Automators 17: Live at PodCon

I really liked RMO’s shortcut to create packing lists in OmniFocus.

One tweak I wanted to incorporate was the ability to revise lists or add new lists without having to edit the shortcut itself.

I revised RMO’s base shortcut so that text files are read into her dictionary scheme. To create a new list (like the Podcasting Equipment modification she demonstrated in her Youtube screencast), you create a new text file titled Podcasting Equipment and then list the various items to pack as separate lines in that text file. The shortcut reads all the text files that reside at a user defined path on their iCloud Drive (e.g. /Shortcuts/Pack).

I also added a prompt for a list name, so that the list becomes its own project in OmniFocus

The shortcut itself is here. Another shortcut is available that creates a Pack subfolder on the user’s iCloud Drive and saves a pair of demo lists (Clothing and Tech).