@MacSparky mentions Stephen Millard’s Alfred workflow for Shortcuts, but there is not a link in the show notes for this excellent workflow. So here it is:
Enjoy!
Very astute commentary on “the state of Shortcuts” in the second half of this show.
A few friction points that I have noticed using Shortcuts, particularly from a perspective of someone who uses macOS all the time:
- While cross-platform, Shortcuts does not handle platform differences elegantly. My main gripe is that shortcuts used on my Mac for handling files via shell scripts appear on iOS but can’t be run there. So why do they appear there? And @RosemaryOrchard famously recounts how she needs to create if-then case statements for device because, for example, “vibrate” exists on iPhone but not iPad or Mac. There need to be more actions that “fail gracefully” when something is not possible on a device. Or Apple should add a
switch-caseoption, or atry-except-finallyoption. - The Shortcut editor (at least on macOS and iPadOS) needs to have a “code mode”, whereby we can simply write out script in Swift. Or maybe there needs to be a simpler “SwiftScript” just for Shortcuts. (Of course, one could wish for Python, but that’s not happening.) Anyway, dragging-n-dropping to create a workflow is way too laborious and slow.
- Automation on macOS is in limbo… What is the difference between Services and Quick Actions? Why are they sometimes the same and sometimes different? Just choose the name “Quick Actions” – or better yet, just name the single menu “Shortcuts” where you could find your… well… your shortcuts.
- Automator should be gracefully deprecated, but for that, Shortcuts needs to be beefed up more. It’s not a full replacement for Automator yet.
- Many more actions are missing. Basically, everything that is in Toolbox Pro should be included in Shortcuts itself. Hopefully it also gets extended functions from various app developers. (Maybe this is where App Intents will help?)
- Shortcuts is rather slow. Compare running a shortcut via Shortcuts and one that is similar via Keyboard Maestro or BetterTouchTool, and you can see a huge difference.
I’m sure we could all come up with myriad other friction points. Shortcuts has so much potential, but I think it needs a lot of attention. It really should be the way to make automations on macOS, but it is sadly lacking behind. I remain hopeful that it will catch up and become the stellar app that it should be.
I also look forward to the day that @MacSparky creates the 2nd edition of the “Shortcuts for macOS Field Guide”! (I’ll probably end up buying the 2nd edition of the iOS version, too, even though I’m much more a Mac guy. Can’t help myself.)