#multimarkdown

In der Regel werde zusätzliche Skripte genutzt, die den im Bild beschriebenen Workflow zu automatisieren. Die Integration von Scrivener mit Zitationsprogrammen ist ja immer so ein Thema. 

Es gibt einen Workflow für MacOS und Linux von Ian Max Andolina, Scrivomatic, der jedoch vorerst nicht auf der Windows-Version von Scrivener 3 läuft. 

Alternativ gibt es Pandoc Scholar.

In any case, Markdown didn't completely stick with me because I liked having control over the final markup. I add cite attributes to <blockquote>, and use special characters like  , ‐, and ‑ a lot, for example. So I might as well just do it all in straight XHTML anyway.

But I was looking at iA Writer, Ulysses, Stacey, and the like this afternoon. In turn, they got me looking into these Markdown variants.

I was testing things out in iA Writer, which supports MultiMarkdown. And I wrote this, first as:

<div markdown="block"> This is 7. The new iPhone. ***Jet Black.*** Two new cameras. </div>

…then…

<div markdown="block"> This is 7. The new iPhone. ***Jet Black.*** Two new cameras. </div>

…and I wondered why the HTML output was different. The first would only put the second and third lines in <p>, while the second did it for all four.

I was really confused by that, not sure if I just misread and misunderstood something along the way. I thought that the markdown="1" attribute meant text in the <div> would be parsed as Markdown. Reviewing Gruber's explanation for his original design, however:

The only restrictions are that block‐level HTML elements — eg <div>, <table>, <pre>, <p>, etc — must be separated from surrounding content by blank lines…

How to: How do you create & link to a named anchor in Multimarkdown

How do you create & link to a named anchor in Multimarkdown

I have come across a number of mentions of MultiMarkdown’s support for internal links / named anchors but am unable to find a single example of how to actually do it.

So, what it the syntax for denoting the named anchor, and is the syntax for linking to it the same as linking to any other URLs (only using #foo instead of http://....)?

An…

One of my new obsessions is Drafts 4, and one of Drafts 4's new obsessions is JavaScript programable custom keyboard keys. Here's a first attempt at rolling my own, inspired by the-real-mrbeefy's request for a Markdown footnote key. Keep in mind that the only reason I followed through with writing this key is that the first-draft psuedocode I wrote over Messages pretty much worked.

The code, if you can call it that, takes a selected word, wraps it in the MultiMarkdown footnote syntax, jams it up against the previous word, creates a footnote reference at the bottom of the draft, and moves the cursor down there. It's not the most robust code; it'll generate illegal markup if you don't select a word first. And I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to break it, too. But it was nice to do a thing that solve a practical problem.

You can install the key here.

I hate Microsoft Word

Well, mostly hate. I do like that Word is ubiquitous and pretty much a must have in the corporate world. Actually, that sucks. Anyone should be able to read a single file. Sadly, Adobe, Microsoft and Apple have got us thinking that we have to have proprietary software for everything. That isn’t the case.

In comes Markdown

This nifty little syntax created by Jon Gruber allows anyone to make documents that look and function like HTML except they can be exported into almost any file type. I’ll get into the nitty-gritty later into this adventure, but basically, Markdown will change your life, just like it has changed mine. The sad part is that there are tons of apps (A simple Google search turned up quite a few results) that allow you to write in Markdown and preview the files. Some offer complete workflow changes that sync and search files, others are simple writing experiences, some just preview files. It is a jumbled mess. That’s where my idea came in. I am going to dedicate the first month or two of 2014 to finding my best workflow for using Markdown. If you read this along the way, maybe you’ll find a workflow with Markdown in it for yourself.

The Intro

I am writing this in Text Edit so there is no bias for what I am about to undertake. I want to find the text editor for writing that will rule them all. While David Sparks wants to be “less fiddly” with his text editors in the coming year, I want to do a deep dive. This is currently what is in my roster:

Byword 2

Mou

nvALT

Ulysses III

Sublime Text

Writer Pro

Markdown Pro

Texts

Light Paper for Mac

I will be adding to this list. This may never end…

The Challenge

I need to see how all of these apps will perform for what I need. I have created a few challenges that each editor needs to do well in. The main categories will be:

File System

I love and pay for Evernote, so I’d like that to be my default syncing platform for when things are finished. I will be using the mmd->Evernote service for this synching method

I would like Dropbox to be my secondary syncing solution while notes are being created and in the editing process.

If needed, I am okay with iCloud sync as that is the way a lot of apps are going. If this is the primary sync method, I want to make sure I can get to my files and save as I need.

Editing Experience

The app needs to work well with how I work. I want it to get out of my when I need it. The windowed mode needs to be top notch. Things to be where I think they would be.

Marked Integration

I loved Bret Terpstra’s Marked for previewing Markdown files. The fact that it can import straight into Microsoft Word makes it an essential bit of software for me.

The editor has to work easily with Marked. That simple.

Bonus Features

How can this text editor augment how I write notes, blog posts and everything else.

This may be a little harder to judge, but I’ll figure something out.

The Rules

I’ll post my exact process for judging each interface and workflow soon. I’m in the middle of coming up with exactly how I want to rate everything and how I’m going to organize everything. This will be an open source experiment. What I mean is that I’m doing everything in the open. I am going to share exactly what I’m doing.

Moving Forward

There are two things to add to yesterday’s post about the RC for the new MultiMarkdown → Evernote service:

I messed up when generating the bundles in the original zip archive. An updated version is now up, but if you downloaded already and your archive file’s name did not end in “rc1c” (with the emphasis on the final “c”), you need to re-download. Sorry.

My little Markdown to Evernote service has been getting a bit long in the tooth. It never was very robust to start with, occasionally going “boom” when encountering metadata not palatable to Evernote, but the last years have not been kind to it: for instance, sandboxing broke it unless Evernote was already running. The last straw has been OS X Mavericks and its laudable shift to a system Ruby version 2, which broke the service for good.

Now this might have been a quick fix, but I decided to do what you never, ever should do: a complete rewrite, from the ground up. Not unexpectedly, this took me far longer than it should have, what with me barely having shed the total coding oik status for that of lowly Ruby grunt, but it is nearing the end now, or so I hope. The new version offers both an Automator action and a service application, the last one able to process not just text input, but also Markdown files directly. It adds metadata validation and sanitization. It is able to set most useful Evernote metadata directly from your Markdown file metadata – not just the title, tags and notebook. There’s more stuff I can’t wait to tell you about. But.

Right now, I need your help. I have done a few rounds of betas, but I have far too few beta testers to collect useful results; basically, the main tester is still just me. I’ve come far enough to tentatively put up a release candidate, but it needs to be tested in the wild. So, if you have been using my old service, or would like to explore the new one, head over to GitHub, grab the RC, and go crazy. Break it if you can.

And then, please, report back.