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iPhone Tip. Home Screen Widgets. I know some people are just not sure what they would do with a widget on their home screen. So I just thought I would share what I have done. I am all about trying to be as efficient as I can. So I made me a widget that would help me be able to do things more quickly. I use the Shortcuts Widget. It can hold up to 8 shortcuts. So what kind of shortcuts did I put on the widget? Well, glad you asked! 😄, 1, Craeate a Note. 2, Message my wife. 3, Message my daughter. 4, blank message to go to anyone. 5, Opens blank email ready to type. 6, Opens my folder in Dropbox that contains all of my important files. 7, Opens a blank post for Mona. So all of these just sit on a widget on my home screen, and I can start any of them with just a simple double tap. So if I need to jot down a quick note, I just hit create note, and a blank note pops up ready to go. If I need to send an email, then I just hit email, and a blank email pops up ready to go. If I need to access my files folder in Dropbox, then I hit my Dropbox button. And if I want to send something to all of you, then I just hit Mona Post. These shortcuts are very simple to do, and there are others to choose from depending what you are looking for. This one widget makes things so much easier and quicker for me. If you would like to do something like this, but not sure how. Then I would be happy to help in any way I can. All you have to do is to let me know! 👍,

Nick's world 🌎 👨‍🦯
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@ChrisChaffin It would be cool to have shortcuts to create posts, favorite, reply and repost all without having to go into the mona app.

Chris C
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@gocu54 As far as crating a new Mona Post, I can share that shortcut with you if you like. But I am not sure how you could favorite or boost a post that you have not yet seen. Now you can favorite, reply, and boost a Mona post from the notification center. If you flick up on a post from the notification center, choose more, then a menu will appear that gives you the choice of either favoriting, replying, or boosting.

Nick's world 🌎 👨‍🦯
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@ChrisChaffin I'm happy to have that shortcut though, thanks for the tip too.

Chris C
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Chris C
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@gocu54 With that shortcut, you can do a few things. You can put it on a home screen, use Siri to activate it, or add it to a widget like I did. To use Siri, just say the name of the shortcut. Feel free to let me know if you have questions.

Nick's world 🌎 👨‍🦯
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@ChrisChaffin How do you make a widget for it?

Chris C
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@gocu54 Widgets come in 3 sizes; small, medium, and large. The bigger the widget, the more room it takes up on your home screen. So it depends on if you are just going to use that one shortcut, or if you want others added to it.

Nick's world 🌎 👨‍🦯
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@ChrisChaffin I'm guessing I'd want small ones.
Not sure though.

Chris C
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@gocu54 A small shortcut widget I think only holds one shortcut, and that is fine. A small widget takes up a 2 by 2 square on your home screen. So another words; 2 app icons wide by 2 app icons high.

Chris C
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@gocu54 To add the widget. Go about the place on the screen you want the widget. Flick up on that app icon and choose edit. This puts it in edit mode. Go to the very top and choose the add widget button. It will then take you to the page with the list of available widgets. Swipe down the list and choose shortcuts. You will then be on the shortcuts widgets page. The widget you want; the single small widget is the one chosen since it is the first widget in the list. So all you have to do is go to the bottom and choose add widget. This will close all of those screens and put you back on the home screen.

Nick's world 🌎 👨‍🦯
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@ChrisChaffin I must have done something wrong because I don't see Mona on my homecreen any more even though it's still on my phone.

Chris C
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@gocu54 Keep in mind that some of the app icons will have to move a little to make room for the widget. Most of the time it just pushes the ones that were at the bottom to the next page.

Nick's world 🌎 👨‍🦯
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@ChrisChaffin What happens if I don't have an empty area on my iPhone? I don't really see one.

Chris C
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@gocu54 Naturally, there should not be one. Everytime you get a new app, it basically just adds it to the end of your apps. Since it will be a small widget, where ever you put it, it will automatically push the bottom 4 apps on that page to the next page of apps on your phone. I will say that is one thing people do not like about widgets, the space they take up. But I do not mind myself. I have a large widget on my home screen, and large widgets take up two thirds of my home screen; a large widget is equivalent to 4 app icons wide, and 4 app icons high.

Nick's world 🌎 👨‍🦯
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@ChrisChaffin This is definitely complicated. I'm not really a tech wiz though.

Chris C
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@gocu54 Now to choose the shortcut you want on the widget, you will have to bring up the specific widget settings. Do a single finger triple tap on the widget. On that screen, choose edit widget. On the next screen it should give you a place to choose the shortcut you want.

Lee Hodgson
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@ChrisChaffin hi chris this is something I’ve never even thought of. If you could talk me through how to create the widgets that would be fantastic as they sound really useful particularly for messages and things like that so thanks for your help. Take care

Chris C
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@LeeHodgson Hi Lee. I can share many of the shortcuts with you. The only thing you will have to do is for any that you want to personalize, you will just have to add that person to the shortcut. There are a few different steps, so what I will do is to write something up and send it to you in an email if that is OK.

Lee Hodgson
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@ChrisChaffin that would be fantastic, chris thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Chris C
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@LeeHodgson One thing you will have to consider is that a widget does take up space on your homescreen. So you will probably have to do some rearranging of your apps on your homescreen. Not everybody likes this, but for me, it is worth it.

Callum Stoneman
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@ChrisChaffin @payown Nice! Home and lock screen widgets are something I really haven't investigated much, but the Shortcuts widget sounds awesome as a productivity boost. Definitely going to play around with this when I have the time