TextBundle File Format
Started by Maurice Parker
on 1/31/2024
Maurice Parker
1/31/2024 5:43 pm
Are people using this file format a lot in the wild? I look at textbundle.org and it looks like a lot of respected markdown processors and editors are using it. I'm just curious as to if people are using it as a common format to exchange documents between these editors.
Dormouse
1/31/2024 6:10 pm
I don't, but I would if programs I used supported it. Textpack too.
afaics it mostly exists within the Mac ecosystem and doesn't have enough support for effective lift off.
But including images within the file is a far more robust system long term than relying on links remaining active.
afaics it mostly exists within the Mac ecosystem and doesn't have enough support for effective lift off.
But including images within the file is a far more robust system long term than relying on links remaining active.
satis
2/1/2024 1:36 am
Textbundle was created over a decade ago as a collaboration between Brett Terpstra and the devs at Ulysses to make a format that could be used to move files between sandoxed Mac apps, which otherwise would require tiresome manual access, individually, to all attachments in a file.
https://brettterpstra.com/2014/08/26/announcing-the-textbundle-format-and-ulysses-3-giveaway/
https://blog.ulysses.app/introducing-textbundle/
I own and use several of the apps listed on the Textbundle site, but I suppose I don't have many asset-filled files I've needed to share, as I don't recall ever exporting/importing to that file format. I don't have much need to move files with images in them into other apps, and when I need to export I typically make PDFs.
I could see the format being useful for turning asset-filled docs into blog posts, so the integration of the Textbundle format into the iOS/iPadOS versions of the Wordpress app could be useful.
There are only two apps supporting the format that do not have a Mac version, and not knowing anything about Windows security I don't know if the format actually solves a problem on that platform. (One of those, Smartdown, never hit v.1, never delivered a promised Mac app, and the dev apparently focused his attention on becoming the Windows dev for IA Writer... which doesn't support Textbundle).
https://brettterpstra.com/2014/08/26/announcing-the-textbundle-format-and-ulysses-3-giveaway/
https://blog.ulysses.app/introducing-textbundle/
I own and use several of the apps listed on the Textbundle site, but I suppose I don't have many asset-filled files I've needed to share, as I don't recall ever exporting/importing to that file format. I don't have much need to move files with images in them into other apps, and when I need to export I typically make PDFs.
I could see the format being useful for turning asset-filled docs into blog posts, so the integration of the Textbundle format into the iOS/iPadOS versions of the Wordpress app could be useful.
There are only two apps supporting the format that do not have a Mac version, and not knowing anything about Windows security I don't know if the format actually solves a problem on that platform. (One of those, Smartdown, never hit v.1, never delivered a promised Mac app, and the dev apparently focused his attention on becoming the Windows dev for IA Writer... which doesn't support Textbundle).
Dormouse
2/1/2024 3:25 pm
satis wrote:
not knowing anything about Windows security I don't know if
the format actually solves a problem on that platform
I don't think textbundle solves a Windows security problem - apart maybe from removing the possibility that links might turn evil.
It does make markdown files with media more equivalent to docx. I've wasted a fair bit of time dealing with missing links. Enough for me to have stopped using markdown/Obsidian/Tangent for files with media. I subscribe to Pocket purely because that guarantees me access to the original images rather than relying on websites maintaining them.
