And Vim vs. Emacs
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I find it interesting that Shortcuts comes up so little in discussions of iPad only work life. I’m including myself in that statement, as I’m only thinking about it now because @cwc said:
And it’s true. I’ve said elsewhere, though I’ll say again, that I’m a blended person and am happy with that. I use iPad for some things, Mac for others, and my limits are because of apps not because of iPad itself. Google apps just aren’t good on iPad, and that is a Google problem not an Apple problem!
I have a couple of Shortcuts that run on my Mac, but I haven’t found it generally as fun to dabble in them on there. On my iPad though, Shortcuts is so great. And again, the limits with what I want to do with it tend to be because of third party apps and how they integrate, not because of Apple (I.e. they’re not the fault of the iPad!). There are so many quick things I can do on an iPad that I can’t do on a Mac* and it can make the iPad more efficient in this regard. But as others, and @Denny in particular keep saying, it’s a different OS and you have to learn how to use it.
For example, in one of my Focus modes on my iPad I have buttons (widgets, another thing implemented well on iPad and not so well on Mac) that send a message directly to a specific person, open a specific file I refer to a lot, change my contact-ability (I.e. mute things I need muting), switch my device different colours, pull a weather update (relevant for me, but of course not needed for everyone - switch to your update of choice!), etc. I can’t easily do this all on a Mac with the native Apple system as it is.
It’s not a reliable count because Apple now lets apps offer recommended Shortcuts, but I have over 400 shortcuts saved now. I do need a tidy up, but there’s so much opportunity there for iPad (and iPhone, I’ve had mixed experience with the watch and don’t use them much on there).
*I am not a coder. Everything I do could be coded, but Shortcuts is designed to bring that level of customisation to non-techies who just want to tell the device what to do and have it magically happen.
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Didn’t that already happen or was it another derailed thread?
While I do enjoy derailed threads, I think I missed @Bmosbacker experiment results, or is it still pending?
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It is apparent from reading your post that I am woefully underutilizing shortcuts. Could you list your ten most used shortcuts? These are my only shortcuts:
Still pending. I plan to share the results on the 23rd, which is day 30 of my experiment.
I am a coder and I find Shortcuts “visual programming” paradigm to be so terrible, to the point that I would prefer doing it in JavaScript or, worse, Apple Script.
Probably the powerful Shortcuts concept would not be realized with a regular programming language, but when you start adding variables and funcion calls it gets messy very fast, not to mention debugging. My highest peak of Shortcuts programming is a Shortcut that creates and open a daily note in a specific folder in iCloud Drive with a YYYYMMXX format, or opens it with the default app if it already exists. I could only come up with this monstrosity after quite a few hours. Granted, it works in iOS and macOS which is great, but not sure if a non-techie would come up with this.
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Yeah, I utilize a handful of Shortcuts everyday, many times a day. Then I’ve got a few others that are more specialized and complex that may only get used a few times a month.
My favorite complex shortcut:
Staff member of local library sends an email with information for upcoming workshops that need to be added to the website. Each event will have a couple of paragraphs of text and a pdf or image which might be jpg or png, usually 2mb or larger which needs to be optimized.
For each event I copy the associated text, select the image and right click to share it to the shortcut. The actions of the shortcut:
- Put the clipboard into a variable
- Convert and save/optimize the image to a preset size and as a jpg in the images folder for that website - rename and set the name as a variable
- Recognize the text in the image and copy it to a variable to be used as the alt text
- Add the three variables into a template of html in the correct places.
- Copy the ready to use html
- Open up Textastic
All that’s left for me to do is scroll in my document and paste the html, check the converted image text and tidy it up as needed.
Done.
What had previously taken me 4 to 6 minutes now takes less than 5 seconds plus additional 40 seconds to tidy and check the text after pasting. I love this shortcut!
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I’m not a coder by profession, but I did learn how to code way back in the day when I was getting my MBA. (It was a math-y program when a lot of the math-y things one might need to do happened on mainframes. I didn’t learn enough to code as a professional, but I was certainly primed to stuff my spreadsheets full of useful macros.)
My take on Shortcuts: by trying to make it simpler, they made it harder to do things that aren’t simple.
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Yes! Yours is a great post and I share your sentiments.
Same here.
