TIP: Performing Operations on Multiple Drafts

Tips & Tricks
1

Sometimes, when you need to process a number of drafts, loading each individually in the editor to run actions, file, assign tags, etc., can be burdensome. That’s why Drafts provides methods to select and perform operations on any number of drafts at the same time. Some of the available tools include:

  • Run actions
  • Assign, remove, rename tags.
  • Flag/unflag
  • Reassign syntaxes
  • Merge/duplicate

Quick demo videos and instructions for performing batch operations on both iOS and the Mac follow.

iOS Batch Operations

To perform batch operations on iOS:

  • Open the draft list (Swipe to right or tap draft button in top left).
  • Tap “Select” to enter select mode. Or tap and hold select to Select All currently displayed drafts.
  • Tap drafts in the list to select or deselect them.
  • Tap “Operations” to bring up the list of available actions.
  • Select the operation you wish to perform. Additional prompts may follow if necessary.

Mac Batch Operations

To perform batch operations on Mac:

  • Open the draft list.
  • Select drafts in the list using standard Mac list selection options:
    • ⌘-click individual entries to toggle select
    • shift-click to select a range
  • Open the context menu on the draft list using secondary click. This could be the right mouse button on a two button mouse, control-click or other method depending on your Mac configuration.
  • Select the operation you wish to perform. Additional prompts may follow if necessary.

Comments

  • The Merge operation will merge drafts in the order they were selected. For most operations the selection order is not important.
  • Some actions, particularly some URL based actions, are not compatible with the Run Action operation because they have indeterminate outcomes that make it problematic to chain them together.
3 Likes
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Not a problem for me but while I merged 3 drafts on iPad with no problem trying to do the same on my Mac I got the complaining sound i.e. nothing executes.

3

This is a known issue fixed in the current beta. You can get it working again by quitting and restarting the app. Permanent fix on the way.

4

So useful. Thanks @agiletortoise. Using this for bulk export of drafts; I have a paranoia of databases that may be unfounded - that they can get corrupted easily. Love Drafts. I often find another app that looks interesting, and then I say to myself “I wonder if I could do this in Drafts.” Over months & years it becomes more & more useful to me. Kudos to you and the community.

1 Like