Markdown Table Generator - An Apple Shortcut to make your Markdown life easier

Posted: 29 Apr 2020
Updated: 23 Feb 2022

Install Apple Shortcut

What was the Problem?

Markdown is a fantastic language to markup plain text in a way that still leaves the source readable - unlike HTML, for example. It has the ability to do tables, but they’re not very fun to work with. The markup is simple but still cumbersome.

|                     | AR   | ER   | IR   |
|---------------------|------|------|------|
| Yo                  | o    | o    | o    |
| El/Ella             | a    | e    | e    |
| Tu/Usted            | as   | es   | es   |
| Nosotros            | amos | emos | imos |
| Vosotros            | áis  | éis  | ís   |
| Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes | an   | en   | en   |

To deal with this I wrote an Apple Shortcut that can generates a blank Markdown table of dimensions X by Y and conditionally includes a header row. It asks you to input the number of rows and columns you want when it runs and adds the result to your clipboard.

Installation

1. Go to Settings -> Shortcuts,
2. Enable Allow Untrusted Shortcuts,
3. Click this link to install the shortcut,
4. Run it from the app, the share sheet or the widget.

Feel free to email me if you have any problems!

– Finn 👋