I feel the same. I love how various shortcuts have filled the functionality gap of a lot of things. And I vastly prefer using shortcuts on my iPad vs my Mac.
This is the genius of Shortcuts, it’s pretty robust without being intimidating.
I get you on this. I write C code, not for a living, but I have code on GitHub. I do my work in vim. I’d prefer to delete a line of code and re-write it than move shortcuts blocks around. But maybe there is another way to look at it. I find Shortcuts very functional and usable for accomplishing tasks that I need accomplished. (and believe me, I don’t even consider myself close to a Shortcuts power – user.)
If Apple permitted us to use BASH scripting, Apple scripting, swift, or some other scripting language in Shortcuts, that would be very powerful and afford greater programming precision. But the absence of those conveniences do not take away, for me, the benefits of Shortcuts.
And if this visual programming is less intimidating for non-programmers, then I’m OK if Apple never changes it. But I do want Apple to continue supporting Shortcuts, pushing third-party developers to support it, and expanding what it can do. I feel about Shortcuts the way I imagine Sal Soghoian might have felt about Apple automation in its hey day. Give users the tools to make the computer work for them (Or in this case the iPad!).
In high school, a few of my buddies and I used to have competitions programming our HP 48 SX calculators. I was surprised how many cool things we could do. My friend who was really good at it went to the Air Force Academy and became an astronaut and celebrated a wedding anniversary with his wife while he was on the space station and she was on earth(!). I went to law school, so that may tell you how competent I was. Still, Shortcuts is substantially better programming environment — and more accessible one — than that old calculator was. May it RIP.
To sum it up, if there must be a choice, I’d rather see shortcuts be mainstream and be adopted broadly across the userbase, then be optimized for those of us who think in terms of code.
P.S. One of the things that I enjoy most about shortcuts, is being able to run them from Spotlight on my iPad. That practically makes Spotlight a substitute for the menu bar on my Mac. It is a very efficient means of accessing functionality.
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Bullish on Shortcuts, though I may be, this is true. It’s, objectively, not as efficient as a programming language is. That’s a downside of visual programming for sure.
I would agree with you if my iPad had a keyboard always attached. Unfortunately spotlight is too hard to access when I just have the tablet by itself.
May I assume that’s because of the issue of having to be on the Home Screen to invoke Spotlight? If so, have you tried the trick where you pull down Notification Center and then use two fingers to pull down further to get to Spotlight? You can invoke Notification Center while one or more apps are open, access Spotlight, and then just swipe up to get back to your apps when you are done with Spotlight.
You can even pull apps out from Spotlight when invoked that way to add them to a stage (if using Stage Manager) or to a Split View window.
Still not as efficient as cmd+s on a keyboard, but pretty seamless.
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I’m not sure what my 10 most used are as it’s context specific, but I can give an overview.
Taking a step back first, I’ve set up my iPad to always be in a Focus mode nowadays. Focus modes on my iPad are not shared across other devices. I have a few different Focus modes that are context dependent and have their own layouts. I think someone in here had done it and inspired me (sorry, I don’t remember who you are, but it was a good idea!). I have a widget stack in the same place on every Focus layout that has buttons for each Focus mode. I can switch Focus modes easily and run multiple actions at the same time. E.g. my reading mode Shortcut, as well as setting Focus (and therefore screen) also starts a timer in Toggl Track, silences any devices I have playing, changes screen brightness, and opens my reading app. I have a Shortcut for the end of reading which stops the Toggl Track timer, runs a prompt from my book tracker to log pages, and opens Drafts for me to add any notes.
Another example: I have a “Notebook” Focus mode, which basically just turns my iPad into a notebook. The layout is just one screen that has widgets for my most common note-taking apps, and buttons to shortcuts I use a lot.
Always using a Focus mode on my iPad has really optimised its use, for me.
Now you know that, I mostly summon Shortcuts via widget buttons, and my different Focus modes have a different palette of buttons. I also have some Shortcuts running through sharesheet, and there are a few I trigger just through search. Those are mostly quality of life ones I don’t want buttons for, e.g. I have a Shortcut that sets the colour filter on my iPad, dims screen brightness and mutes stuff for when I have a headache.
