[[Obsidian]] works amazingly well on iOS, it is really satisfying to write notes on mobile with it. Along with iOS shortcuts and automation, using Obsidian streamlines your mobile note-taking experience like never before.

Use [[iOS shortcut]] to automate tasks

Obsidian Advanced URI | Obsidian Advanced URI

This plugin exposes api to Obsidian via schema URL, combing it with iOS shortcuts make it possible to perform complex automation, like creating note, appending note and reordering list (via Sort & Permutation plugin).

There is a Call Command parameter for calling command from other plugins, which is the key component to automate with iOS shortcuts.

example: add to list and reorder list alphabetically

select some text and use share menu, select the shortcut.

add to the heading TIL on daily note

use commands from various plugin to do following steps:

• open the note and place cursor at specific heading
• set mark, via mark and select
• go to next heading, via Code Editor shortcuts
• go to previous line
• go to end of line
• trim white space, via trim whitespace
• reorder list, via Sort & Permute lines

obtain the command id

command id can be obtain by using Advanced URI: copy URI for command on the Command Palette

Actions URL

Also look at the Actions URL I find it works more reliably and has the ability to run dataview query

same workflow on macOS

The same shortcut workflow used on iOS can be reused on macOS via services, amazing cutting the boilerplate of manually copy & pasting note taking process.

CSS for multiple fonts

Font Atkinson Hyperlegible

Download the Atkinson Hyperlegible Font | Braille Institute

Use this excellent font for low vision reading , perfect for using with Obsidian on iPhone!

Custom Font Loader

Enable Custom Font Loader plugin, enable multiple fonts.

Custom CSS of using different fonts for default and code block.

:root * {
  --font-default: Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Regular-102a;
  --default-font: Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Regular-102a;
  --font-family-editor: Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Regular-102a;
  --font-monospace-default: Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Regular-102a,
  --font-interface-override: Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Regular-102a,
  --font-text-override: Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Regular-102a,
  --font-monospace-override: Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Regular-102a, 
 }

.reading * {
font-size: 20pt !important;
}
/* reading view code */
.markdown-preview-view code {
font-family: 'Iosevka';
}
/* live preview code */
.cm-s-obsidian .HyperMD-codeblock {
font-family: 'Iosevka';
}
/* inline code */
.cm-s-obsidian span.cm-inline-code {
font-family: 'Iosevka';
}

references

How to increase Code block font?! - #2 by ariehen - Custom CSS & Theme Design - Obsidian Forum

How to update your plugins and CSS for live preview - Obsidian Hub - Obsidian Publish

Jotting down thoughts helps clarify the mind. The end goal is simple: just write without fretting over tools. That’s why I’ve always found that starting to write with pen and paper is the easiest approach. However, these days, since everyone carries their mobile phone, the trend has shifted towards writing on phones.

At first, I didn’t consider Apple Notes to be a suitable professional note app, so I tried out OneNote, EverNote, and Notion. Unfortunately, none fit my needs. OneNote posed difficulties on mobile devices; its free layout might be handy for stylus use, but on a small screen, it made things hard to identify and search. I gave Notion a shot for half a year, but it was too complex. While it’s great for team collaboration, I didn’t require that functionality, and I was frustrated by the ’everything as a block’ design, which made selecting and formatting a hassle. Notion’s AI is decent, but I wasn’t keen on shelling out another $10 every month on top of ChatGPT Plus. As for Evernote, I mainly used it to collect webpages rather than for writing.

Apple Notes has seen significant enhancements over time. With the introduction of a transformer model in iOS 17, Apple has elevated its autocorrect and predictive text capabilities , understanding and adapting to your typing patterns. It’s even capable of autofilling entire sentences on occasion. My increasing use of Apple Notes on iPhone has led to more frequent use on macOS as well, and the smooth integration across devices enhances the writing experience in a way that other note apps on different platforms can’t match. The autocorrect and inline predictive text feature available on both operating systems is incredibly effective and is arguably unbeatable at the moment.

Apple Notes now features a tag system and smart lists for note management. Combined with other functions like PDF import, file attachment, OCR, and drawing capabilities, Apple Notes meets most of my requirements.

My current workflow involves using Notion for web clipping and Apple Notes for all my personal notes. This approach has taught me to focus less on the tools and more on simply writing. Just write—use the simplest tool at hand and push it to its limits. Only then consider upgrading your tools if necessary.

RoutineHub • Elevate Mobile Coding Together with Apple Shortcuts amazing resources for iOS shortcuts, one thing particularly useful is that the website can browse by App. Those shortcuts that use Scriptable on the App Store and a-Shell mini on the App Store Truly elevate automation capabilities on iOS to a new level. By combining these tools, you can accomplish complex tasks entirely on your iPhone.

a-shell notably supports Python, which is relevant given Python’s ongoing discussions about adding Tier 3 support for the iOS platform in version 3.13. PEP 730 .

The focus is on “embedded mode”, since there are no stdout on iOS and you can’t provide things like the Python REPL

What’s up Python? iOS support, ruff gets black, flask 3.0…

When using the a-shell action in iOS Shortcuts to execute shell commands or Python scripts, it is often necessary to wait for the execution to finish before continuing to execute other actions.

This can be achieved by using the open shortcuts:// command as the last step in the a-shell action and adding a Wait for Return action afterwards. This combination allows for waiting until a-shell finishes executing a long-running process before proceeding with other actions.

As of the time of writing, the current version of A-Shell is 1.12.1.

Passing Python Files to A-Shell

When using the iOS shortcut action A-Shell , the Put File action does not provide an option to specify the filename. Instead, it automatically names the file based on the first line of th content, excluding special symbols.

Base on this observation we can use the first line to specify filename and modify it after the file creation.

Let’s consider the following content.

getgif
import sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # print the first command line argument
    print(sys.argv[1])

it will be named getgif.txt after being passed from the “Text” action into A-Shell put file action

Removing the First Line with Sed

To remove the first line of a file (in this case, getgif.txt), we can utilize the Execute Command shortcut action in A-Shell. The command we can use is

sed -i '' '1d' getgif.txt

Executing the Python Script

Once we have removed the first line of the file, we can proceed to execute the Python script within A-Shell using Execute Command

python getgif.txt "hello"