Drafts

Drafts is a note-taking app that supports highly-customizable actions. It provides a convenient way to capture text, whether it’s an idea that pops into your head or a book recommendation that comes up in conversation. The focus is on recording the information, without concern for where this information will ultimately reside.

Capture and Apply Actions on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Text that you capture in Drafts is synced across all of your devices and can be processed by applying “actions”.

For example, once configured you could create an OmniFocus task with the first line of the task becoming the title and the remaining text being added to the notes field. Alternatively, multiple OmniFocus actions could be created from a single draft if you use an action that instructs Drafts to treat each line as a separate task.

There’s an extensive library of actions in the Drafts Actions Directory, including many that work with OmniFocus. If you’re a Drafts Pro subscriber you can modify existing actions and create your own from scratch.

Creating and Storing TaskPaper Templates

Drafts is also a great app to use when writing in TaskPaper. In a nutshell, TaskPaper is a text-based way of defining projects and actions. Drafts provides syntax formatting to make this text easier to read. And when TaskPaper text is sent from Drafts to OmniFocus, OmniFocus creates projects and actions, applying the appropriate settings for things like due dates, defer dates, and flags. This, combined with actions, makes Drafts a great place to store OmniFocus project templates.

Using Drafts for Project Support

Drafts can also be a convenient place to keep notes about your OmniFocus actions and projects. Each Draft has a unique URL, making it easy to link an OmniFocus task to a specific Draft. You can also store OmniFocus links in Drafts, making it quick and convenient to access the OmniFocus projects, actions, action groups, perspectives, or tags associated with the Draft.

Other Resources

• Drafts Action Directory – This growing directory contains a collection of actions created both by Agile Tortoise and Drafts users, including many actions specific to OmniFocus.
• Automation Orchard — Drafts is prominently featured on Rose Orchard’s Automation Orchard website. You’ll find an extensive library of tips, use cases, and tutorials.
• Drafts Field Video Guide – David Sparks (aka MacSparky) offers a free Drafts Video Field Guide to help you get started with Drafts and make good use of its free and paid features.
• ScreenCastsOnline Tutorials – ScreenCastsOnline contains hundreds of tutorials for Mac, iPhone/iPad, and web apps, including detailed tutorials to help you get the most out of Drafts.