Some Shortcuts I have as buttons in my Focus modes:
- Open a specific URL (I have a lot of these)
- Open a specific workplace in Drafts and start a new note
- Open a specific Draft (this is handy if you have one you return to a lot, especially if it’s always in one context that you have a Focus for)
- Open a specific DevonThink database
- Open a random DevonThink file (I use this for a thought for the day in a group of quotes in DT)
- Paste selected text as markdown in a new file in DT inbox
- Open specific GoodNotes notebook
- Open specific Freeform board
- Open specific Numbers spreadsheet
- Send message to specific person (several messaging apps support this, but I use it for Slack for colleagues I message a lot - it means I don’t have to navigate to the chat myself)
- Get weather report
- Run query in Soulver (it does a calculation without opening the app)
- Log a health thing to Health app without opening app
- Play specific playlist in Music
Etc.
Some Shortcuts I have in sharesheet:
- Add URL/item to specific Reminders list (much quicker than using the default share action)
- Convert selected text and copy result (I work in a field where two units are frequently used. While I’m used to it, this Shortcut quickly converts the number to the unit I prefer without me having to do it in my head. This could easily be adapted for currency conversion, etc.)
Random bits and bobs:
- Add specific list of items to Reminders / Drafts / whatever (this is useful if you have lists you regularly need to use, e.g. weekend chores, a checklist for doing something)
- Ask me which radio station I want and then play it (this might be U.K. specific - the BBC radio app is rubbish, but a Shortcut means you can use the app without having to navigate the crap app menus)
Really with Shortcuts you’re limited only by your imagination (and the imagination of the app developer in some cases, but I don’t come up against this so much nowadays). A lot of my Shortcuts just eliminate the noise of having to navigate within apps to the specific action I want to take.
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@Vincent_Ardern interesting. Accessing search/Spotlight is just muscle memory for me. I do a quick flick to swipe up at the bottom of the screen when I’m in an app (which reverts to Home Screen) and then a quick flick down in the same place on screen to invoke search. Whole thing barely takes 2 seconds. Then I just do a long swipe up to open the view of recently used apps and return to what I was doing (that’s the slowest part).
But I realise some folks may not want to leave the app to do that. I’m used to it and don’t think about it.
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@Pupsino @iPersuade i think it’s the fact that I’m no longer able to see what I’m working on that I find annoying. E.g. I’m looking at a PDF and I want to quickly add two numbers together but now I can’t see the numbers anymore. Quite a different experience to having it seamlessly appear on top of the current app with one hotkey. And it’s at minimum two swipes. Why not just 1? I’m keen to try that two finger thing on the notification screen though. That might be a small improvement.
Totally agreed, I was just declaring my personal dislike. It’s obvious that “citizen developers” are building great stuff with Shortcuts, so the model is successful.
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Thank you for taking the time to share such a thoughtful and comprehensive use case for Shortcuts. I suspected I was underutilizing Shortcuts, but now I’m sure I am! I’ve bookmarked your post for reference, much appreciated!
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Because of upcoming commitments and because I’ll not be doing anything with the iPad over the next two days that I have done over the last 28, I’m sharing the results of my experiment on day 28. I’ve concluded my experiment two days early.
As a reminder, here is why I started this experiment about using the iPad as my sole computing device and the primary work I do.
Why:
- One device to manage
- Less hardware to purchase, maintain, and sync
- One OS to master
- Mastery of each app on one platform
- Lower TCO over time
- Flexible, “modular” computing: laptop and tablet “modes”
- Lighter and more portable
- Fewer bags, cables, chargers
- Cellular
- Less exposure to malware and viruses
- Awesome screen
- Outstanding pencil, I love the new “squeeze feature” which brings up the pencil tools,” the tool dock is gone, leaving more room
- I can use an external monitor when needed
- Easier backup?, see below
- Less intrusive in meetings
- Other?
The nature of most of my work:
- Short and long-form writing, including a book project
- Brainstorming and outlining articles and presentations
- Creating speaking notes and slides
- Report writing from the research, reports for the board, accreditation reports, etc.
- Writing blog posts
- Taking meeting notes
- Managing projects and tasks
- Calendar management
- Participating in Zoom and MS Team meetings
- Collecting, reading, and annotating articles for research and pleasure
- Managing references
- Reading books using the Kindle app
- Bible reading and study
- Keeping up with the news
- Conducting internet searches and using this forum
- Utilizing AI
- Editing and managing photos
- Reviewing budgets, and long-range financial forecasts in Excel and Google Sheets
- File management
What worked?
