Drafts for Mac now supports actions

I’ve been using Drafts for several years. It’s my multi-purpose writing and note-taking app. I often use it as the first stop for most everything I write and then use Drafts actions to send what I’ve written anywhere I want to.

This week Agile Tortoise released Drafts 16 for Mac which now supports actions and multi-window. This makes me very happy. With the addition of actions, I can now use Drafts on my Mac just like I do on my iPhone and iPad.

Actions!

The full power of Drafts actions, previously only available on the iOS version, are now available for Mac! Integrate with many popular apps and services, and manipulate your drafts and text with scripted actions!

If you use the iOS version, all your existing actions will automatically sync to the Mac. If not, a default set of actions will be configured.

Actions are available through the action pane to the right of the main window, via the “Actions” menu, or the Action Bar 19.

Moving away from iCloud continued

Previously I made the following changes:

Since then I’ve made a couple of additional changes:

As a side note, you may be wondering why I’m still using Bear since it uses iCloud for sync? Well, I’ve never once had a sync issue with it. It just always works in spite of all the other issues I’ve had with iCloud sync.

Transition to subscription done right – Enpass password manager

I started moving to Enpass when 1Password 6 stopped working with Safari 13 on Mac.

Here’s why. To continue using 1Password with Safari 13 on Mac I would need to purchase a 1Password 7 subscription or a new 1Password 7 standalone license. Which by the way, in my opinion, is just wrong! Users of 1Password 6 should have been offered a free upgrade to a 1Password 7 standalone license and not forced to buy it. It’s not the user’s fault that 1Password 6 stopped working with Safari 13. That said, I’m not going to purchase a subscription or a standalone license.

I’m using the Pro version of Enpass on iOS and the free version on my MacBook Pro. Since purchasing Enpass it has moved to a subscription. I have to congratulate Enpass on the way they have handled the transition for existing users.

How will our subscription model affect existing users? | Enpass

We’ve worked out the transition in such a way that all our current Enpass Pro users will have access to the full version of the app on all platforms without paying anything extra.

Everything you need to know about subscription on Enpass | Enpass

As we shared in our blog post last week, existing Enpass Pro users will not have to pay anything extra as we make this transition. All our current Pro users will have access to the full version of the app on all platforms without paying anything extra. They will continue to receive future app updates and new Pro features that we’ll release over time – for lifetime, on all supported platforms.

Web Finds for November 17, 2019

Web Finds are from my web surfing travels. You’ll find some unique and informative news, apps and websites that you may have never known existed. Enjoy!

IBM Finds Its Mac Users to Be More Productive Than PC Users
Today, during the keynote at the 2019 JNUC, Previn was back on stage to share research claiming that Macs enable IBM employees to be more productive, and also improve employee satisfaction and retention. IBM now has 290,000 Apple devices deployed in the company.
Via TidBits

Apple Research app
With the Research app, volunteering to help advance medical understanding has been greatly simplified.1 You can sign up for a study (or studies) right from your iPhone. If you meet the criteria for a given study, you’re in. It’s that easy.
Via Apple

Save Safari Web Pages to PDFs on iOS with Dropbox App
Dropbox has just updated its iOS app, and the latest version includes a useful new addition:

“Save to Dropbox” App Extension now saves PDF versions of websites from Safari (iOS 8 & 9 only) — to enable, you can tap the share icon in Safari and toggle the extension from the “More” section
Via Kirkville

How to Use iOS 13’s Text Editing Gestures on iPhone and iPad
With the release of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, Apple introduced a number of new text editing taps and gestures that can be performed on both iPhones and iPads. These taps and gestures make it quicker and easier to do things like select text, copy and paste, undo and redo edits, and move the cursor around the screen.
Via MacRumors

Previous Web Finds are here.

Store Ulysses files in Dropbox instead of iCloud

Ulysses is my favorite writing app. But I have had iCloud sync issues with it off and on since I started using it. Well, I have solved that problem forever.

With Ulysses 18 it’s possible to use Dropbox in place iCloud for sync. The ability to do that hasn’t been widely written about so I’m guessing a lot of folks don’t know about it. I stumbled across it in the Ulysses library settings. I searched for information about it on the Ulysses website and here’s what I found.

Ulysses 18 & External Folders

One of our most requested features, like… ever, was to allow Ulysses files to be stored on Dropbox (or any sync service for that matter). Well, with Ulysses 18, you can finally do it!

We’ve added the option to use native Ulysses files in external folders, no strings attached. These files offer the full feature set, from Markdown XL right down to attachments, goals and everything else. So if you don’t want to use iCloud (or are not allowed to), you now have an alternative means of syncing your work.

I moved all my writing into Dropbox and disabled iCloud in the Ulysses library settings. So far everything is working flawlessly.

Convert existing external folders to Ulysses’ own format

If you already have lots of Markdown files in external folders and you want to benefit from the advantages of our Ulysses files, simply create a new folder, change the file format and drag your existing text files into the new folder.

My choice for a Safari 13 content blocker on Mac

With Safari 13 my favorite Mac ad and tracker blocker uBlock Origin, along with a few other extensions, no longer work. Because of this, I have switched to Firefox as my main browser. That said there will still be times when I will want to use Safari and will want an ad and tracker blocker.

I tried Ghostery Lite but I had two issues with it. It doesn’t block YouTube ads and I didn’t like the way it handles space left behind by blocked ads.

For now, I’ve settled on Wipr. Wipr blocks all ads, trackers, cryptocurrency miners, EU cookie and GDPR notices, and other annoyances. I also switched to Wipr for Safari on my iPhone and iPad in place of BlockBear. BlockerBear was working fine but for consistency, I switched to Wipr.

Back to Dropbox after a short stint with iCloud Drive

Along with being done with Apple Notes, I’m also done with iCloud Drive. After updating to iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2 iCloud sync is a mess.

I should have never moved from Dropbox to iCloud in the first place but I did based the recommendation of the same folks that were singing the praises of Apple Notes. Well, I’ve never had an issue with Dropbox and I’ve used it since it was released in 2008. You know the old saying “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. I should pay more attention to that saying in the future. So last night I moved all my files out of iCloud and back into Dropbox.