Drafting

Errata

2023-02-14

The file explorer is now fast
Checkboxes are now clickable
Can sort notes in file explorer

Welcome to my 70th Android note-taking app review and this one is special! But first, welcome two new followers:

💡

Welcome to Arthur from the Netherlands (where my parents immigrated from) and Kiriakou from Pennsylvania. Thank you for joining!

I've had the privilege to help shape a new note-taking app, how cool is that! Sahil, my note-taking Yoda and I have been working closely with the Developer Sen from Indonesia for the past couple of months. We had a private Signal chat room with some of my friends and since moved over to Discord.

This app is incredible, launches really fast and you can start typing right away. This is my defacto fleeting notes app and lives harmoniously with my Obsidian vault.

Drafting has multiple toolbars plus one you can customize with any function from the app. I love that it's local-first and works with plain text files and native Android folders and subfolders. Drafting supports Markdown, not truly WYSIWYG although it renders headings while showing the Markdown tags in light grey which is a very nice touch.

The app supports dark mode and the cool blue colour of the icons and note title grabbed me right away, simple and clean.

I'm finding that font selection is one of the things that makes me want to keep using an app. Drafting has some of the fonts that I love including IBM Plex, Dosis, JetBrains Mono and 45 others!

Drafting is developed by one person: Sen, who created the most popular Text Expander (aka Typing Hero) for Android.

The development is very active with over forty (40!) incremental builds since Nov and several with major functions like Markdown support and a customizable toolbar. Sen is extremely responsive on Discord and fixes bugs shortly after people report them, sometimes within the hour!

For me, I need a really quick app. One that launches super fast so I can jot down my thoughts. Because the filenames are automatically created with the date and time (customizable of course), I get a log of my day. Perfect for daily journaling.

It's early days and that's the reason the app is priced low at CAD 2.26 so grab it now and join in this exciting ride. Be part of the creation of what I expect will be one of the most popular note-taking apps for Android!

Screenshots

Quotes

From the developer of the most powerful Text Expander for Android!

Drafting is a fast and minimalist plain text editor for everyday writing.

It lets you start writing as soon as you launch Drafting.

References

Ugly

No search (yet)

Bad

No inline images, i.e. render ![label](link)
No search in or across notes (yet)
No trash
No tags in or on notes
No linking of notes
No record audio

Good

Share to SMS
Share to Gmail
Undo and redo
Text formatting: bold, italic, strikethrough
Inline checkbox
Quote and blockquote
Code and code block
5 Heading levels
6 Font sizes
Markdown hyperlinks
Bullet lists
Numbered lists
Indent and outdent
Folders and sub-folders
Move a note between folders
File info: word count, character count, file location
Dark mode

Great

Markdown support
Folders
48 fonts and most of them great
Line spacing setting
Clear change log for each build
Multiple toolbars: Markdown, Utilities, Files (New draft from the clipboard, New blank draft, Move, Delete, Info), Editing (move around the note), Text Processing (make all lowercase, UPPERCASE, Mixed)
Copy entire note
Insert date or time via toolbar buttons
Change the default for when a new note (draft) is created from "Always" to 60 minutes or "Never"
Four modes when you share text from another app: create a new draft, append to an existing draft, create a new draft and edit, or prepend to an existing draft
Setting to store text (.txt) or Markdown (.md)
Only creates a note file ("draft") if you type something
Show/hide hidden files in the file browser
Show/hide file extensions in the file browser
Handles many text files: Markdown, XML, Text, etc.

Awesome

Fast
Cheap
Local first / offline
Simple privacy policy
Customizable toolbar
Change the folder where notes are stored
Change the heading text size
Pin a note (draft) so it's opened next time
Customize filename date format
Works with plain text files