Get selection as rich text

[Tekl]

Would it be possible to get the selection in macOS as Rich Text when using Hotkeys or Universal Actions? I would like to convert it to Markdown.

[vitor]

Connect the Hotkey to a Dispatch Key Combo Output that performs a ⌘C, thus getting the current selection to the clipboard with that information. Do note that what’s stored in Clipboard History is plain text, so if you change to another item and back, it will have lost the formatting. If you have Alfred Preferences → Features → Clipboard History → Merging turned on, you may need to add a short delay so it doesn’t append to the previous entry.

[Tekl]

Thanks for the help. I decided to use a simple Shortcut via the Services menu instead. Well, it breaks my workflow as I do most stuff with Alfred, but I don't need it so often.

[vitor]

How about using Alfred to trigger the shortcut, then?

[Tekl]

How can this be done? My use case is this: I select Text with hyperlinks in Mail, press a shortcut and then the clipboard contains the markdown representation.

 

As Alfred’s hotkeys strip the formatting from selected text, I can't pass it to the Shortcut. I see no difference to my first approach with a Hotkey and a Script.

[vitor]

You don’t pass text, you don’t need to do that, you can just use Alfred as the trigger and have whatever else in your process grab the text.

[Tekl]

The shortcut does not have an action for text grabbing. It gets it from the system using the services menu. The only actions are:

 

- Make Markdown from <Shortcut Input>

- Copy <Markdown from Rich Text> to clipboard