Use Drafts to quickly note down tasks and notes. And if you do a task quickly, mark it done. Do you want to clean up the draft and receive any pending tasks per mail? Invoke QuickNotes action.
QuickNotes is a Drafts action which:
- parses current draft looking for tasks and notes
- sends each pending task individually per mail, e.g., to allow Outlook users to flag them as a task
- archives current draft by appending it into the monthly QuickNotes archive draft
- optionally moves current draft to trash
To learn more about Drafts visit https://docs.getdrafts.com.
QuickNotes action processes current draft. It recognizes the following elements:
- draft title
- task - a task can be pending or done
- note
A draft title is the first line of a draft, in case the line starts with #. A draft can be with or without a draft
title.
A draft having draft title starting with # QuickNotes is a QuickNotes draft and it has special processing.
A task starts with a task subject - a line starting with
- [ ]or[ ]in case of a pending task or- [x]or[x]in case of a done task
A task ends if
- next line is empty or
- next line is a start of another task.
A task can have a task body - one or more task comment lines. A task can be with or without a task body.
A note consist of subsequent non-empty lines, which are not part of any task.
have met Martin
- [ ] buy cola
preferably sugar free
[ ] buy potatoes
- organic please
- not imported
[x] buy newspaper
English or German
- [ ] call John
- [x] call mother
watched a good movie
- The Shawshank Redemption
QuickNotes action processes current draft. The processing consists of three steps:
- mailing pending tasks
- archiving current draft
- optionally moving current draft to trash
Processing the example draft above will cause 3 mails to be sent, each containing one pending task.
Note that the task prefix - [ ] or [ ] will be removed.
Mail 1
Subject: buy cola
preferably sugar free
Mail 2
Subject: buy potatoes
- organic please
- not imported
Mail 3
Subject: call John
-
See also [Configuring QuickNotes Processing] below.
Note, QuickNotes action uses Send in background option. It is used to send the email via web service without the
requirement of opening a preview of the message. Because these messages come “From” a generic address, it’s best for
action which email to your own email address as a reminder, or similar.
QuickNotes action creates one archive draft per month. This archive draft is located in the Archive and it has draft
title # QuickNotes YYYY/MM. All drafts processed within the month will be appended into it.
Prefix of the pending tasks [ ] will be modified to [>], signalling that the task was forwarded.
Processing the example draft above will append the following text to the archive draft, with the header containing current timestamp.
# QuickNotes 2020/11
## QuickNotes - 2020/11/02 22:32:14
have met Martin
- [>] buy cola
preferably sugar free
[>] buy potatoes
- organic please
- not imported
[x] buy newspaper
English or German
- [>] call John
- [x] call mother
watched a good movie
- The Shawshank Redemption
As the last step, the processed draft will usually be moved to trash. There are three options:
-
A QuickNotes draft will be processed and moved to trash, and afterwards a new QuickNotes draft will be created.
-
Any draft without a draft title will be processed and moved to trash, and afterwards a new blank draft will be created.
-
Any draft with a draft title will be processed, but not moved to trash.
When running QuickNotes action for the first time, the user must enter a mail address to receive pending tasks per mail. This information is stored using Credential object. See https://scripting.getdrafts.com/classes/credential.