The Scenario: I need a new letterhead document to work on

Do you ever work with Microsoft Word® files as a template starting point for a document? Letterhead is a great example. You typically navigate to the file, copy it, and then paste it into a new location. Or, you open it and click save as and rename it. Or, maybe you work directly on the file and forget to do those steps, causing more work for yourself to return it to its template state.

Computers are built for automating routine tasks like this. If you keep track of the manual steps it takes you to perform an action, there’s generally a way to have the computer perform those same steps for you, with just a few keystrokes or pushing a button. In this example, we’ll use a Mac with its Shortcuts app.

This is one “action” Shortcut saves several steps and reduces the tendency to procrastinate. For this example, assume you have a letterhead file that you need to copy to an “in” folder to write a new letter.

In my case, the letterhead file path is seven folders and a long list of files away. So, I have to open Finder, navigate to this folder, look through the list of files, find the one I want, copy it to a new location, and then open it so I can get to work. Not really a big deal, but what if I could do all of those steps with one button click?

Set up your Shortcut:

• Open Shortcuts.
• Click the 􀅼 icon to create a new Shortcut.
• Name the Shortcut. I used “New Letterhead.” Clever.
• Find the “Save File” action and drag it from the right side list of actions to the left side action step area.
• On the left side of the screen, there should be an action step now.

• Click in the “File” area and select your letterhead template file. Click Open.

• In Shortcuts, click the “Show More” area of the action step. Uncheck “Ask Where To Save:”.

• This gives you another option in the main area of the action step, allowing you to select what folder you are going to save your template file to. If you read the action step, it is telling you what is going to do. In this case, it will read something like: “Save File to Shortcuts.” We want to save (copy) the source file to a new location, so we can get to work.

• Click on the word “Shortcuts” and you will see an option to “Replace”.

• Click “Replace” and then navigate to the appropriate location. I use an “in” folder. Select the location and Click Open. Now, read the action step again. You are telling the Shortcut to Save the file to a location.

• To make this Shortcut easier to access and use, we need to set a couple of options. On the right hand side of the screen, there is a Shortcut Details Icon 􀌆.

• Clicking that icon will reveal options for the Shortcut. We are looking for “Pin in Menu Bar”. Click to select that option. In the Menu Bar (top right of your Mac’s screen), you should now see a Shortcuts icon (sort of like 􀯰). If you click on that Icon, your cleverly named “New Letterhead” shortcut appears. You can launch the Shortcut by clicking it.

The Shortcut should, in a matter of seconds, find the source file and put a copy in the selected folder. The first time you run the Shortcut, your Mac might ask for permission. If you open the “in” folder, a copy of the file should be there, ready for editing.

Summary

To recap, here’s what we did: