How to Use Siri Shortcuts Part 3: The Library

This was an incredibly well done series on getting one started with using Shortcuts...Very clear and easy to follow. You obviously put a lot of work into this series. I particularly like how well it was edited. There are too many "how to" podcasts where the podcaster includes erroneous steps that have to be redone, excessive speech and time lags, etc. This had none of that and was very enjoyable.

Keep up the good work and thanks again.

--Pete

Couldn't have put it better myself. Thanks for this wonderful series. I've not yet downloaded the Shortcuts app, but I will when I get a bit better and more confident with my iPhone. This is all a bit daunting to me now, due in part to the fact I haven't spent near the amount of time on my iPhone that I want to, lol! But you did a fabulous job.

Hello Pete and Ekaj,

It was a pleasure to have done the podcasts. It did take a lot of time and nights to get this put together but in the end when I hear of comments like this. It certainly was well worth every moment in doing it and I am so glad that you both enjoyed it so thank you!

- AnonyMouse

In one of these podcasts you mentioned that SIRI could not work if Airplane mode was turned off because that meant that neither celluar or WiFi was active. I believe that turning Airplane mode on only turns off celluar data since people can use WiFi on airplanes (but not cellular). Thus SIRI should be able to work if WiFi is available even with Airplan mode turned on.

--Pete

Hey Pete and Simon,

Pete, yes that is true. You can turn on the wi-fi while Airplane Mode is set ON. However, if you were to use the two examples that I gave for the Quiet Time ON and OFF. That using the first one is simple, and you could invoke that example easily. It is just when you use the second example where you couldn't turn this back on with Siri. Basically, the ON turns on the Airplane Mode and you know it disable the cellular and the wi-fi. Yes, I suppose if one goes in manually to set the cellular or the wi-fi to on. You could use the OFF example with Siri. Its kind of defeat the purpose of the Be Quiet as if you turn on the wi-fi. You would still get things coming in and thus defeating the purpose of being quiet. ;)

Simon, I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed the podcast and you are very welcome. Thank you for the nice compliment!

- AnonyMouse

I tried to do the 2nd example with local news sites but to no avail. Siri just read 1 headline and sometimes she just said ok or done and read nothing. I suspect Siri didn't read it because those sites are probably full of headings. Is there a shortcut someone can recommend to do what I am looking for? Like the 2nd example Thomas gave but with news sites?

Firstly, thank you so much for this in depth guide on how to create shortcuts and doing all this work for us. Its greatly appreciated!
Post edited and reedited at this point.
Last night I was having some problems, but with some more effort I have since created both the quiet time on and off shortcuts. Yay! That was very terrific! :)
I've actually since been able to get the shortcuts as part of my widgets also! One thing, is there a way once in the shortcuts app, on the library tab, a way to reorder the shortcuts so that I can then arrange the ones I use more to have them further to the left side of the screen?
Maybe one day Apple will make that available to us.
Thanks again for all the considerable effort on your part to bring this series to us AnonyMouse, great job!

I found a shortcut to read headlines. You need the RSS feed of the website you want to use and as far as I know it doesn't read the summary or as I recently learned from a google search a dek. Also, when asking Siri to speak the headlines
siri when finished speaking all the headlines will repeat them until you stop it. Go to sharecuts. app then go to the search and type in Siri. It's the only result. I like it.

how do I use variables and what they are?

In case readers haven't found it yet, Apple's user guide for shortcuts is here:
https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/welcome/ios

I found it useful to read a bit at a time and try out things.

Hi, just finally getting my head around this only now. You said you were going to share all examples, and I really wanted to look at the last one that you made for AppleVis news but can't see it here? Can't work out how to put together menu choices.