The Keyboard-Numbers+ action group makes a great addition to easily insert numbers and common punctuation.
I wasn’t sure why I was receiving these notification emails to Tips since I don’t remember signing up for them. I was going to unsubscribe to them but then this tip came in and I love it.
It’s just another way to see what can be done to make Drafts better.
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The community site will send updates via email. You can adjust those setting on the site under your profile to get digests, etc.
This one is particularly odd, since it’s not a digest and is a subscription under this topic without a clear way to unsubscribe from it, other than unchecking the digests option.
Just letting you know, in case it helps with the onboarding experiencing for new users.
Revisiting this great tip – and wondering if anyone has already addressed the following: What would also be great is a keyboard group that focuses on frequently used punctuation – especially for the iPhone. It’s a pain to have to switch keyboards to type a comma or an apostrophe, for example. I’m thinking of putting one together myself, but first I thought I’d see if anyone already has one.
I’ve not seen anything like this posted to the Drafts Action gallery. Anyone have something like this?
Personally, I’d put them in this order:
.
,
’
?
#
-
:
;
!
"
()
…
and so on
This can get really fancy:
- for example, on the “iPhone Communications” workspace, I would have not only a designated default Actions Group but also a specific keyboard, which would have “@” on it even though the keyboard for the “iPhone - Notes” workspace wouldn’t’ have that.
- Though all of this is less crucial if you have a good external keyboard (I love the Brydge), even there, one could use this to set up some assigned keyboard shortcuts, in case you happen not to be using TextExpander. (But why wouldn’t you use TextExpander???)
- Another point, while I’m at it: especially on the iPhone, I find that having three short rows of keyboards (with the default in the middle) and “flicking” up or down between them is much faster and less disruptive than having a long row with lots of options and having to slide back and forth along them. (Plus it has a huge advantage over Apple’s built-in way of switching to the number/symbols keyboard screen, in that it doesn’t keep switching back to the alpha-screen if you hit “return”.)
Anyway, if anyone has made a keyboard group like this, please post it to the directory!
Can you demonstrate how this action group is used in a practical manner?
This would be a very easy keyboard to make. You can go from the example of the number and punctuation keyboard and modify it. There is no programming requires, just one “Insert Text” action step in each action with the text you want to insert. Would be a good first project if you feel intimidated by editing actions. This video is a good overview of the basic navigation:
You’re right, Greg! I was just being lazy, thinking that, surely, someone else had come up with this. I’ve posted it. https://actions.getdrafts.com/g/1W0
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