Automator action in macOS

Hi there! I’m a newbie when it comes to coding and all that stuff, so please be kind… :smile:
I know that my question is probably going to make people think, “What a dumb question!”, but I really wish to know if there’s a way to create a Quick Action in MacOS Catalina with Automator using the X-callback-url “create a note”, the same way you are able to do with Things 3 or Todoist with a Universal Hotkey, that brings a pop-up window. Bear also has a similar shortcut (Ctrl+Opt+B, in my case), but it takes you to the app. What I want and need is that “Pop-up Window” in front of whatever app you’re working on.
The problem with Things and Todoist is that, when you hit that keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Opt+spacebar), they create a new “Task” or “To-do”, which is not what I wanted.
I’m creating some kind of a “dictionary/reference notebook” for my job, and I’d like to add terms to it whenever they come to mind, you know? And a quick shortcut to bring a pop-up window would help me a lot, because I won’t get distracted by changing between apps (ADHD is a b#$%*).
I would appreciate any help from you guys!

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I won’t go into the shortcut approach — there are better people for that — but I think you will really like our Agenda 10.0 release in a few weeks. Has full sharing extension support, which is pretty much exactly what you describe.

If you want to beta test, we can arrange that.

Hi again!
I’ve been using Agenda 10.0 Beta for a few days now, but I can’t find a way to do what I just told you.
Am I missing something? Is there a keyboard shortcut/combination to do that (universal hotkey, quick entry, or whatever people call it)??? I thought I hit the bull’s-eye with x-callback-url, but apparently I missed it for a mile :laughing:. Please, enlighten me! hehehehe. All the best!

I think there has been a bit of a confusion, we thought you were referring to a sharing extension, which will be part of version 10. Re-reading your messages now sounds however more like you were looking for a global shortcut. We have some ideas in this direction, stay tuned!

That’s it!!! Each one gives it a name, so I didn’t know which was the right one. Anyways… yesterday, I found out how to “call” a pop-up window to take a note and send it to Reminders app. That’s why I thought it would be easier to make a "quick action” with Automator, using Applescript associated with the X-callback-url, than ask for something apparently I’m the only one interested in.
I just wanted to know whether that’s the right way to do it (with x-callback-url) or not… And if it is, if you could give some advice on that (or how and where I can find tutorials or something, and stop being a pain in your butts… :smiley:)
Anyhow, thanks for everything!

Hey Guys!
I finally found a way to make this “global hotkey” happen! A not-so-neat accomplishment, but it’s very useful while we wait for an “official” quick entry global hotkey in Agenda, and maybe it can help others too.
I used macOS Automator to do this workflow, even though there are people who don’t like it. If you know a better way to do it, I’m open for suggestions! :smile:
I’m guessing that people who ended up here in this thread might know some features I’m about to describe. But, if you don’t, feel free to ask. One more thing: my macOS is in Portuguese, so I don’t know how exactly the English commands are presented… Be nice, ok?!
Anyway… follow these steps. It’s pretty easy, but it won’t cover what I wanted, which was creating a note in a specific project.
So I included two more steps in the workflow:

  1. Dragged and dropped the “Get Specified URL” (which is in Actions>Library>Internet) and added the x-callback-url that I wanted (you can find its documentation in this community), which looks like this:
    agenda://x-callback-url/create-note?project-title=Notas&title=Ideia&on-the-agenda=false&date=today
    (if you’re like me, here’s a brief explanation: it tells Agenda to create a note, in the project previously named as “Notas”, with the title “Ideia”, and as I didn’t want it to be “On the Agenda”, I put it as “false”, but with the date “Today”);
  2. Then, added a last action called “Display Webpages”, otherwise it won’t work (believe me, I tried!).
    Afterwards, I saved it as “Thoughts to Agenda” and did what is described in the link placed above (assigning a Keyboard Shortcut; mine is Shift+Cmd+I, for “Idea”).
    And Voilà! That’s it! It doesn’t matter where I am in my computer, I simply hit this shortcut and a new note comes to the front, where I can write what’s in my head.
    I hope you guys like it!
    Best regards from Brazil!
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Hi -
i’ve been looking for the same thing! Does this allow you create a new note in a floating window?

Hi!
Unfortunately, it doesn’t… At least I couldn’t figure out a way… That’s what I wanted as well :smile:
By the way, I invite anyone who could help us out to make a contribution and share with us their knowledge about this topic.
There must be a way to do this with some scripting (applescript, javascript, or sth), but I honestly have no idea.
However, I’m confident that the “Agenda Guys” won’t let us down and shall devise something to us in this direction sooner than we expect (no pressure on them at all :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:).

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There can be no note in a separate window at this time. Agenda needs some work to support this (think about syncing up the windows, for example, as you type).

We do have plans for a separate window mode. Stay tuned!

That is very helpful

A simpler way if you use Keyboard Maestro is simply to right-click on any Smart Overview or Project and choose “Copy Agenda Llink.” Then create a KM macro which uses “Open URL” to open the Agenda Link. Now you have a macro that can with one hotkey go directly to your desired location in which to add an Agenda item.

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