Drafts is a text app that many use to gather their thoughts before sending them on elsewhere. For example, you might not know where an idea belongs just yet. You could enter it into Drafts and decide later as to what to do with it. Another nicety is that you can call up a persistent floating text pane. That way, while research for example, you could read, then take a few notes, then check out a website, and take more notes without the text ever leaving the front.
Drafts is an app that requires a subscription. I’m still experimenting with Drafts and seeing if/how it can fit my own workflows, so I don’t know how fully onboard I am with it yet. However, I do know that it is quite popular in the productivity community. There is a free version available.
One of the interesting things you can do with Drafts is create “Actions”. There are more than I can list, but examples could be:
- Create a list of tasks in OmniFocus
- Append to iCloud journal
- Post to WordPress and
- Quite a lot more
Adding text to DEVONthink from Drafts
If you have the free version, you can download and install an action that sends a note to DEVONthink. When run:
Send to DEVONthink action
you’ll be prompted with a window that asks where you want to send the note within the DEVONthink database:
DEVONthink options for entry dialogue
If you have the pro version, you can create an even faster process of filing. Korm, a kind coding forum goer at the DEVONthink discourse, created a neat action that:
- Takes a note,
- Adds a table of contents,
- Adds a date stamp, and
- Sends it to a specific, pre-determined location in your DEVONthink database.
For something like a Slip-Box, this can be quite handy. You can download the action here. There is some setup involved, but not much, explained in the readme. You do need to have the pro version to be able to edit the action in order to make it work.
In Practice with a Slip-Box
Ultimately, when using it for my Slip-Box work, I’m finding the key differences between this method and using the built-in Sorter that DEVONthink installs are:
- The convenience of having a floating window.
- Being able to use Drafts interim status of an idea.
- Having the pre-set location of the Slip-Box Inbox ready to go.
While I’m working through a few ideas, I find I’m more often using the built-in Sorter. But when I do have an idea I’m crafting, unsure of where it will go, or I want to be able to have larger text real-estate that is floating around the screen, the Drafts app provides an interesting method.
Addendum 2021-02-28
Special thanks to Andrew in the comments below who figured out why this wasn’t working for everyone. “You need to click a box in Devonthink preferences. Specifically, under ‘Import’, you need to set the Destination as ‘Select Group’.”
Thanks for this, but the first Drafts action just sends it directly to the inbox (i..e no prompt window appears).
Hmm, I’m not sure why you’re seeing it differently than I am.
me too, no prompt…
I finally figured this out. You need to click a box in Devonthink preferences. Specifically, under “Import”, you need to set the Destination as “Select Group”. Working for me now.
Andrew, thanks so much for figuring it out – I just couldn’t sleuth out the issue.
How to install is not explained in the help file…
So how to install?
In the case of the first one, when you click the link, there should be a button that says “install” which will prompt you as to where you want it installed.
For the second one, you’d download it and open the file. You’ll then be prompted for the location again.
I still don’t understand how to install…
I think the setup part was forgotten in the help file Explaining my Drafts action.md
Download the file to what location? Into files?
And how will this action get into the Drafts app?
Wherever you happen to download the file (I have it download to my Desktop), when opening it, it should automatically go to the Drafts app, at least it does so for my own system.
Doesn’t work for me either. I can install it, and when run it opens Devonthink. But the Drafts note is not added to Devonthink in any folder.
I was able to get this one working: https://actions.getdrafts.com/a/1al
Sends drafts note to DT3 Inbox.
It’s odd we’re all having such different experiences. I just tried this one and I get a note in DT3, but not in OmniFocus like it seems to suggest.
Anonymous’ action link worked for me, but only on Mac OS. It is not working on the iPad. I didn’t confirm that it did anything for OmniFocus, but at the moment, I’m just concerned about getting a note from Drafts to Devonthink.
Does anyone know an action link that will get a Drafts note from an iPad into Devonthink?
Odd – I’m not sure what the issue is that you might be running into. I just tried the “Send to Devonthink” bit on an iPad and it seemed to work there. Maybe because I set it up first on the laptop and it synced over?