macformat.com @macformat SEPTEMBER 2019 | MACFORMAT | 53CONTINUED... Make QR codes using Shortcuts
4
Get another action
We’ve got the ‘get something’ bit.
Now we want to make our clipboard data
‘do something’, ie turn into a QR code.
Search for QR and you’ll see two options:
‘Scan a QR/Barcode’, or ‘Generate QR
Code’. Add the latter one.5
Creating an output
You can export results from your
shortcut in various ways, so for example
you could automatically add the QR code
you created to Photos. Here, though,
we’re choosing ‘Copy to Clipboard’, so
you can paste it into any app.6
Give it a name
Tap on the buttons at the top right
that look like switches to open Settings
for your shortcut. Give it a descriptive
name. If you want it accessible from iOS’s
Share Sheets, make sure the ‘Show in...’
option is enabled.7
Experiment!
You can get input from all kinds of
places. We’ve switched ‘Get Clipboard’
with ‘Get Maps URL’ – so if we tap the
Share button on a location in the Maps
app, we can make a QR code that will
show people that location.8
Run the shortcut
You can call your shortcut from
inside an app by opening the Share Sheet
and tapping Shortcuts. You should now
see the list of available shortcuts: as you
can see, ‘Make A QR Code’ is right there
for our Maps location sharing.9
Share the results
If our shortcut worked, we should
now have a shiny new QR code sitting in
our clipboard. Let’s open Pages, create
a new document and see what happens
when we simply tap on the Paste icon.
Boom! A QR code.10
Use the code
You can test your QR code by
pointing your device’s camera at it. If iOS
recognises it as a QR code it will show
you what the code will do and what app
it’ll do it in. Here we’ve shared a web
address, so Safari is chosen.11
Experiment again
This time we’ve used the Maps
version of our shortcut to capture the
location we were looking at and make
a QR code from that. As you can see,
iOS knows what kind of data it’s looking
at and suggests opening it in Maps.12
Get what you want
Opening the address in Maps
takes us to the location we shared, in
this case London’s famous Buckingham
Palace. You can use codes to share
almost anything: locations, addresses,
contact information...Create QR Codes APPLE APPS