Create a Scratchpad with Alfred

Posted on 2013-12-28

I always have an empty doc open on my computer as a place to quickly paste in some text. It's never something I need to save and I'll never miss it if I happen to lose it. The only problem is that it's slow recreating this scratchpad file or find it each time I need it.

I created a very simple workflow that takes the contents of my clipboard and opens a file in a text editor of my choice. The Alfred workflow can be triggered in one of two ways. The first is with the keyboard shortcut "hyper"-s1. The second way is simply typing "scratchpad" into Alfred.

scratchpad_alfred

I have it set to save a file in my Home folder called ".scratchpad" and then open the file in Sublime Text. Right now, the workflow will check for Sublime Text version 3, then version 2 and if neither exist, it will open the scratchpad in Text Edit.

scratchpad_example

You'll need the Alfred Powerpack to use this workflow. If you already have it, you can download it with the link below.

image

  1. command-option-control-shift mapped to my caps lock key. You can read more here on how to make a hyper key ↩

Tags: alfred automation

create-a-scratchpad-with-alfred

© Ryan M 2024. Built using Pelican.