WFx Options

Help Topics

• Overview
• The Prompt
• Shortcuts
• FTOC: Find Tab Or Create
• PowerPack Option
• Add JavaScript
• Right Click Menu
• Import / Export

Overview

WFx allows you to create simple, intuitive text shortcuts to things you typically bookmark in the browser:

• WorkFlowy bullets and searches
• Favorite websites
• Bookmarklets/JavaScript

Then use a single keyboard shortcut to generate a prompt, where you enter those shortcuts. Press Enter and WFx instantly finds an existing tab, or opens a new one if none exist. This feature is called "find tab or create" or FTOC. If you keep a ton of tabs open, FTOC is your friend and will eliminate duplicate tabs.

Simple. And powerful!

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The Prompt

• The WFx prompt is activated with a single keyboard shortcut you define. The default is Alt+W (Mac:Option-W).
• Customize this shortcut by clicking MISC SETTINGS and click the "Set KBS" button.
• Pressing the Enter key is the same as clicking "OK".
• Pressing ESC is the same as clicking "Cancel".

What you can enter into the prompt:

• Make no entry, and just press Enter.
• Inside WorkFlowy: Always takes you to WorkFlowy Home.
• Outside WorkFlowy: Switches to the first WorkFlowy tab it finds.
  (this does NOT update to WorkFlowy Home, it just goes.)
• Enter wfs to activate Shortcut Maker and create a shortcut to the current webpage.
• Enter wfo to open this Options page.
• Enter one of your custom shortcuts to FTOC or go to an existing tab or create a new one.
  Note: JavaScript shortcuts always run in the current tab, and cannot use FTOC.
• Enter text to "global search" from WorkFlowy's Home page. (This works outside of WorkFlowy too!)
• Enter a leading space followed by text, to "local search" the current WorkFlowy page.
• Enter a leading space followed by a shortcut to a WorkFlowy search, to search the current WorkFlowy page.
• Select text on any webpage, and it appears in the prompt. Press enter and search WorkFlowy.

Where the prompt doesn't work:

For security reasons, the browser forbids JavaScript to run on certain browser-related pages. In these cases, you will see no prompt and instead WFx automatically switches to your WorkFlowy tab, where you can activate the prompt a second time. This is a workaround, and plans are to fix this in a future release.

Pages where this happens:

• This WFx Options page!
• New Tab page
• Most browser extension option pages.
• Browser Web Store pages
• file:/// links where you have opened local files in a browser tab. Like a PDF for example.

Tip: if you want to create shortcuts to these pages, you need to manually copy the URL from the addressbar, and then use ADD URL in the sidebar to create your shortcut. These shortcuts will play nice with FTOC.

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Shortcuts

Creating Shortcuts

• The built-in shortcut wfs is the recommended method for creating shortcuts.
• To use, simply navigate to the site you want to create a shortcut to, and activate wfs.
• Then define your shortcut and confirm the save.
• Your shortcut is ready to use.

Viewing / Editing / Deleting Shortcuts

• View your shortcuts list by launching WFx OPTIONS via the built-in wfo shortcut.
• Use the SEARCH feature at the top to quickly locate entries by shortcut, name or type.
• Click on a shortcut entry to view the details.
• From the details view, you can make edits and save, or delete the shortcut entry.

What are valid shortcut characters?

• You can use just about any string of characters, at any length to create a shortcut.
• Shortcuts are case-sensitive.
• No spaces allowed.
• No quotes (single or double) allowed.
• The following built in shortcuts cannot be used: wfs, wfo, ?

What is a duplicate shortcut?

• WFx defines a duplicate using only the shortcut string.
• It does not check the URL or names of existing shortcuts for duplicates.
• Whenever you attempt to save a shortcut that already exists, WFx will warn you.
• If you are using wfs, you have the option of overwriting the existing duplicate, or you can define a new shortcut.
• If you are creating or editing a shortcut via the OPTIONS page, you can only define a new shortcut.

3 Character Search Warning

• This is a built-in feature to mitigate shortcut typing errors.
• If you attempt a global search of 3 characters or less, you will see a second prompt asking you to confirm the global search.
• Press OK to search, or correct your shortcut input error, and WFx will launch it.
• Short tag searches (2-3 characters) always get through without the nagging prompt.

Storage / Sync

• If you have extension sync enabled, your shortcuts will sync to any computer using the same account login.
• Extension syncing (if available) is typically enabable by default.
• With sync disabled, shortcuts are stored locally on this computer.
• The maximum number of shortcuts is 512.

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FTOC: Find Tab Or Create

About FTOC

• FTOC searches tabs in all browser windows to find a match for your shortcut.
• The MATCH TABS USING URL setting tells FTOC how much of the shortcut URL to use when matching tabs.
• The UPDATE FOUND TAB TO URL setting determines what happens once a matching tab is found.
• To make shortcut creation quick, wfs attempts to optimize these FTOC settings at creation.

The MATCH TABS USING URL Setting

• If FTOC is not working as you like, you can tweak this setting by opening the shortcut via wfo.
• This is most likely to occur when you have multiple shortcuts sharing the same URL domain.
• The first thing to try is change Domain to Path. Then test your shortcut.
• If that doesn't work, change it to All. And test again.
• If it's still not working, check to see if the URL is redirecting.
• Do this by comparing the URL in your shortcut to the URL in the browser addressbar after the page has loaded.
• If they are different, try changing the shortcut URL to addressbar one.
• Lastly, you may be able to tweak the shortcut URL by shortening it (literally removing portions from the right).
• URLs may contain extra information that isn't required to properly load the page.
• The trick is to make it as short as possible, while still opening the site as you want it.

