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Super-Speed Smart-Add with iOS Text Shortcuts

fabianhemmert says:
The Remember The Milk apps for iPhone and iPad are great, especially adding tasks with Smart-Add. However, if you often use the same combinations of tags and properties, you might want to bring them to super-speed with this simple usage of iOS's text shortcuts:

iOS's Shortcuts allow you to enter a short text that will be replaced by a long one. Normally, this is used for addresses and the likes, but it works also great within the RTM app's Smart-Add bar. For instance, I have created this shortcut:

thgt ----> ^never #thoughts !

This will automatically set the due date to 'never' (my default is 'today') and add the task to the 'thoughts' list (and not clutter my default list, the inbox). Using the exclamation mark as the shortcut's last character will also allow you to set the task's priority right after entering the shortcut, which may also come in handy (simply press backspace if you confirmed the shortcut by pressing space, which is the easiest way to do it).

I have found this particularly useful because it doesn't require me to switch to the special characters iPhone keyboard (for ^, # and !) or leave the regular keyboard (to tap the icons, which are great for more selective entries) while entering the task.

I'm sure it works also on desktop and Android, any text expander software should do the trick!
Posted at 5:20pm on July 13, 2012
raymond.bergmark Power Poster says:
Tip of the Week if you ask me - clever!
Posted 11 years ago
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
rajjan, agreed! :)

Fabian, you're this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner. We've upgraded your Remember The Milk account to have a free year of Pro. :)
Posted 11 years ago
toddb says:
This is a great tip. You can also use an AutoHotkey auto-replace script to do the same on your computer too (for using RTM in a desktop browser). I found it works great. Here's a snippet from my script:

#Hotstring R

::wrk1::^today #Work !1 #
::wrk::^today #Work
::wrktom1::^tomorrow #Work !1
::wrktom::^tomorrow #Work

Saves a lot of typing for commonly entered tasks.

http://www.autohotkey.com/
Posted 11 years ago
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