Drafts for iPad

Drafts for iPad is an excellent productivity application from Agile Tortoise. Drafts is a super simple and easy way to jot down an idea with the tap of an icon. When you open Drafts you are presented with a blank screen and a blue blinking cursor which reminds me slightly of iA Writer. It is more than just a note taking application though, you can add calendar entries, send Tweets, or even write full articles similar to what I am doing now with this review.

The iPad version of Drafts cost only $2.99 and will sync perfectly with the iPhone version of Drafts if you sign up for a free Simperium data service account. Simperium is an iCloud like service that syncs behind the scenes and once you save a document it just 'automatically' appears on your other device. Sadly Drafts does not include iCloud itself as an option for syncing. Do not fret though, if you don't want to use Simperium you can always sync via Dropbox and choose to 'Open In' within the Dropbox application on your other iOS device.

I find Drafts to be very useful with helping me increase my productivity on my iPad. For example: I will be interviewing a co-founder of a successful company this Thursday on Total iPad, so I can open Drafts and write up a short reminder on the subject and send it to my Events in my calendar, then I can take that same text and post it to Facebook and Twitter to let my followers know about it. I have just killed 2 birds with 1 stone essentially. This keeps me from having to open Facebook, Tweetbot and the Calendar app. Drafts also includes a pretty cool link detection option for linking to phone numbers or addresses within your text.

Not only does Drafts increase my productivity with a few services but Drafts also supports a ton of my favorite iPad applications. I can also create notes that I can turn into calendar events as mentioned above, SMS messages, Day One entries or I can copy my content to the clipboard that I can 'Open-In' other applications that do not have built-in support within Drafts and then paste my content in that application. One example of an application that is not supported in Drafts but an app that I use daily on my iPad is Blogsy. Even though Drafts does not support 'send to Blogsy' it does support a large number of other popular applications.

Some of the supported Apps:

• Twitter


• Facebook


• Email


• Evernote


• Tweetbot


• OmniFocus


• Things


• Simplenote


• Sparrow


• The Hit List


• Echofon


• Due


• Byword


• WriteUp


• Buffer


• Bang On


• Agenda


• Day One


• Writing Kit

One of the great things about Drafts is it includes built-in support for Markdown text within the application. You can format your text in Markdown and then tap on the Markdown preview to check that your text is formatted properly. I am a huge fan of Markdown and normally write all my post for Total iPad in Markdown on my Mac when I am using MarsEdit or iA Writer + Marked (for preview).

Drafts also includes a very useful top keyboard menu bar with some useful features when you are using the built in iPad keyboard. Some of the options include some of the most used keys for typing with Markdown and appear on the top right above the keyboard and  include the following keys:

 @  #  *  _    "  -

On the top left of the extra keyboard keys there are options for: forward and backward keys for one letter or one complete word, as well as undo and redo keys.

Pros:

• Beautiful UI


• Share to some of my most used applications


• Dropbox Support


• OmniFocus Support


• Supports Markdown


• Nice selection of fonts


• Color Themes

Cons:

• Not all applications are available


• iPad version is separate app from the iPhone version


• No iCloud support

Final Thoughts:

I have been using Drafts on my iPad for about a week now and I have found it to be extremely useful as a productivity application. I love the way I can measure once, cut twice with post I write and send them multiple places at once enabling me to focus on other task instead of wasting time to open multiple applications. The layout is beautiful, the fonts selection is superb, the themes are nice and really give you that minimalistic feel that do not overwhelm you with too many options but offer enough to beautify the application. If you are using your iPad as a creation tool then you will definitely want Drafts on your iPad, Drafts is the Swiss Army Knife of creation applications.

You can purchase Drafts for iPad in the App Store for only $2.99:
Drafts for iPad - Agile Tortoise

There is also an iPhone version of Drafts in the App Store which is a separate purchase for only $1.99:
Drafts for iPhone - Agile Tortoise

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