Series: Getting the most out of Text Blaze

cedricdebono · June 4, 2020, 10:39am

Hi all,

I'm currently collaborating with @Scott_Fortmann-Roe to create a series of content pieces (videos, blog posts etc) that will help our community unlock all of the potential in Text Blaze.

As you might have already realized, Text Blaze is incredibly powerful and versatile. The unfortunate thing is that most of us (including myself) are barely even scratching the surface! There's stuff that TB can do for us that we can't even begin to imagine.

So here's what I wanna do.

Talk to me about how you currently use TB, and give me some context (only as much as you're comfortable with, obviously), and I'll try to propose new ways in which TB can help you. Plus, you know Scott is super active in here, so he'll definitely be able to come up with some arcane piece of wizardry too lol.

On top of that, I'll be taking inspiration from your questions, ideas and requests to create the content series I talked about above so that the whole community can benefit from it.

So, let's hear it! Ask away.

Edvin_Nesland · June 6, 2020, 10:27am

Could you give some examples of what exactly you can do with TB when it comes to more advanced stuff? Just so I can fire up my brain. I just recently found this plugin, and just using basics for the moment, but would really be interessted in more advanced stuff.

cedricdebono · June 6, 2020, 3:08pm

@Edvin_Nesland, here's some of the stuff I've done.

I've used it to get leads from Product Hunt. I run running my snippet on the Product Hunt page I'm interested in. TB reads from specific selectors (the ones that target product name, founders, description etc), saves the data as variables, and then sends those variables into a Google Form automatically so I can pick them up later with my CRM.
I've used it to generate MASSIVE announcement documents with sometimes up to 40 deliverables for promotions. Here the {time} function becomes SUPER useful, because it saves me the paranoia of making mistakes with dates/times, plus I can use the shift function to specify subsequent dates with respect to a starting date. I used {formtext} to specify the time/date, then I put those variables into the time function, and specify the shift for subsequent announcements.
I've used it to read information from a google sheet and then output it as part of a snippet. See below:

{note}{formtext: name=cell; default=a1; width=4} << Enter the cell reference{endnote}

{note: preview=no; trim=yes}

This extracts the column letter and row number from the form field.

{columnLetter=upper(extractregex(cell,"(\D+)"))}
{rowNumber=extractregex(cell,"(\d+)")}

This assigns numbers to the respective letters e.g. A=1, B=2 etc

{columnIndex=["A"=1,"B"=2,"C"=3,"D"=4,"E"=5,"F"=6,"G"=7,"H"=8,"I"=9,"J"=10,"K"=11,"L"=12,"M"=13,"N"=14,"O"=15,"P"=16,"Q"=17,"R"=18,"S"=19,"T"=20,"U"=21,"V"=22,"W"=23,"X"=24,"Y"=25,"Z"=26]}

{colNumber={=columnIndex[columnLetter]}}

{endnote: trim=left}

{note}Contents from cell {=columnLetter}{=rowNumber}: {endnote}

{=catch({=split({=split({clipboard},"\n")[{=rowNumber}]},"\t")[{=colNumber}]},"Nothing found")}

*I've used it in conjunction with various content scheduling software that all required me to give the time in different timezones. In my last job, I had to schedule in UTC in one platform, CET on another, MSK on another, and YKT on another. So I would use {formtext} as mentioned above to specify the time, then used the shift function to add the time difference. On top of that, each platform had a different way of formatting time, so TB helped me with that too.

Here's the full snippet I mentioned above.

{note: trim=yes}

Start time: {formtext: name=stHour; default=00; width=2}:{formtext: name=stMins; default=00; width=2} UTC

End time: {formtext: name=endHour; default=00; width=2}:{formtext: name=endmins; default=00; width=2} UTC

Domain: {site:domain}

From: {formmenu: name=stDay; default=MON; TUE; WED; THU; FRI; SAT; SUN}, {time: MMM Do, YYYY; shift=>{=stDay}}{if: stDay==upper({time:ddd})} - TODAY{endif}

To: {formmenu: name=endDay; default=MON; TUE; WED; THU; FRI; SAT; SUN}, {time: MMM Do, YYYY; shift=>{=endDay}}{if: endDay==upper({time:ddd})} - TODAY{endif}

{endnote: trim=yes}

{site={site:domain}}{if: site=="helpdesk.eu.tankionline.com"}

{time: M/D/YY; shift=>{=stDay}} {if: stHour < 09}{= stHour + 3}:{= stMins}:00 AM{else}{if: stHour == 09}{= stHour + 3}:{= stMins}:00 PM{else}{if: stHour < 21}{= stHour - 9}:{= stMins}:00 PM{else}{if: stHour == 21}{= stHour - 21}:{= stMins}:00 AM{else}{if: stHour > 21}{= stHour - 21}:{= stMins}:00 AM{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{key:tab}