- I’ve been learning helpful keyboard shortcuts for the iPad. This makes it possible to keep my hands on the keyboard most of the time. For example, I’ve started using the Global key on the keyboard much more.
- Because I use Apple’s default apps, I’ve encountered no issues using those apps. They are deeply integrated in the ecosystem and have near feature parity with the MBP. This means most of my work is easily accomplished on the iPad using Pages, Keynote, Calendar, Mail, Reminders, and FreeForm.
- The iPad versions of SimpleMind Pro, MindNode, and OmniOutline are excellent on the iPad.
- The landscape placement of the camera on the new iPad makes Zoom and other video calls work well.
- I removed Ulysses. Because of its deep integration into the Apple ecosystem and the feature parity between all the devices, I’ve moved all but my book writing to Pages. I particularly like the “Read” mode and the Smart Annotation feature. Pages is perfect for multimodal work; I can type and when desired, switch to tablet mode to annotate a document.
- The Pages “Reader Mode” in Pages is helpful because I can read a long document without accidently hiting a key and changing or deleting text.
- The screen on the M4 iPad is beautiful; it is a pleasure to work on. It is dramatically better than my 14” M1 MBP.
- Initially, I thought I could not manage Page’s section page numbering, e.g., hiding the page number on the first page. But I discovered this is done quickly with the Page Setup option. This reminded me that the issue is usually not the lack of the feature; it is learning how to accomplish the task on the iPad. There is initial friction, but it is short-lived if one takes the time to learn.
What did not work or work well and workarounds
- I discovered that I need to update my Executive Assistant’s printer for AirPrint. The printer is over ten years old and will be replaced anyway. Though I seldom print documents, I occasionally need to do so.
- I discovered that Vellum, which I’d planned to use for the final formatting of a book project, is only available for the Mac. This is and will be a problem for the book project insofar as exclusively using the iPad is concerned.
- I have used DEVONthink to store research articles. DEVONthink on the Mac is great but leaves much to be desired on the iPad. DT’s relatively poor mobile app motivated me to give Obsidian another try. After some experimentation, I moved all of my research into Obsidian. I can index my Obsidian vaults to DEVONthink.
- Though unnecessary, I found adding a color border to the pointer helpful. This is especially helpful in dark mode.
- I discovered a very clever trick for bulk moving apps to the App Library; click here for details. This was helpful because not all apps were placed in the App Library upon the initial setup of the new iPad. Subsequently, I’ve set all apps to automatically move to the App Library upon downloading.
- Google Sheets and Docs are adequate and frustrating on the iPad, but when needed, I can use the Chrome or Brave browser for needed Google work.
- I can use Shift + cmd + < or > on the Mac to enlarge text in Apple Notes. This cannot be done on the iPad. The workaround is to either set the text size in the Settings app or use the Text Size feature from the Control Center to adjust the text size for a note. It’s not ideal, but it’s not a big deal either. Once set, it stays set unless you change it. This is not as convenient as adjusting text size on the Mac, but it works.
- Initially, I thought I could no longer use the Endnote Capture Reference extension I routinely use in Chrome on the MBP. However, after investigating, I discovered I could capture references for online material and research databases directly from WITHIN Endnote on my iPad. I’m sure this can be done on the Mac, but I had no idea this was possible. Using the iPad resulted in my learning how to use Endnote better. Problem solved.
- There are fewer keyboard shortcuts on the iPad than on the Mac, e.g., for inserting footnotes in Pages. This is a minor point of friction; inserting footnotes in Pages on the iPad requires only one click.
- Publishing to SquareSpace is a pain on the iPad, and so is using MailChimp. The workaround was to use the SquareSpace and MailChimp apps, not the websites. It is still clunky, but that is the case even on the Mac, but it is more cumbersome on the iPad. In short, it is not ideal, but is workable.
- I lose 1” on screen compared to the MBP, but I can change the screen resolution on the iPad. Per @Denny: I think the smaller screen size is an unspoken constraint of the iPad. People using 14"+ screens on Macs try switching to a 13 or 11" iPad and feel less productive. Certainly, that’s partly due to the switch from macOS to iPadOS, but I rarely see people discuss the smaller screen as an issue, though I suspect it must be a variable. If you’re not already aware there is an option in screen/display settings on the M series iPads to change the resolution giving you more space, you might want to check that setting.
