# Notes & Clipboard Assistant | Shortcuts Library

> a tool to create and update notes in the Notes app or text in the iOS Clipboard

## What this shortcut does

This version of
Notes & Clipboard Assistant
has been tested with iOS 14.6 beta 2.
Choose from List
actions with many entries can scroll sluggishly. This issue is not unique to
Notes & Clipboard Assistant
and has been reported to Apple. Note also that the consequences of this adverse behavior can be mitigated by using the
Priority Notes
configuration parameter. See
Shortcut Configuration
below for more information.
All other features of
Notes & Clipboard Assistant
are working as expected.
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.
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
.
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
:
[
$.
] ignore preceding speech capture (used to
start over
when the
Dictate text
action occasionally misinterprets user speech)
[
/7.
] use the
Start of Prefix
value corresponding to the
/7
Key
[
-.
] 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.
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:
the
Native
URL will be used whenever it is 50 or fewer characters in length,
the
Shortened
URL will be used whenever the Native URL is 150 or greater characters, and
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.
Shortcut Testing
Notes & Clipboard Assistant
has been tested with the following:
iOS 14.6 beta 2
iPhone 8 Plus
iPad Pro 10.5"
Shortcut Development and Acknowledgments
Notes & Clipboard Assistant
is available exclusively at
.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).

## Compatibility

iPhone, iPad, Mac

## Required apps



[View this page](https://shortcutlibrary.app/shortcuts/notes-clipboard-assistant)

[Download Shortcuts Library on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759494377)