{time: M/D/YY; shift=>{=endDay}} {if: endHour < 09}{= endHour + 3}:{= endmins}:00 AM{else}{if: endHour == 09}{= endHour + 3}:{= endmins}:00 PM{else}{if: endHour < 21}{= endHour - 9}:{= endmins}:00 PM{else}{if: endHour == 21}{= endHour - 21}:{= endmins}:00 AM{else}{if: endHour > 21}{= endHour - 21}:{= endmins}:00 AM{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}

{else: trim=yes}

{if: site=="postso.com"}

{time: DD/MM/YYYY; shift=>{=stDay}}{key:tab}{if: stHour < 07}{= stHour + 5}:{= stMins} AM{else}{if: stHour == 07}{= stHour + 5}:{= stMins} PM{else}{if: stHour < 19}{= stHour - 7}:{= stMins} PM{else}{if: stHour == 19}{= stHour - 19}:{= stMins} AM{else}{if: stHour > 19}{= stHour - 19}:{= stMins} AM{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}

{else: trim=yes}

{if: site=="www.facebook.com"}

{time: D/M/YYYY; shift=>{=stDay}} {note}Enter manually: {=stHour + 2}:{=stMins}{endnote}

{else}

{if: site=="edit.tankionline.com"}

{key:ctrl-a}{time: YYYY-MM-DD; shift=>{=stDay}}{key:tab}{=stHour}{key:tab}{=stmins}

{else: trim=yes}

{note: trim=yes}

{formmenu: name=Type; default=Full - UTC;
Helpdesk - MSK;
Facebook - UTC+2;
Postso - YTK}

{endnote: trim=yes}

{if: Type=="Full - UTC"}
{time: MMM Do, YYYY; shift=>{=stDay}} {=stHour}:{=stMins} UTC
{else: trim=yes}
{if: Type=="Helpdesk - MSK"}

{time: M/D/YY; shift=>{=stDay}} {if: stHour < 09}{= stHour + 3}:{= stMins}:00 AM{else}{if: stHour == 09}{= stHour + 3}:{= stMins}:00 PM{else}{if: stHour < 21}{= stHour - 9}:{= stMins}:00 PM{else}{if: stHour == 21}{= stHour - 21}:{= stMins}:00 AM{else}{if: stHour > 21}{= stHour - 21}:{= stMins}:00 AM{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}

{time: M/D/YY; shift=>{=endDay}} {if: endHour < 09}{= endHour + 3}:{= endmins}:00 AM{else}{if: endHour == 09}{= endHour + 3}:{= endmins}:00 PM{else}{if: endHour < 21}{= endHour - 9}:{= endmins}:00 PM{else}{if: endHour == 21}{= endHour - 21}:{= endmins}:00 AM{else}{if: endHour > 21}{= endHour - 21}:{= endmins}:00 AM{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}

{else: trim=yes}

{if: Type=="Facebook - UTC+2"}

{time: D/M/YYYY; shift=>{=stDay}} {=stHour + 2}:{=stMins}

{else: trim=yes}

{if: Type=="Postso - YTK"}

{time: DD/MM/YYYY; shift=>{=stDay}} {if: stHour < 07}{= stHour + 5}:{= stMins} AM{else}{if: stHour == 07}{= stHour + 5}:{= stMins} PM{else}{if: stHour < 19}{= stHour - 7}:{= stMins} PM{else: trim=yes}{if: stHour == 19}{= stHour - 19}:{= stMins} AM{else}{if: stHour > 19}{= stHour - 19}:{= stMins} AM{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}

{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}{endif}

cedricdebono · June 6, 2020, 3:13pm

And I guarantee that's just the tip of the iceberg of what TB can do.

@Scott_Fortmann-Roe obviously knows all of TB's darkest secrets () so he could probably tell you a lot more.

Also, if you have any questions about the ideas I mentioned in my reply above, definitely ask and we can chip away at them bit by bit in this thread, or even create a separate thread if the issue is a complicated one.

cedricdebono · June 6, 2020, 3:32pm

@Edvin_Nesland: Here's a video of the spreadsheet thing in action.

ezgif.com-video-to-gif

Edvin_Nesland · June 7, 2020, 6:59pm

Thank you for your replies.
And wow, this is almost like it's own programming language!

Pretty cool that you can do advanced stuff like this. Like this plugin so much that I bought the pro version (no idea i I will actually use the Forms-part yet, but who knows. Will most likely make lots of snippets tho)

Jonathan_Gregg · June 7, 2020, 9:43pm

@Edvin_Nesland Definitely come back and tell the group what you think and what you have found!

cedricdebono · June 8, 2020, 4:46am

Like this plugin so much that I bought the pro version

@Edvin_Nesland, same thing happened to me. I spent maybe 30mins playing around with the free version and I enjoyed it so much I decided to upgrade to pro right away lol. Been 2 years now and TB has saved me well over 200 hours.