vmdanilov / TextFlow

Automator workflows for text manipulation in any OS X app

TextFlow

TextFlow is a set of Automator workflows for text manipulation featuring basic technical editing including smart punctuation, text substitution and the easiest way to paste unformatted text in every OS X application.

Workflows

• Paste and Transform Text
• Transform Selected Text
• Paste as Plain Text

Text transforms

By default, TextFlow removes any formatting from the text.

• Fix Paragraphs
• Extract URL
• Extract Email Address
• Unescape URL
• Plain List
• Remove Duplicate Lines
• Merge All Lines
• Remove Empty Lines
• Remove Extra Spaces
• Replace Spaces with Underscores
• Replace Spaces with Hyphens
• Dumb Punctuation
• Remove Quotes
• Text Substitution*
• Transliterate
• Smart Units
• Smart Punctuation
• Upper Case
• Lower Case
• Title Case
• AP Style Title Case
• Sentence Case
• Quote
• Sort Lines in Ascending Order
• Sort Lines in Descending Order
• Unordered List
• Ordered List
• Blockquote
• Copy to Clipboard**

* Or Text Expansion, specify your substitutions in  > System Preferences > Keyboard > Text.
** Some WYSIWYG editors, or content editable fields, in browsers ignore TextFlow output and paste directly from Clipboard. Include this option to fix the issue. In worst-case scenario, you can Copy, then Paste and Transform Text with Copy to Clipboard selected, and finally Paste.

Install

1. Download the latest release.
2. Unpack the archive.
3. Double click workflows to install for a current user (installed at ~/Library/Services).*

* If Gatekeeper does not allow installation, right-click (or ⌃ Control + click) on a workflow and choose Open.

Usage

1. Run TextFlow workflows from Services menu of current application.
2. Select transforms from the next list.
3. Click OK or press ↵ Enter to apply, click Cancel or press ⎋ Esc to cancel.

You can assign global shortcuts via  > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Text.

Recommended shortcuts:

• Paste and Transform Text: ⌃ Control ⌥ Option ⌘ Command V
• Transform Selected Text: ⌃ Control ⌥ Option ⌘ Command T
• Paste as Plain Text*: ⇧ Shift ⌘ Command V

* It is also recommended to assign the same global shortcut to Paste and Match Style command (and Paste and Match Formatting, if using Microsoft Office) via  > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts > All Applications. This will effectively allow you to have the same shortcut for Paste and Match Style, or Paste as Plain Text, in every application. The command name may vary in some apps, add those to the list as well, e.g. Paste and Match Formatting for Microsoft Office and Paste as Plain Text for Evernote.

While it is tempting to just assign ⌘ Command V to Paste and Match Style, this will break pasting to plain textfields and object manipulation for apps like Mail, Messages and Keynote.

Contributing

Please report bugs, share your ideas or code on Github TextFlow or Twitter @vmdanilov.

If you like the project, you may donate some money via PayPal.

License

Copyright (c) 2015 Vlad Danilov. Released under the MIT license.