Is Draft a Good Tool for Automation?

In this episode, our intrepid Automators dive into email and cover the best ways to get your Mac, iOS devices, and the web wrangling your email for you.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

• The Omni Group: Accomplish More Every Day

Links and Show Notes

David keeps talking about all the subjects for Automators but settles on email for episode 2. Rose and David agree the emails you send do not need to all be special snowflakes.

David throws out TextExpander as the starting point because saving snippets in a Word document is madness. David likes automating the tab key when writing an email.

Both David and Rose use Automator on the Mac but agree it should be more powerful. Very quickly Rose presses on to Keyboard Maestro. Rose then explains how she uses a Keyboard Maestro script to look for the existence of a file to automatically assemble and send an email. David gets irrationally happy about the thought of email getting sent without any direct involvement.

Then our nerdy automators take on sorting email. Both of our hosts get too much pleasure from auto sorting unwanted email out of their life. David bangs on about a years-old request to make Apple’s cloud-based email rules stronger. David mentions his beloved AppleScript that auto inserts an email recipient’s name.

The Omni Group sponsored this show, and Rose and David agree that they’re swell.

Then Rose and David move on to iOS email automation. The way email apps make you create email links to only their apps makes David sad but Rose digs it. Then David subtly pitches a reality show about two Italians in the middle of a vineyard. Rose then admits she has a thing about email clients and once installed 28 of them.

And then they get to Workflow. So much talking about Workflow. Ultimately, David admits to being “that guy”.

Then our hosts address cloud-based automation, and David closes up banging the drum about dictation and email. Rose and David both love the secret Drafts unending dictation tool. If you’re reading this and you’re from Apple, move along. This is not the app you’re looking for.

The Big Explanatory Post on this Episdode

Home | Automators

Automators Talk

David's Video on TextExpander and Email

David's Advanced TextExpander Snippet

David's Salutation AppleScript Video

David's TextExpander AppleScript

Rose's Airmail Screencast

Rose's Workflow Screencast

Rose's Mail Merge Workflow

Rose's Picture Send Workflow

Email Field Guide — MacSparky

Mac Power Users #328: iOS Email - Relay FM

Mac Power Users #303: Email Clients and Workflows - Relay FM

Mac Power Users #224: The Email Problem - Relay FM

Mac Power Users #164: Tackling Email - Relay FM

TextExpander | Communicate Smarter

Keyboard Maestro 8.2.2: Work Faster with Macros for macOS

Mail Act-On and More

Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful Software

Email Management for Any Inbox | SaneBox

Airmail - Lightning Fast Mail Client for Mac and iPhone

Dispatch: TextExpander-enabled Email App for iPhone

TripIt - Travel Itinerary - Trip Planner

Drafts. Where Text Starts. | Drafts

IFTTT helps your apps and devices work together

Zapier | The easiest way to automate your work

SaneBox