how to create a new text document on mac

I’d suggest reviewing it and/or asking someone who knows what they are doing if this is set up properly. I used the code found on this page to put this together for my needs. If something goes wrong, you could lose your file and/or content. Please be aware that I am not a coder or programmer, and I may have done something wrong by duct-taping this code together! This shell script works by saving the existing file, then overwriting it after inserting the new text to the existing content. The todo.txt file would then look like this: - Lift heavy things If the todo.txt file initially looked like this: - Shave catĪfter running that Automator Service, and entering the new task - Lift heavy things This shell script would take the text on your Clipboard, and prepend it to the todo.txt file residing in your /Dropbox/Notes/ folder. The setup of this Automator Service is exactly the same as my append text Service, but the shell script code is different: FILE_CONTENT=$(pbpaste)Įcho -e '- $FILE_CONTENT' | cat - /Users/George/Dropbox/Notes/todo.txt > /tmp/tempfile & mv /tmp/tempfile /Users/George/Dropbox/Notes/todo.txt For now, read on to learn how to set this journaling automation up for yourself. I will be writing about my plain-text journaling system in a future post. txt file, in the right location, behind the scenes. With this setup and the companion append text automation setup, I can hit a keyboard combo, have a small window pop up where I type what I want to capture, hit OK and the automation goes and appends it to the right. These automation setups remove friction in doing so, which make it more likely I will maintain the behavior. I like to capture ideas, thoughts, errands, links, apps, articles, tasks and todos quickly, and I use a plain-text document system I’ve put together over the years. In a way, I am cobbling together the functionality I find extraordinarily useful in the iOS app Drafts for use on macOS. My core interest in setting this up is for plain-text journaling. As a followup to my earlier post about how to create a macOS Service (or a Text Expander snippet) to quickly append a text file using Hazel, Automator and Shell Scripts, here’s a way to instead prepend text to a text file using the same tools.

How to create a new text document on mac