In the initial release of macOS Monterey, Shortcuts is pretty flaky.
The interface is glitchy, and several basic actions don’t even work.
But despite this, Shortcuts is abig deal for the Mac.
Apple
It makes it easy, almost trivial, to automate the apps you already use.
Better still,many apps have already addedMac Shortcuts support just days after release.
It would resize the image, strip out location data, and save it back to your library.
It would look something like this:
The complexity and power increase from there.
Unlike the previous attempt at drag-and-drop automation on the Macwith AutomatorShortcuts already has excellent support from third-party developers.
This is essential because, without it, there’s nothing to automate.
And shortcuts don’t need to be fancy.
Photos
Darkroomis analternative to the built-in Photos appand even uses your existing iCloud Photo Library.
In fact, this is a great point to mention batch automation.
Shortcuts is good for two types of task.
Doing this manually is a real pain.
The other kind of shortcut is the kind that you might use for batches.
Thats where Pixelmator Pros Shortcuts actions come in handy.
Text
Draftsis one of the most useful apps on Mac and iOS.
You pop in in (or dictate) some text, and then you act on it.
Drafts can do pretty much anything to a chunk of text because it has its own automation system built-in.
And now it works with Shortcuts.
Craft is another great text-based app, although this one is used for writing and organizing information and images.
Hopefully, this article has inspired you to check out Shortcuts.
Just bewarethe current state of the Shortcuts app on the Mac is not indicative of the usual experience.
