TIPS FROM A PRO
Federico Viticci’s 7 Starter Shortcuts
Federico Viticci became a master of Shortcuts by playing the long game.
In 2009 he founded MacStories, one of the most popular and trusted sources of Apple news and reviews on the web. Along the way, his obsession with efficiency led the Rome-based writer and journalist to become an expert at using Shortcuts on iOS. “It’s all about removing friction from everyday tasks,” he says.
With the debut of macOS Monterey, Viticci is taking advantage of the Shortcuts app on Mac and enjoying the chance to use his talents in an entirely new arena. “My first reaction to Shortcuts on Mac, honestly, was ‘What an incredible opportunity,’” says Viticci.
We asked Viticci to talk about some of his favorite Mac shortcuts. Here are seven custom options you can download right now to make your Mac-using life even easier.
Pro tip: For quicker access to a shortcut, add it to the Finder’s Quick Actions menu, your menu bar, or the Touch Bar. Open the shortcut in the Shortcuts app, click the Shortcut Details button (which looks like three control sliders), and check the appropriate boxes.
Quickly add a task to Reminders
“I’m terrible at remembering what I have to do,” says Viticci. (With a daily news/review website, multiple podcasts, and active social media accounts, it’s understandable.) So he relies heavily on the Reminders app—and on a shortcut to quickly add a new entry. The shortcut prompts you for a reminder name, due date, list, and priority, then adds the item to Reminders without you ever having to open the app.
Open a link in Safari
This shortcut instantly opens any copied link in Safari. “You don’t have to open a new window or tab and then paste,” he says. It works no matter which app you’re in, and those saved steps can really add up.
Pro tip: Make this one even more convenient by giving it a hot key. Open the shortcut in the Shortcuts app, go to Shortcut Details, click Add Keyboard Shortcut, and assign an easy-to-remember combo.
Get an image’s dimensions
Need to know a photo’s measurements? Run this shortcut and choose an image (from the clipboard, a file, or Photos) to see its width and height. “It’s a lot easier and quicker than selecting an image, opening the Finder’s Get Info window, and finding the dimensions,” Viticci says.
Pro tip: Add this one to your Quick Actions and you can run it by simply Control-clicking any image.
Switch among calendar sets in Fantastical
A favorite feature of the calendar app Fantastical, our 2020 Mac App of the Year, is the option to create different sets of calendars so you can quickly view only the info you need. For example, Viticci has a Personal set for his home, family, and workout calendars, and another set called Work to schedule his writing, editing, and podcasting time. Run this shortcut to easily switch among your own calendar sets. (When you first download the shortcut, it will prompt you to enter the names of your sets—a onetime action.)
LookUp a word
We love the powerful dictionary app LookUp, and so does Viticci. This shortcut makes it even easier to access the app’s info: Run the shortcut, enter a term, then choose whether to pull up its definition, synonyms, antonyms, origin, or Wikipedia entry—or, for the spelling-bee aficionados out there, to see it used in a sentence. When you’re done, you can choose to add the word to a LookUp collection.
Create a checklist in Things
This shortcut for the best-in-show productivity app Things creates a new task with a preloaded checklist of subtasks—handy for chores or packing lists, for example. Viticci has included comments within the shortcut so even automation novices can tweak the details. “It’s infinitely customizable,” he says. We couldn’t agree more.
Open a saved article in Reeder
The RSS-reading app Reeder gathers articles from your favorite websites so you can scan hundreds of headlines in minutes; it also lets you save interesting content for later. This shortcut presents a list of your latest saved articles so you can quickly open one in the app. Viticci added a bonus: “If I don’t know what I’m in the mood for, the shortcut has an Open a Random Article option so I don’t have to choose one.”
And much, much more...
Viticci’s passion for shortcuts has resulted in more than 200 of them—all free to the public—including the ever-popular MusicBot, which adds a bunch of useful options to Apple Music. Most of his iOS and iPadOS shortcuts also work on Mac, which just might be his favorite thing: “I can reap new benefits from all the work I’ve been doing over the years!”