How can I quickly open a text file from the iPhone's home screen?

Question

Just like you can save a URL from safari to the iPhone home screen, I want to put a .txt-file on my iPhone homescreen.

I use PlainText to store my files, but sometimes search is too slow. For my heavy used documents, I'd like to store them on my home screen.

I'm prepared to jailbreak if needed.

Answer 1

If you jailbreak, you can install file:// in MobileSafari from Cydia. this would allow you to place text files somewhere in your filesystem (using iFile, also available from cydia) and access them from MobileSafari. for example, a file called text.txt in the root / directory would be file:///text.txt.

You can just open these files in MobileSafari and then add them to your home screen.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I cannot give you any answer to adding a text file to the home screen without jailbreak. The answer above should tend to your jailbreak needs. But, if you are interested in how to add a text file to the Safari bookmark menu, read on.

Nothing is actually stored on the home screen. It just links to the apps and web links. But, you use PlainText. So you can do this:

1. Open Safari and navigate to any webpage, about:blank will do.
2. Save the page as bookmark. Not home screen icon. Bookmark.
3. Find your bookmark from the menus. Tap Edit, and click the arrow on the bookmark's right end.
4. Edit the address on the bookmark to: plaintext://open/*filepath*/*filename*

For example: plaintext://open/Hello.txt.

Now you have a bookmark that will take you straight to a text file.

For more info on the PlainText URL Scheme, in-app, navigate to Settings > Help > PlainText URL Scheme.