wolfe with an e's blog
Shortcuts by keypress on iPad Pro.
As Shortcuts grow in power, they also increase in ways you can trigger them. A very cool trigger (but with some fine print) is via keypress. You just type a few chosen keys together and the Shortcut pops up with. Hit the Run button and you’re off.
The fine print.
In order to run shortcuts from the keyboard you must:
- Have a Magic Keyboard with an second-generation iPad Pro.
- Grant Full Keyboard Access.
The Full Keyboard Access feature on the iPad Pro became available with the Magic Keyboard and was created so those making the switch to iPad from a laptop never have to touch the screen. Amazing in function, I find its graphic interface annoying for the benefits you get. My gripe is that the active area of the screen gets a primitive box outlining it so you can see what’s in focus. It’s very unMac-like. (Slightly graying out the areas of the screen not in focus would have been much more elegant.) And as a long time iPad user I still find my screen to be the best trackpad.
How to grant Full Keyboard Access.
- From the Home screen, open the Settings app.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Tap Keyboards.
- Turn on Full Keyboard Access
- Tap Commands.
At the bottom of this list you’ll find all your Shortcuts. You tap one and you can record a keypress combination to fire it. It’s best to use a keypress not already assigned a function. Unfortunately I’m not finding a complete list of these or I’d share it, but you can google the combination in quotes along with “magic keyboard” to find an unused or little-used combo.
Enjoying learning about iOS Shortcuts? Consider buying. me a coffee to keep more content coming.
