If you don’t mind launching the Obsidian app in the background, there is a way.
It uses both the shortcuts ShowRandNoteW/Tag and ShowInputMD, and this time the Shortcut Launcher plugin is also used.
The settings of the Shortcut Launcher plugin are as follows :
Command Name:ShowInputMD
Shortcut Name:ShowInputMD
Input Type:Entire Document
It’s called PicSew. It adds an option the “screen recording” feature in control center. You take a “video” of scrolling through any screen on the phone, and the app stitches it together and (optionally) adds a device frame. It’s pretty smart about removing/not duplicating menu and tab bars.
For me, the biggest barrier to note taking has always been dealing with *the process of entering notes, so I made a quartet of shortcuts to make this as painless as possible. I put them in a folder in my Shortcuts app and have a widget in Notification Center that lets me invoke them directly from my phone’s lock screen.
Overview & Links
FastNote Photo immediately lets you take a photo, asks you to type some text, and then saves both files to your vault, named with “FastNote” followed by the date and the appropriate file extensions. The attachment is linked inside the bottom of the note.
FastNote Screenshot is the same as above but takes a screenshot instead of a photo.
FastNote Dictate listens for and transcribes dictation and saves it to your vault.
FastNote Type provides a keyboard for text entry and then saves the text to your vault.
All file names are date-and-time stamped to ensure file names don’t collide.
All these shortcuts (except FastNote Dictate, of course) assume you’ll want to type, though you can use the system Dictation button to speak your note if you choose/change your mind.
Requirements
An iOS/macOS device running Obsidian and synced via iCloud. No other third-party apps are required.
Import Questions
All four shortcuts ask for the location of your Obsidian vault. SnapNote Photo and SnapNote Screenshot also ask for the location of your attachments folder.
What a wonderful thread! Newbie question: Is it possible to set up and use iOS Shortcuts with Obsidan Sync instead of iCloud? Also see my post here. Your help is appreciated!
I’ve finally managed to create an IOS/MacOS shortcut to input tasks that works well with the Tasks Plugin and it allows me to quickly create tasks on the go without opening Obsidian (and the dreaded “Waiting for ICloud to synchronize Obsidian configuration files”). Similarly to other shortcuts I have seen, it starts by opening a box asking for the text of the todo ("- []" is added by default) . Once this is inputted, a follow-up menu allows for more options/
Create Task adds the task to the daily note and ends the automation. This is done by appending the text to the file on ICloud (accessible both from mobile and desktop)
Create Note creates a new note in a specific folder, adds the todo to that note and end the automation. This option is helpful when I want to create a todo that will require me to work on a dedicated note.
Select Folder prompts me to select one of the folder in the Vault. Once this is done, it returns to the previous choice menu. The task will be stored in the folder note of the selected folder rather than in the daily note where I can create the task/note, or select additional features.
Select Date prompts me to select a date from the calendar. This is added to the text of the todo following the emojii so that it is picked up by the tasks plugin query. Once this is done, it returns to the previous choice menu where I can create the task/note, or select additional features.
Select Priority prompts me to select a priority level among the four levels that included in the Tasks plugin (none, low, medium, high). The corresponding emojii added to the text of the todo. Once this is done, it returns to the previous choice menu where I can create the task/note, or select additional features.
For those of you who are interested, here is the link: Shortcuts
Fast Photo sounds exactly what I’ve been trying to set up, but I seem to be unable to get the shortcut from the link, just getting a perpetual load animation. Anyone else getting this issue?
@AJBlue98 wondering how you got around iPhone photos staying in HEIC when added to obsidian? That’s the bit I’m stuck on at the moment.
This seems so handy! Wondering if you’ve ever had an error saying ‘unable to save, file doesn’t exist’? Can’t figure it out. Have the save destination folder set to my own existing folder via Toolbox Pro, and haven’t messed with anything else.
Am I missing something? (I don’t really know more than a bare minimum of coding so it’s possible I’m missing something that’s obvious to others).
This is great and so perfect for my workflow, but wondering if you’ve ever had an error saying ‘unable to save, file does not exist’? I can’t figure out what the issue is.
I have the save allocation set to a folder in my obsidian vault via Toolbox Pro, and haven’t changed anything else in the shortcut. Anyone have an idea why this might be happening?
This is interesting. Installed the ShowInput MD and Shortcut Launcher as described. But I don’t know how does it work? Should I specify anything in ShowInput MD? The first line says: receive Text input from Nowhere. Please advise.
I can’t remember what I was thinking about two months ago, but I opened the shortcut I made and analyzed it. I will write what I can understand now.
Initial setting
In addition to the shortcut “ShowInputMD”, you also need the shortcut “ShowRandNoteW / Tag”.
(In addition, the shortcut “encodeURIComponent” that you would have downloaded before is also required for it to work.)
You also need to specify the vault name and tag in ShowRandNoteW / Tag.
The Shortcut Launcher plugin needs to be set up properly like my comment above.
Operations you need to do every time
Execute the shortcut “ShowRandNoteW / Tag”.
It may be useful to add this shortcut to your home screen.
What it does
The shortcut “ShowRandNoteW / Tag” does the following–
Make the Obsidian app display a list of notes to which the corresponding tag is assigned.
Run the smart-random-note plugin via the Advanced-URI plugin. The smart-random-note plugin randomly selects and displays one note from the list display.
Run the obsidian-shortcut-launcher plugin via the Advanced-URI plugin. The obsidian-shortcut-launcher plugin runs the shortcut “ShowInputMD”. The contents of the selected note are passed to the shortcut “ShowInputMD”.
The shortcut “Show Input MD” does the following:
Convert the received content (Markdown) to rich text and display it in a dialog box.
When “OK” is pressed, return to the home screen.
The above series of movements is performed. You don’t have to run ShowInputMD directly.
The shortcut “Show Input MD” starts with “receive Text input from Nowhere”, but don’t worry. ShowInputMD receives data from the obsidian-shortcut-launcher plugin.
Obsidian now has a Share Sheet extension, but it is extremely limited. This one’s much better: Save To Obsidian
Features
• Saves web pages, not just URLs
• Optionally appends input to existing note (especially useful for images!)
• Embeds YouTube videos
• Handles rich text
So, based on the shortcuts of this post, I’ve changed a little bit adding the possibility of creating the note of the day if it doesn’t exists, the same behavior as we have in the desktop app.
My guess is that the shortcut behaves differently if the file hasn’t been created before it runs. Probably best to add a check to see if it exists (and to create the file) before doing anything else.