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Pinwork Guide

Natural language

Write the task the way it comes to mind. Pinwork can recognize useful details in the text, apply them to the task, and keep the final title clean.

For example:

Review pitch deck Friday at 2pm #startup

Pinwork can turn that into a task called Review pitch deck, scheduled for Friday at 2:00 PM, with the startup tag.

Where natural language works

Section titled “Where natural language works”

Natural language is parsed in:

  • in-app Quick Add
  • the iPhone scheduling sheet
  • Apple Pencil and Scribble capture
  • Mac menu bar Quick Add
  • pinwork://quickadd
  • AppleScript quick add
  • supported task title edit paths
  • Apple Watch capture, with Watch-specific field limits

Natural language is not parsed in:

  • Siri Quick Add
  • Shortcuts Quick Add
  • Action Button Quick Add
  • Share Extension

Those raw-text capture paths keep what you said or shared as the task title.

Dates and times

Section titled “Dates and times”

Pinwork can recognize common date and time phrases, including:

  • today
  • tomorrow
  • Monday
  • next Friday
  • at 2pm
  • time ranges such as 5pm to 6pm

When Pinwork recognizes a schedule, it sets the task’s When date.

Natural language is for scheduling the task. Use the task’s Deadline field when you want a separate deadline.

Tags

Section titled “Tags”

Use # to add tags.

Buy paint tomorrow #home #errands

Pinwork removes the tag tokens from the final title and applies the tags to the task.

Projects

Section titled “Projects”

Use > to assign a task to a project.

Outline launch plan >Marketing

For project names with spaces, use quotes.

Review contract >"Client Work"

If Pinwork cannot find a matching project, it keeps the project text in the task title instead of guessing.

Estimates and durations

Section titled “Estimates and durations”

Use short duration phrases when you want to estimate how long a task will take.

Examples:

  • ~30min
  • 2h
  • 1 hour

Pinwork can apply the estimate and remove the estimate text from the final title.

Recurrence

Section titled “Recurrence”

Pinwork can recognize recurring phrases such as:

  • daily
  • weekly
  • monthly
  • yearly
  • every weekday
  • every 2 weeks
  • every 3 days
  • weekday-specific repeats

Recurrence needs a When date. If you want to fine-tune the recurrence rule, open the task and use the Recurrence control.

Calendar commands

Section titled “Calendar commands”

In supported parsed capture paths, you can include a calendar command.

Supported calendar phrases include:

  • add to calendar
  • add to cal
  • schedule on calendar
  • schedule in calendar
  • calendar it
  • calendar this
calendar it team lunch tomorrow

When calendar linking is available and permission is granted, Pinwork can create a linked Apple Calendar event from the task.

See Calendar for permissions, linked-event behavior, editing, and removing calendar links.

Examples

Section titled “Examples”

Schedule a task

Call mom tomorrow at 2pm

Pinwork creates Call mom, scheduled tomorrow at 2:00 PM.

Add tags

Review PR #code #urgent

Pinwork creates Review PR, tagged code and urgent.

Repeat a task

Team standup every weekday at 9am

Pinwork creates a weekday recurring task at 9:00 AM.

Assign a project

Submit report >Marketing

Pinwork creates Submit report in the Marketing project.

Add an estimate

Plan sprint Monday ~1h

Pinwork creates Plan sprint, scheduled Monday with a one-hour estimate.

Create a Calendar event

Add to calendar dentist tomorrow at 5pm

Pinwork creates dentist, scheduled tomorrow at 5:00 PM, and can create a linked Apple Calendar event when Calendar access is available.

Use the shorter Calendar command

Add to cal pay rent tomorrow

Pinwork creates pay rent, scheduled tomorrow, and can create a linked Apple Calendar event when Calendar access is available.

Editing and scheduling existing tasks

Section titled “Editing and scheduling existing tasks”

Natural language can also run when you rename an existing task in supported edit paths.

To avoid accidental changes, Pinwork protects fields you already set:

  • It can add tags.
  • It can set a When date if the task does not already have one.
  • It does not overwrite an existing When date, Deadline, or estimate during a normal rename.
  • It applies recurrence only if the task is not already recurring.
  • If a project token cannot be resolved, the project token stays in the title.

To intentionally change a date, deadline, estimate, recurrence, project, or tags, use the task’s detail controls.

On iPhone, the scheduling sheet also includes a natural-language field for changing a task’s When date. That scheduling field is intentional schedule input, so phrases such as Friday 2pm can move an existing task.

Apple Watch limits

Section titled “Apple Watch limits”

Apple Watch capture uses natural language, but it applies a smaller set of fields.

Apple Watch capture applies:

  • title
  • When date
  • Deadline if supplied by the parser
  • tags

It does not apply parsed project, recurrence, estimate, or calendar command metadata.

If the parser removes too much

Section titled “If the parser removes too much”

If everything you typed is recognized as metadata, Pinwork keeps your original input as the title. That way you do not end up with an empty task.

Section titled “Related”
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