Nice Drafts update

Just updated my Drafts and there are a couple of new features I will definitely be making use of. Extracting full text from a PDF and built in transcription from audio and video. Both very useful additions.

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I was just going through these announcement and manā€¦ this app was a powerhouse before, but now itā€™s become my inbox for quite literally EVERYTHING that I do on my Mac. This update will fill some gaps that Iā€™ve been wanting to fill for some time.

I agree, this is one of my very few subscriptions.

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Iā€™ve upgraded Drafts on the Mac but there does not yet seem to be an upgrade from 29 to 30 for iOS. Am I missing something or just need to wait?

Tried it with a large PDF and worked really well. uses ā€˜ā€”ā€™ to show the page breaks in the text.

Also tried a training video and the transcription was excellent.

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I also tried it and it worked well. A very nice addition!

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my iOS devices got updated yesterday, but I had to check the Mac App Store ā€œintentionallyā€. Iā€™d try to pull to refresh the updates pages in the app

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One last try with it and you are the guy to ask. I dropped Drafts because I couldnā€™t get it to index in finder. Even the developer couldnā€™t help. Do have any suggestions at all? I did all the ā€˜tick this box and that oneā€™ suggestions. It was ticked to ā€˜index in finder but didnā€™tā€™.
Or put the question this way, do you think it is worth trying this update to see if it works. It is a lovely app. but that glitch I have, which seems rare, makes it useless to me and I am paying the 40$ per annum for Ulysses, which I like ok but mehā€¦

About the second feature: (batch) Extract Text from PDF files, Mac built-in Automator can easily do that.

PS. Creating the Automator as a Finder ā€˜Serviceā€™ is even more convenient for batch text extraction.

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Iā€™m probably not the one to ask because Iā€™ve never indexed files in Drafts. :grinning: I use Drafts much like the tagline suggestsā€“where text starts. I write basic text (emails, other communications) or send text-based research information to Drafts and then send it to another app for processing and/or storage. Iā€™m by no means a power user of Drafts. That said, if you already have Drafts I think trying the update for indexing would be worthwhile. I donā€™t think it will cost you anythingā€“just a little time. Iā€™m sorry Iā€™m not more help.

I do like the ability to pull text from a PDF into Draftsā€“Iā€™m already finding that extremely helpful!

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That is useful to know, just that you donā€™t index. More at the level I am thinking at recently. I donā€™t want to add another writing app though. That was helpful in fact.

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Is that possible? I thought Draftā€™s documents were internal to a database and not exposed as separate files in the file system.

(Or Iā€™m not asking the right question. :frowning: )

Iā€™m not aware of Drafts being able to index things. Are you maybe getting it mixed up with DEVONthink?

Terminate most subscriptions and only keeping a small handful, Drafts is 1 of them. Greg keeps on improving his app.

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My understanding from the developer was that Drafts can be indexed by finder and hence by other apps like Houdah Spot which I believe work via Finder mostly. It is possible I mis remember. The main point for me, and one reason I liked NValt was total keyboard control and I wanā€™t getting that either. Greg did his best to help me and it is great app. However I told him ā€˜maybe laterā€™. @RosemaryOrchard on a very useful MacStories review I just looked up says you can index Drafts on Spotlight though I canā€™t find my original exchange with Greg.

I am not sure how DEVONthink 3 works or Ulysses but both can be searched via Houdah Spot, how I am not sure, I think there is some kind of plug in for both.

Fact is most of this is too far under the hood for me. It is interesting that many Drafts fans donā€™t need the finder search. I might reconsider on that basis.

Howver I think I am waiting for Godot (nvAlt) by Brett Terpstra, I know I am now in a minority but I feel it will be worth the wait and I would like total keyboard control for notes and first runs at stuff back. Nearly there with Ulysses but not quite and really a miss is as good as a mile. It is also $40 a year, not bad but stillā€¦
I donā€™t know what to think at the moment. I am liking having all my files searchable from Houdah Spot including intitial notes and so on.

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@Evan says the same thing. You guys might be right, I have got it installed but I thought there was a preferences box to tick ā€˜index in Spotlightā€™ or something like that. I might mis remember, I had other issues when I contacted Greg. Ulysses and DEVONthink 3 are both searchable by Houdah Spot. That is integral to my system and I am afraid it will break because there is, as you say, obviously some interface I donā€™t understand.
Basically I would have assumed, because it is an ā€˜internalā€™ system or some kind of proprietary file, that it could not be indexed. I canā€™t remember now how Brett Terpstraā€™s app worked in that regard. All seem similar. It is possible to get these apps mixed up over time in memory. They are so similar. Brettā€™s was my favorite because it had complete keyboard control for me, none of the others got quite there. Nearly but no cigar.

Drafts is a superb app so this comment is not meant to distract from that. Greg is a helpful and good developer too. I would recommend it to anybody though I dropped it myself for complicated reasons touched on in other comments with some helpful folk on this thread.

However I am going to stick my neck out, go against the current, and say, I am waiting on Brett Terpstraā€™s nvULTRA or nvAlt update or whatever it is called and I think it will be a humdinger of a note taking app. I knowā€¦ it is a long waitā€¦
Any bets on this one?

I, for myself, donā€™t think it will ever be released, bur I have no insights, of course (signed up for the closed beta a long time ago, never heard back). :man_shrugging:

It may or may not be relevant, but BBEdit v 14 added a nvalt-like notes feature.

And for Drafts (which I agree is one of the few subscription I keep running no matter what) @drdrang sort of explained how to have it index a folder (https://leancrew.com/all-this/2018/05/taskpaper-actions-for-drafts-5/). Maybe the ā€œfolder bookmarksā€ feature (released with Drafts 28) make it more simple, but havenā€™t researched it yet.

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I didnā€™t know about that, I did have BBEdit one time, thanks I will keep that info and the drang link.

I did check Ulysses and in fairness to that team it is possible for me to go from opening Ulysses to taking a note to exporting it to clipboard, pdf or mail using the keyboard alone. Provided the export window is set right. I use the tab to change the ā€˜saveā€™ button, which I found out for myself though it might be in the documentation.
In my case I can leave it a the ā€˜rememberedā€™ setting indefinitely. I have to say I prefered, for reasons I canā€™t fully explain, how nvAlt worked.
It is very hard now to get a workflow which doesnā€™t have some ā€˜mouseā€™ bottleneck.

Iā€™m going to hijack this thread, if you donā€™t mind.

Iā€™m a Drafts user but suspect Iā€™m only scratching the surface. Is there a resource online I can use to improve my knowledge base?

Thanks very much

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