The UPDATE FOUND TAB TO URL Setting

• This tells FTOC what to do once it finds a matching tab.
• checked: Updates the matching tab to shortcut URL.
• unchecked: Just goes to the matching tab.
• This setting is primarly dependent on the technology the website uses.
• Many websites will force an undesired page reload with Update: checked
• WorkFlowy plays nice with "Update", so wfs always sets WorkFlowy shortcuts to checked.
• wfs defaults to unchecked, for non-WorkFlowy shortcuts.

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PowerPack Option

Get PowerPack here

What is PowerPack?

• PowerPack is an optional add-on that turbocharges your WorkFlowy and browser experience.
• 120+ scripts (and counting!) help you do things faster, and in many cases, do things you simply can't do, or wouldn't attempt!
• Replaces bookmarklets. Clean up your bookmarks bar.
• Scripts use WorkFlowy's official API for continued reliability, and peace of mind.
• Scripts automatically update in the background via WorkFlowy's sync.
• So bugs get fixed, and new features/new scripts get added to PowerPack without you lifting a finger.
• Click here for the current list of scripts
• Click here for a quick overview of what you do after purchase
• Click here for WFx Video Tutorials
• Get PowerPack here

Create PowerPack Shortcuts

• IMPORTANT! You must add the PowerPack share to your outline for scripts to work properly.
• To create a shortcut, zoom on the bullet with JavaScript in the note.
• Scripts will have one of these tags in the name: #rfw, #setup, or #js.
• Activate Shortcut Maker wfs and follow the prompts.
• #rfw (Run From WorkFlowy) These scripts will only prompt you for a shortcut.
• #setup These will have additional setup prompts for custom settings.
• #js These scripts are designed to run in all tabs, not just WorkFlowy.

Edit Powerpack Shortcuts

• Open OPTIONS via wfo
• Click on the shortcut entry to open the edit form.
• There you can edit the name and shortcut, or delete the entry.
• For #rfw and #setup scripts you cannot edit the JAVASCRIPT field.
• #js scripts copy the JavaScript to the shortcut entry. They do not automatically update. You'll need to manually update them for new features or bug fixes. When updating these, wfs is the easiest method.

How to edit #setup custom settings

• The only way to edit the custom #setup information is to run shortcut maker again.
• You can quickly get to the entry with this tip:
• Triple click the WorkFlowy URL in the JAVASCRIPT box to select it.
• Right Click the selection and click on WFx in the menu
• You will be magically transported, and you can run wfs again.

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Add JavaScript

Go here for PowerPack info

Manually create a JavaScript shortcut

• Click ADD JAVASCRIPT.
• Define the name, shortcut, and the JavaScript code.
• You can paste bookmarklet code, but JS does not have to be in bookmarklet form.
• It can include comments, and does not need to be minimized to one line.
• Always enclose your script in an IIFE.

Add a bookmarklet from a webpage with a drag-gable link

• Click ADD JAVASCRIPT.
• Type in a Name and Shortcut.
• Navigate to the bookmarklet webpage.
• Right Click the drag-gable link and select Copy link address.
• Activate the WFx prompt, and enter wfo to return to OPTIONS.
• Paste the bookmarklet code in the JAVASCRIPT box.
• Click Save.

Convert an existing bookmarklet in your bookmarks bar to a shortcut

• Make sure your bookmarks bar is visible.
• Click ADD JAVASCRIPT.
• Type in a Name and Shortcut.
• In the bookmarks bar, right click your bookmarklet and select Edit.
• Hit the TAB key to move focus to URL field, and select the bookmarklet code.
• Use Ctrl/Cmd+C to copy the selected JavaScript.
• Click Cancel to close "Edit bookmark".
• Paste the bookmarklet code in the JAVASCRIPT box.
• Click Save.

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Right Click Menu

• Appears when you right click a link or text you have selected on any webpage.
• Click the Find Tab Or Create option. (or press 'F')
• Links are processed just like a shortcut, looking for a matching tab or opening a new one.
• Selected text gets converted to a global WorkFlowy search.

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Import / Export

IMPORTANT! When you uninstall WFx, all shortcut data is deleted.

• It is highly recommended you create a periodic backup.
• From the MISC SETTINGS tab, click Download Export File
• This will download a text file with all your shortcut data.
• The file name includes today's date and the total number of shortcuts.

To import from your backup/export

• From the MISC SETTINGS tab, click Choose File
• Then click IMPORT FILE
• Existing shortcuts have priority, and IMPORT will NOT overwrite them.

IMPORTANT! If your export file has more than 120 shortcuts

• If your export file ends with a number greater than 120, you'll need to run import at least twice.
• The extension API limits write operations to Storage to 120/minute.
• You must wait 60 seconds, and then run import again using the same file.
• If you have between 120 and 240 shortcuts, run import twice
• If you have between 240 and 360 shortcuts, run import three times
• If you have between 360 and 480 shortcuts, you are an animal.

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