See below. - they didn’t upload in the order I expected but you can see the steps I think.
I select the drafts, swiped to close the drafts sheet, then again to open the actions sheet. Tapped the export action and then found the empty text file.
Sounds like you were selecting the Drafts, switching mode by switching over to the actions list and running the action from there on the current draft. Presumably that current draft had no hash tags.
Ah! That’s it.
All clear now. Maybe something Greg might want to look at since the selected items remain selected so it’s ambiguous to the user what you’re running the action on. The new draft space, without any content, doesn’t register to me as a object yet. Because it’s there as soon as you open the app I see it as a default space, like the landing screen of an app, until I populate it.
I can see that my mental model of that was wrong but it’s possible a few users have that model.
Maybe there is a better way?
The issue is operations are specifically for multiple drafts and there is more than just actions that can be performed. Other than under operations, actions are always referenced as being for current draft. This I think also aligns to the design language for the two panes as they are not fixed, but slide in when required and so are disconnected functional areas.
There are lots of docs and screenshots to help with the more advanced functionality, so I would hope that this sort of thing isn’t too prevalent. But certainly I can see the benefit of perhaps suggesting something under the feature requests on the Drafts forum for Greg to consider.
It seems like you’re working really hard to build a nerfed version of DEVONthink. There may be requirements I missed or you may just really enjoy the building of a system but there are much easier ways to do this.
Seems a bit like a sledgehammer and nut approach for using DevonThink, but if you already have it, then agreed, it could deliver a plain text repository solution with tagging.
I suspect the OP has both the apps listed, knows at least something around their capabilities and is already using them. Hence there’s a cost (time and financial) saving; and to be fair, the example Drafts action I created only took a few minutes to do, so it doesn’t seem overly onerous to put this solution together.
For me, if I were looking for a plain text note gathering system for macOS/iOS, I’d actually have my eye on nvUltra for Mac, and the rumoured for the future iOS counterpart. Not a solution for today, but perhaps something for tomorrow. Having native access to files in a native file system opens up the use of *many* tools on *many* platforms for more advanced operations and future compatibility assurance.
I’ve tried DEVONThink and, honestly, it’s more than I need for now. Part of what I’m working with is that I don’t really know what I want to do with all of this long term. I do know that, for now, I need to be able to organise what I capture in a way that can be imported to a more powerful tool if and when I choose to do so, or that can simply be searched later.
As sylumer says, having all of this in the native file system that is accessible across all platforms does open up possibilities. Also I’m an app addict. I’m trying, where possible, to reduce the number of apps I use in part because it’s cheaper but mostly because I want a simple mental model.