Snippets that keep checkbox formatting in Apple Notes?

[alfredpanda]

Hello, I use Snippets extensively, especially with Apple notes. One example is a meeting notes template which has various sections.

In one section I would like to insert the checkboxes from Apple Notes like this:

 

However no matter what I try they always come through as normal bullet points

 

This is how it looks in Alfred's settings. It's a copy/paste from Apple Notes. Is there a better way I can achieve what I need?

 

Thanks!

 

[alfredpanda]

@Vero Could you help with this please? I would love to be able to do this as I use it daily, thanks!

[zeitlings]

The problem is that those check list bullets are no ordinary unicode characters, but more complex custom objects internal to Apple Notes.

You'll notice that you can't even select them. If you copy a checklist, however, Apple Notes converts the checklist bullets to this markdown notation:- [ ]

Trying to expand those will however also not automatically convert them to the interactive checklist objects. I'm afraid that this won't work with regular text expansions.

 

You can however try to create a custom workflow that inserts your snippet and then dispatches some key combos (e.g. shift+cmd+←, shift+↑, shift+↑, shift+cmd+L). The last one is the Apple Notes shortcut for creating checklists.

[alfredpanda]

I see, thank you for the explanation!

 

There are a few Notes apps that can build templates like NotesCmdr and ProNotes - I noticed NotesCmdr's templates are in Beta and don't currently support checklists so that makes sense. Looks like they're going to investigate workarounds.

[zeitlings]

NoteCmdr looks neat! Coincidentally, I just stumbled over another extension today the author wrote, and it looks like he is using Apple's Accessibility API to "hack" into Apple Notes. 

 

But it looks like nothing that fancy is necessary for your use case. I just tested the approach with dispatching key combos and it does the trick.

https://transfer.archivete.am/10YNHX/Test | Apple Notes Snippet.alfredworkflow

 

[alfredpanda]

Thank you! This is so helpful - I’ll definitely use your method 🙂

 

I’m a big fan of Apple Notes - just bought NotesCmdr, I think it will be useful for everything else.

[alfredpanda]

@zeitlings This almost works perfectly, the only thing it's missing is the rich text formatting. i.e "To discuss" being a header, and any other text that I want as a subheader, or bolded for example.

 

Is there any way to add rich text into the "Argument", like how it's possible within a normal Snippet?

 

Thanks!

 

[zeitlings]

Sure, there are two ways that I see with only the objects we've already used.

1. Directly set and format your rich text in the "Copy to Clipboard" utility (that one actually does support rich text).

2. Just check out the "Dispatch Key Combo" chain and extend it to whatever you need the result to be.

https://transfer.archivete.am/3ACFY/Test | Apple Notes Snippet 2.alfredworkflow

[alfredpanda]

@zeitlings you've done it! Thank you so much again for taking the time to help, this is perfect. I use this multiple times a day so this is really super helpful 🙏