Send selected note as markdown email default email App

jefe

Greetings, this may be a trivial request, or has been previously addressed, so forgive me if it has.

Is there a way to launch/send the selected note as a Markdown email using the default email App? If not, has anyone written a script for this?

Thank you.

ctietze

The app doesn't offer a "Share" menu, yet. The shortest way so far is to use ⌘⇧R to Reveal in Finder and then share from there. (This could be automated with a script or Automator workflow indeed.)

GeoEng51

@jefe I seem to be becoming an advocate for iA Writer on this forum, unintentionally and mostly as I discover various aspects of the program myself.

Anyway, I keep my ZK in a Dropbox folder, which I also access from within iA Writer on my Mac. Using "File...Export", any text file can be exported in Markdown, HTML, PDF, Word or Project Archive format. From there, simple to attach to an e-mail.

iA Writer also has a "File...Share" menu option, but it's not as flexible as the export option. It simply opens your default e-mail browser and inserts the text or Markdown file that you have open into a blank e-mail, ready to be addressed and sent. If you want it to be in another format, then you need to go the Export route.

By the way, if you have a text file written with Markdown code embedded, then when you export to a PDF file, that file is rendered as you expect, with titles and other formatting as per the Markdown instructions.

I suspect you will find similar functionality in other editors mentioned in this forum, such as iWriter or Drafts; I'm just not as familiar with them. I do know that Drafts has a Share menu item.

jefe

My apology, but it appears I was not very specific or clear...

Here's what I want to do on my Mac:

1. Type a draft email in TA on Markdown
2. Send the email from TA to my default email App (MailMate)

From experience using all of the major note Apps on the Mac, Drafts is the only App that supports this via an Action step. iA Writer and all the other editors allow for content to be sent as an attachment, which is not what I want. I have Drafts and use for capturing quick entries on my iOS devices but do not use for creating longer notes or documents. If Drafts was my preferred environment, I'd be all set and very happy. Unfortunately TA really fits the way my simple brain works and I really want to be end-state for writing. Drafts, iA Writer, Ulysses, and 1Writer are all great and I use them quite often on my iOS devices. However, TA is what I prefer on the Mac because of its simple yet powerful interface.

The good news is that if needed, I can relatively move my note from TA to Drafts and then email from Drafts. The bad news is that it is too much moving of text just to send an email.

To be clear, I am not interested in sending the note as a file attachment, I want to create a draft email and send the final email as a Markdown email.

Thanks again!

jefe

BTW, I know I could simply just copy and paste into the email App, but saving time is critical for me and it would so much easier and cleaner to not have to do that.

ctietze

Would be that "Mail" item from TextEdit's "File > Share" menu, right?

GeoEng51

@jefe said:
To be clear, I am not interested in sending the note as a file attachment, I want to create a draft email and send the final email as a Markdown email.
BTW, I know I could simply just copy and paste into the email App, but saving time is critical for me and it would so much easier and cleaner to not have to do that.

I guess if Drafts had a way of accessing any folder that you wanted on your computer or say on Dropbox, this would be simple. This is what I do in iA Writer - it automatically shows me all the files in my ZK directory. But I'm not sure you can do that on Drafts.

jefe

@GeoEng51 said:
I guess if Drafts had a way of accessing any folder that you wanted on your computer or say on Dropbox, this would be simple. This is what I do in iA Writer - it automatically shows me all the files in my ZK directory. But I'm not sure you can do that on Drafts.

I am actually able to use Drafts accomplish my goal, I would prefer to not have switch from composing the email message in TA to Drafts or another editor. As I said, I could also just simply and copy the composed message from TA directly into MailMate, but again, I would prefer to avoid the extra steps.

@ctietze, the "Mail" item from the File menu in TextEdit sends the note as an attachment and not as a composed message, which is not what I want.

One of the main reasons I use and prefer MailMate is because I can compose a Markdown email in Drafts, 1Writer, iA Writer, or TA and copy the message into MailMate and not have to fiddle with it. The advantage of Drafts is that I can simply click on "Mail" Action and it is done without a few extra steps. The standard Drafts "Mail" Action works with whatever my default email client is. While I have a bunch of them, I use and prefer MailMate for this and a bunch of other reasons.