- I am not able to print or export Logos documents from the iPad. There is no solution for this. The Logos app lacks feature parity to its Mac cousin.
- I’m unable to create hypertext links in OmniOutliner on the iPad.
- Keychain allows one to create secure notes on the Mac. I have not found a way to build or access secure notes on the iPad. The only workaround is to secure these notes in Apple Notes.
- Frustratingly, one cannot turn on or off hyphenation in a Pages document on the iPad; this can only be done by opening the document on the Mac, changing the settings, and saving. The change then syncs to the iPad.
- I can use Grammarly with the keyboard, but it is not as easy as using the desktop version on the Mac.
- Large book projects are the most significant areas of friction. I’m using Scrivener for the book. Scrivener is great on the Mac but mediocre on the iPad. Moreover, compiling the book for ebook and print publication is only feasible with Scrivener on the Mac. Neither Vellum nor Atticus have iPad apps.
- It took a little time to figure out how to change file extensions using the Files app. To do so, you select the three small bars on the top right and then, from there, choose view options. You can change file extensions once you have done that for a folder or a file.
- One cannot have two versions of Obsidian running on the iPad. Consequently, you cannot have two vaults open at the same time. However, you can have two incidences of the Files app running to access two vaults to move or copy files between Obsidian vaults.
- Working with Google Slides (I only use these with a national foundation I work with) is extremely frustrating. It can be done, but Google Slides is inconsistent in responding to input from the Magic Keyboard or touch. I needed to touch an icon to get the Slides to react to keyboard input.
- A frustration is that one cannot add key words or a name/title to photos in the Photos app. You can add captions.
- If one is using Stage Manager with Pages, the keyboard shortcut to show/hide the inspector (Cmd+Option+i) is not available. It is available if Stage Manager is turned off.
- Mail on the iPad lacks smart folders.
- Downloading YouTube videos is extremely difficult on the iPad unless one is a YouTube Premium subscriber. Thanks to @JensV I was able to access a YouTube download site in Germany using VPN. This is a suitable workaround if one needs to download YouTube videos using the iPad.
- I discovered that on an iPad with a Magic Keyboard, one can click the Globe key and the Q key to launch a Quick Note and the Globe key and the S key to launch Siri.
Conclusion
My 30-day experiment has confirmed that I prefer writing and working on the new 13” M4 iPad. It is light and has a fantastic display. I enjoy typing on the Magic Keyboard and appreciate the ability to remove the iPad from the keyboard for reading or pencil input.
Accordingly, I plan to use the iPad as my primary device. Typically, the Mac is the main device, with the iPad serving a complementary role. I will change this by making the iPad my primary device and using the Mac for tasks I cannot do on the iPad or for tasks it does not perform as well or without significant friction. My primary device will be the iPad with the MBP serving as a utility player.
I still need both a Mac and an iPad because there are somethings I cannot do on the iPad or that involve too much friction. Additionally, there are three advantages to using both devices:
-
Each device has its strengths and limitations, and as Apple intends, they complement each other.
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If one device needs to go in for repair, I can continue working on the other.
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The Mac can create backups to external drives, which the iPad cannot do as easily or comprehensively. I’m happy to be corrected if I’m wrong about this.
So there you have it. I have mastered almost every trick for using the iPad as my sole computing device. It is far more capable as a laptop replacement than most people give it credit for. But, for my workflow needs and preferences, two are better than one.
If nothing else, perhaps I’ve shared a few tips and tricks that will be helpful to others. 
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I don’t know if I can use Squarespace website to edit the design of the website on iPad, but I expect they still prefer users to use Mac for it and the app for just publishing blogs.
iPad Pro (M2, 11-inch) becomes my primary device for almost everything. I even bring it out when running and after running I will find a place like a park or cafe to read, sketch and work (I need to switch environments during the day). I will leave my 5-year old 2018 MacBook Air (which can’t be updated) for something that iPad is not capable of or good at, like changing website design and backups/exports.
My iPad Pro should last around 6 years while I will leave my MBA as long as possible.
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Squarespace is easy but finicky. I find using the site works best using a Chromium browser.