Help
What is Draft One?
Draft One is a simple text editor with a twist.
Draft One lets you focus on writing text. But to help you achieve a state of flow, it won’t let you delete, edit, paste over, undo, or write over text you’ve already written.
This helps you to focus on writing, rather than editing. And it helps you to write more quickly. You’re less likely to get distracted by editing and self-doubt. And you’re less likely to get stuck on a sentence.
Why are these limitations to prevent editing built into Draft One?
When you can edit text, you can get caught up in the process of editing. This can stop you from reaching a state of flow when you’re just trying to translate your thoughts into text.
Draft One is different. It lets you focus on writing text.
- Stops you obsessing over getting your spelling and grammar right on your first draft.
- Helps you reach a state of flow faster – putting self-doubt away while you’re just trying to get your thoughts out of your brain and ready to edit
Over time, this lets you change your mindset about first drafts. They don’t need to be perfect. They’re just first drafts!
Rather than getting caught up in perfectionism, you can just get your thoughts about what you want to write out then tidy up the text later.
How do I move my text from Draft One to another app?
You’ve got two main options.
Option 1 – Copy the text to paste into another app
Click the ‘Copy’ Button in the toolbar to copy all the text in your editor. You don’t need to select any text for this to work. Your text will be ready to paste into any other app.
Click ‘Copy’ in the ‘Edit’ menu in the menubar or use CMD + C (on MacOS). This will only copy the text that’s selected.
Click ‘Copy All as Markdown’ in the ‘Edit’ menu in the menubar (or use CMD + Shift + C on MacOS). This will copy all the text in your editor as Markdown – ready to paste into a Markdown-focused editor.
Option 2 – Save a file to your computer
You can save the text you’ve currently written to your computer as a Word document, Markdown, HTML, or as plain text.
Find the ‘Save As’ options in the ‘File’ menu in the menubar.
Is my work saved? Will I lose my work if I quit the app?
Yes, all your work is automatically saved. You can quit the app and your work will still be there when you re-open it later.
Can I hide the 'no editing' reminders?
Yes! Click ‘Editing Reminders’ in the ‘View’ menu in the menubar. Then select ‘Hide’ to stop seeing the reminders. You can always go back and click ‘Show’ to re-enable them.
Can I copy the text as Markdown?
Yes! Here’s how…
Click ‘Copy All as Markdown’ in the ‘Edit’ menu in the menubar (or use CMD + Shift + C on MacOS).
This will copy all the text in your editor as Markdown – ready to paste into a Markdown-focused editor.
You can also save a Markdown file to your computer by clicking ‘Save as Markdown’ in the ‘File’ menu in the menubar.
How can I make a feature request or report a bug?
Use the contact form to get in touch :-)