#1

I uploaded a Shortcut a few days ago that was an admittedly cumbersome way to grab an article and convert it to Markdown that could be pasted into 1Writer. I’ve done some work and now the Shortcut works much better and the only editing needed is in the page title. This is done within the Shortcut prompt and it defaults to the grabbed article title.

This Shortcut uses both iCloud Drive and Safari, and is accessed in the share sheet on an article. It assumes that Safari can open the article in Reader view, as well. I believe you can do the same with Dropbox by changing the file save location within the shortcut, but I do not know about other browsers.

There should be only three things you need to do before running the shortcut aside from giving it permissions:

  • Create a new folder called “Text Articles” in the /Shortcuts/ folder on your iCloud Drive, or create one in your Dropbox and fill in the path on the “Save Text” step in the shortcut - this is pretty much a trash folder since the easiest way to run this without much input or navigation is to automatically create a .txt file in a default location that can be accessed by the shortcut in a later step.
  • In the shortcut settings, enable the option to show in share sheet.
  • Set up your preferred default folder on 1Writer. If you have multiple folders that different articles might go into, the shortcut would need to have an additional step added. I don’t mind doing this and uploading a different one as well. Just let me know.

Here is the updated shortcut:

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/c234a8498e984bc2bfefcd5ab2ecb0b3

The updated Shortcut gets the “Title” and “article” from Reader view in Safari, converts the article into Markdown, adds the Title with a level 1 header, the article content, a page separator, and an #article tag to a text box, creates a .txt file in the /Shortcuts/ folder on iCloud Drive, and renames the file with “Title”.md. It then opens the renamed file in 1Writer, which when opened automatically saves a copy of the .md file to the default folder.

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How I use 1Writer on iOS to capture notes and articles for later use on Obsidian
#2

Hi! thaks for this!!! its not working for me, it is not attaching images and don’t create a .md file, just a .txt…

#3

Interesting. Do you have 1Writer installed and/or does the article/website you’re trying to clip show to have the reader view option available? You might try redoing the steps to set it up again.

If you don’t mind, send me the website you’re trying to use with it. I’ll try it on my end and see if the same thing happens.

Now that I think about it, I might have missed a detail in the description. The “Text Articles” folder is only meant for storage, not access. Don’t link it with 1Writer and don’t worry about accessing it for the articles, because all of them will be .txt files. It’s only there because you can’t export to markdown directly, only convert .txt files to markdown by renaming the file. The markdown articles will be saved to the default folder that 1Writer uses, so pretend the folder “Text Articles” doesn’t even exist.

#4

Also. Are you using iCloud or Dropbox?

#5

Just in case you’re using Dropbox, here’s a DB version.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9376c0710b974623bf5288ee0e22fe60

Just make sure to create a folder called “Text Articles” in your Dropbox.

#6

Hi, thanks! I’m using Dropbox, I will try this and come back to you guys, thanks again!!

#7

Thanks for sharing this! Would you mind sharing how to add the additional step to add the file to a specific folder? I like to have it added to an “Inbox” folder if possible? I’m pretty handy with Keyboard Maestro but find Shortcuts considerably more abstract…

#8

There’s nothing in the shortcut that needs to be done. In 1Writer settings, you can specify the default folder for new documents by going to Settings/General/Default Folder. Unfortunately you can’t specify further than that since there’s really only the Open In action with shortcuts, so any new document not specifically created within a folder in 1Writer will go to the Inbox folder.

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#9

Ah OK thanks for the details. I suppose having everything go into the inbox would work in hindsight. You mentioned in your original post that should one have multiple folders then an additional step would be required. So I jumped on that wondering what it would be, I realize now partly because I am hungry for any knowledge in how to learn how to use Shortcuts :slight_smile: I was originally thinking I’d have the default folder as a daily note folder and put other things into an inbox older. Thanks again for sharing this its quite helpful!

#10

Of course! I guess setting up the folder directory was the additional step? Idk I can’t remember lol.

And be careful with Shortcuts. For me, once I got the hang of it I started trying to automate every little thing and spent hours setting up this or that shortcut. It’s amazing fun! But it’s a time sink and a source of frustration as well. I’m to the point now that I’m having to tell myself to just slow down and don’t worry about the perfect workflow because it doesn’t exist :joy:

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#11

True words.

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#12

Thanks for sharing this.

I’ve been using it and it works pretty well.

From what I’ve seen, there will be two documents saved at the end: in the dump folder and the 1Writer default folder. Is there a reason you don’t include a Delete File action to remove the initial dump file at the end of your Shortcut? By that point, the document is already saved in 1Writer and it’s safe to remove the dump copy.

Mine looks like this.

EDIT: Removed prompt for file deletion.

#13

This is very cool! Is it possible to have the article url included, as well? I’m using the dropbox version.

#15

This is super cool. Thanks.
It would be handy if the article url was also included in the final file at the top. Is that possible with shortcuts?