Take Control of Shortcuts

by Rosemary Orchard

Improve your iPad and iPhone workflows with automation!

Version 1.0, published December 18, 2019

Apple's Shortcuts app brings extensive automation capabilities to your iPhone or iPad, using a drag-and-drop, fill-in-the-blanks interface much like Automator on the Mac. It lets you perform sequences of tasks, including ones that span various apps, with just a tap or a voice command—or even automatically when certain conditions are met. Shortcuts can save you time and effort, help you accomplish previously complicated tasks, and let you customize your device to better meet your needs. And with iOS 13/iPadOS 13, Shortcuts has become even more powerful than before.

But for all its utility, Shortcuts is not self-explanatory, so it can be challenging to figure out its quirks and create effective, time-saving automations. That's where Take Control of Shortcuts comes in. Written by automation expert Rosemary Orchard, this book opens the world of iOS/iPadOS automation to users at every level.

With Rosemary's help, you'll learn how to:

Navigate the Shortcuts app: Understand the user interface and terminology, then install and run your first shortcut.
Run shortcuts: Discover seven different ways to run a shortcut, from tapping an icon to using Home automations and Siri.
Build shortcuts: Start with simple, one-step shortcuts and work your way up to complex shortcuts with input, output, variables, conditionals, loops, and more. Debugging advice is also included.
Install and sync shortcuts: Download and install shortcuts others have written, sync your shortcuts across your devices, and share them with other people.

Then, to both illustrate the main principles you've learned and give you practical tools to get you started, Rosemary walks you step by step through the creation of 15 sample shortcuts, which you can also download and install using links in the book. Examples include:

Event templates
A daily overview
Converting and sharing images
Adding a song to a playlist
Logging expenses
Turning on lights automatically when you get home

The book also discusses how Shortcuts can use REST APIs to talk to various web services (with detailed examples), and complementary apps that work in conjunction with Shortcuts.

Whether you're completely new to automation or already have significant programming experience, you'll find plenty of useful information in this friendly, practical guide.

142 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 2, 2020

Reviews

[Sierra Phosy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got fully lost around working with APIs, but this is a great resource for someone who wants to make their iOS device do a little more of the work.