But I’ve given you a shortcut to do exactly what Drafts does, with exactly one keyboard shortcut. This isnt’ a workaround, it’s been built into DT for many years.
If you really need to click instead, then just click on the DEVONthink button (or icon) on the menu bar and on the Note panel. (If you look at my first screenshot you’ll see the settings panel and how you can choose an icon or name for the menu bar).
Perhaps if you could explain why this approach is lacking, compared to the (on the face of it) identical procedure in Drafts, then we could understand better what you’re after.
(PS I use Drafts as well, every day. If I know the draft is going somewhere else, I’ll use it, but if it’s a note which will live in DT, I use Take Note like this instead, because it’s quicker and has more features. Horses for courses…)
But for me it opens the sorter window and allows me to type into the sorter. A lot of the Snippety templates I use expand to text way larger than the sorter window can be used for. I think the sorter is fine for small notes, but I am trying to use Devon in place of Drafts and every other MD editor.
For me - as stated elsewhere - a way to open a new MD document from the top menu would be fine.
2 clicks. I have a drafts window with cursor ready to go. They probably have shortcut key command too.. but two clicks I am a happy bunny. And don’t forget I can do this anywhere..
Take Note is really useful for quick notes and starting things off, but I wouldn’t use it for long form text either. (But if you’re writing long form text, then one more click at the beginning doesn’t seem all that disruptive…)
Personally, in those circumstances, I just cmd-tab to DT and then cmd-n (you may have a different shortcut) for a new Markdown note already filled in with my standard template.
I normally avoid the mouse if I can and this approach is quick enough for me and and quicker than having to slide the cursor up the menu bar. And it’s more efficient than writing longer texts in Drafts without access to any of DT’s linking and other features if the text is going to end up in DT anyway.
I’m not against Drafts: I have a couple of actions to send them to DT, but I rarely use them because it’s quicker to use DT from the beginning.
I don’t know where I got this from, but perhaps you could experiment with this Drafts Action:
I use Drafts in conjunction with DEVONthink. I’m fine with that. They serve overlapping but different functions. Drafts is often where text starts (that’s a paraphrase of its marketing slogan). I also use Apple Notes in other circumstances.
I’ve developed a workaround which is starting to supplant my use of Drafts: I created a scratch note in the DEVONthink Inbox, and set a Raycast shortcut to open that note. So if I want to take a quick note and figure out where to send it later, I open the scratch note and start typing. Every so often, I go through the scratch note and move or delete everything until it’s blank.
My impression is that sometimes people imagine a very specific implementation of something that is ideal to them—and get so married to the idea that they can’t tolerate anything but absolute agreement. Then when other people try to offer helpful suggestions or bring a different perspective, they take offence or interpret everything as defensiveness.
Friction is subjective. I generally find DEVONthink’s interface very efficient. You already lose me when you talk about clicking buttons… I prefer to use the keyboard as much as possible for most things. I respect that you’d like a button. I’m not against it. I’m just saying we’re all different.
This creates a markdown file directly in your chosen DEVONthink folder, using the first line as title and content from line 3 onwards. Get your destination UUID from DEVONthink’s “Information” → “Copy UUID” context menu.
Alternatively, you can make it even more flexible by putting the UUID in line 2 of your draft:
I use Drafts and an action similar to @papierlos to send a Draft into DT. Occasionally I forget, so I have created an automation using shortcuts to send Drafts for a given criteria into DT after a number of days.
Somewhat specifically??? I’m a 90% iPad user. DTTG has been my primary mechanism for inputting my ‘stuff’ into DEVONthink. Recently I purchased DT4, so a whole new world has opened up for me….BUT, I’ve never warmed to the Mac UI, after 20 years. What I specifically want is a more modern iPadOS user interface experience that can replace other iPADOS apps for writing. I may never get it, but I can keep hoping. So your comment brought to mind the possibility of a more modern UI to the DTTG interface! To me the iPadOS version of DEVONthink is too ‘Mac(ish)’ or shall I dare say too ‘stale’. That’s all, !
I am looking for a + button on the top bar of the sorter that opens a MD document in a separate window. That window is likely to remain open for a long time. An additional tap should create another window in MD form.
That would be perfect mix. And - for me - I wouldn’t need to use DraftsApp at all. Text would start and end in DEVONthink. Same for DTTG on all platforms. I don’t write on the Apple Watch so for me that is not needed. In fact I could get rid of Bear, Obsidian, and a whole raft of apps.
Show me a response in this thread that achieves the simple creation of a markdown note that does not require either a work-around, multiple clicks and context switches, or the use of the sorter that wraps lines at 32 characters.
Wouldn’t a quick and simple way to create a MD document in DT make the lives of users a little easier? We have a whole rewrite of DEVONthink. The first new release in a what, 7 years? A new subscription model for pricing. I love the creativity and the duct tape approach has worked well for so long.. but.. seems now is the time to put DT at the center and make content creation quicker and easier.
The first major release. We’re at 3.9 something, so there were at least 9 minor releases.
Now is also the time to make PDF editing/scripting improvements/photo metadata/whatever other users want quicker and easier.
While I can understand that you want faster note creation, this is just one wish. There are other wishes, too.
I have nothing to do with these decisions and I’m not affiliated with DEVONtechnologies.
But if you follow the discussions here, you’ll notice that there are many different use-cases and that there’s a tendency to believe that a certain wish is “normal”, “obvious”, “easy to implement” etc. Note-taking is just one aspect of DT.
My mistake. Sorry. I thought you were saying you knew that people wanted PDF scripting more than they wanted a proper/efficient/my-way-or-the-highway, method of creating MD documents.
A quick scan of the forum and you will find people have been begging for a more modern way of creating notes in DevonT for a long time.
!