Long term Drafts users - how have you been using Drafts?

Right. My little workaround for that is to put stuff on either Apple Notes or Drafts on the Mac, then cut and paste from either of those apps on the iPhone, into Cheatsheet.

I try to start everything in Drafts and I do keep a lot of things in there.

One thing I was able to do once was Workspaces, but haven’t been able to do again. I need to take some time and learn it again.

I just created a Shortcut (thanks to @MacSparky’s Field Guide!) that I can call from a Drafts action to append the draft content to one of my lists (“books”, “film”, etc.). You could make the shortcut take text input instead of a draft (and I’ll do this) but that’s one example of how you can quickly go from scratchpad draft to permanent storage with very little friction.

By the way, you don’t need to pay for Drafts to use it if you just want to write text. Only the advanced features require a subscription . I recently started using it in my Keyboard Maestro Macros for when my Mac wakes up in the morning and night for a simple reason:

  1. When you launch and quitting the app everyday, it doesn’t keep a document unless there is some text on it.

With Notes, you can automate creating a new note each time the app launches but even if the previous note has nothing on it another new note will be created.

No workaround needed with Drafts in the free version!

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By golly, you were right: nestled in the middle of my sharesheets on iOS 13 the option did present itself :slight_smile:

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I use iOs Messages and MacOs iMessages. Both allow me to copy/paste images, which I do often. It would indeed be helpful to be able to start a message in Drafts if I could add my image(s) there but that does not seem to be possible.

Sometimes I send the same email to multiple people with a few personalized edits. It would be helpful to have the “template email” in Drafts and then customize it for each person after I send it to my email editor but before sending it. But that is not practical if I cannot include rich text and images in Drafts.

Drafts has been evolving ever since Drafts 5 dropped last year. The possibility of keeping a lot more in Drafts is there thanks to the workspace feature. But it still retains the extensible scratchpad that it always has been.

There are some things that have been pointed out in this thread that Drafts can assist with: writing longer messages in Messages is better with Drafts because it allows you to compose in a larger area (and it also helps that you get to take more time to compose your thoughts). Email is the same way. I’m even composing all of this in Drafts rather than the small web view in the forums.

I use Drafts for a lot – it’s my single point of capture, my digital journal, my meeting minutes generator, and my text editor. With all of these, it requires integration with other apps, with the exception of the single point of capture. My journal gets written in Drafts and gets ultimately stored in DEVONthink. My meeting minutes are taken, but then sent through Shortcuts to get turned into a PDF. My text editor remains in Drafts, but requires deep integration with WordPress. When I write for MacStories, I have to integrate with Working Copy to share the draft for collaborative editing.

My point to all of this: I’d encourage anyone to fit Drafts into their workflow. Make it as prominent on iOS/iPadOS/macOS as you can. Put it on your Apple Watch face, and use it there. See how it can help and augment your experience. And you can do all of this with the free version to start. Over time, you might find that you need more of the power-user features that come with the Pro subscription, or even replace apps for you.

Use Drafts a little. Use Drafts a lot. But whatever you do: make sure you just use Drafts.

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That’s right. Messages itself doesn’t support rich text (no bold/italic/underline or other styles). But it does allow you to send images and mail. I’d suggest that if you want to use Drafts for this, you just add the images after you send the text to Messages.

There are betting options for this if you’re on MacOS. TextExpander, for example. On iOS, you could chain some things together to compose your email in Markdown, and then send it to your email client as rich text. But you’d still have to add the images after the fact. And I suspect there are other tools better suited for your purposes than Drafts.

Overall, it sounds like you’re looking for Drafts to be something it’s not. It’s ok if Drafts isn’t for you.

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One thing Drafts has become for me is the place I write my original emails. I have a few different domains with work which are treated as aliases. The problem is that Mail on iOS (which is my preferred Mail app) only allows one sig per account. I setup actions for each alias so the signature matches the alias used to send the message.

I also use Drafts to send certain tweets. I have actions with certain hashtags attached already, so it makes it easier fo rme to complain about another Mets loss. Not quite something I can’t live without, but nice to have. Also works for events, conferences, etc.

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Can I just say I love reading about you guys nerving out on this stuff. That is why we make the show. :slight_smile:

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I’ve watched some of your screencasts, so I know that I’m not utilizing it to it’s full potential. I love (up until the recent discovery of voice control) how long the dictation lasts.
Mostly I use it to track and draft various posts to my instagram channel ( @littletikeshacks [^1] ). Depending on what theme I am posting about, I like to go to previous drafts to resurrect theme-specific hash tags and such.

[^1]: One of several accounts.

Brilliant HellsKitchenDweller! I hadn’t ever thought of using Drafts for the sig s! :tada::tada::tada::+1:t2:

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Honestly, for me, I tried using Drafts as a note taking app and didn’t find it particularly useful in my workflow. And shortcuts has replaced quick capture in most instances.

However, drafts is superior as a watch app. There is no better way to input text on an Apple Watch than drafts. Drafts has managed to allow you to dictate text for an exceedingly long amount of time. I have not tested the limits, but I have heard elsewhere that it only stops when you stop it. I then use Drafts on iOS to send that text to whatever destinations.

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I use Drafts daily and I am a subscriber despite not using all the new features. In fact, I am lagging a few years and usually don’t look at the release notes when there are new versions. I have my actions for my daily journal, omnifocus, meeting notes and emails and that keeps the wheels turning smoothly. It is when I see threads like this that I look at new features and see what I can improve. Workspaces is a feature that I have been ignoring up until now, but I just added two of them to separate work notes and private notes. Thanks for that tip.

On the topic of rich text, since markdown preview works so well I get by without it for meeting notes and document outlines. Most of my long form text winds up in latex anyway so not having formatting is a great feature for me. If anyone has a markdown -> latex action, please let me know. That is probably one of the few things I am currently missing.

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Do you edit LaTeX on iOS or macOS? What program? Just interested. Haven’t used it in years.

I keep trying to use drafts but the formatting is a big roadblock for me. I am a huge bullet / number guy and I know you can enter those in drafts but there is no support for indention that I can see and whenever I paste something from drafts into an email it looks awful. I don’t want to spend the next 10 minutes formatting it to my liking when I can just type an email or document up in the application. I’m not fancy with formatting, usually my emails look a lot like plain text so Drafts feels more fiddly to me. Markdown seems great for bloggers and writers but for those of us in the corporate world it feels frustrating to work with. Am I alone or is there something I am missing?

Agree. Markdown was terrific when formatting and overall options on IOS were limited. Now it often feels fiddly.

I usually just write in the email program as well. Sometimes I’ll write in drafts if I’m trying to craft something that needs to be longer or something that needs to be considered before sending. That extra buffer helps me to write without feeling rushed or without worrying about accidentally sending. And it’ll be there waiting to be worked on across devices. Probably more of a mind-game than a practical use.

I like the fact that I can start writing in Drafts, hang on to it awhile, edit it a few times, then send it via whichever way I chose.

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