shortcut.

Note: Blah blah blah was spoken in this example for $. demonstration only.

The Reeder app, supplied the Article Title (AppStories, Episode 172...) and the Native URL which was shortened by the shortcut.

In this example, a note title, automatically bold, is manually entered.

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Shortcut Configuration

Notes & Clipboard Assistant can be configured when it is added to the shortcut Library or anytime after using Details > Customize Shortcut....

When Customize Shortcut... is selected, the following Notes & Clipboard Assistant information is displayed. On this screen, there is nothing to configure. After scrolling and reading, click the blue Continue button.

The Start of Prefix DICTIONARY is the first configuration parameter. After reading, scrolling, and optional changes, click the blue Continue button.

Note Author and Include Prompt for Optional Dictation? are the next two configuration parameters. After each optional change, click the blue Continue button.

URL Form and Suppress Notifications are the final configuration parameters.

With URL Form, valid settings are +, -, ?, or two integers separated by a |, e.g., 50 | 150. In this case, when the Shortcut Input includes a URL:

1. the Native URL will be used whenever it is 50 or fewer characters in length,

2. the Shortened URL will be used whenever the Native URL is 150 or greater characters, and

3. a menu will be presented with Native and Shortened as options when the Native URL is 51 to 149 characters. Refer the the Insert text into a favorite URL list (using Safari) example for the format of the menu.

After an reading, scrolling, and optional changes, click the blue Continue button.

After reading, scrolling, and optional changes to the Priority Notes list, click the blue Continue button.

After optional changes to Number of Last Modified Notes and Supress Notifications?, click the blue Continue and Done buttons, respectively.

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Shortcut Testing

Notes & Clipboard Assistant has been tested with the following:

• iOS 13.5.1
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPad Pro 10.5"

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Shortcut Development and Acknowledgments

• Notes & Clipboard Assistant is available exclusively at RoutineHub.co. Versions obtained elsewhere might be out-of-date.

• The framed screenshots were created using the shortcut Apple Frames (iOS) from the MacStories Shortcuts Archive. Some screenshots were modified using the iOS app Annotable. Video demonstrations were created with the macOS application ScreenFlow.

• The menus in this shortcut use Apple SF Symbols that were encoded using another shortcut SF Symbol for vCard Menu. That shortcut uses the Create Icon action included in the premium version of Toolbox Pro.

• Notes & Clipboard Assistant checks for updates of itself every 7 days using Embed-a-Update (Version: 1.1.2, Updated: 10/13/19).