Scrivener is almost the One True Way to write long form (disclaimers about my opinion omitted, but applicable).

My beefs are:

Three different editors, with three different feature sets (main edit window, copy holder, and quick reference panel).

The implementation of styles, including the style called "no style."

And, related to styles, the complexities of compile.

All of which would be pretty much solved if I could name my own editor. I like Nisus. Styles work great, and compile is basically two steps. Load the style library you want, export to the format you want.

This morning I realized Devonthink lets me set a group to "unsorted" and I can rearrange Nisus files at will.

There's a funny snag I've run into with the way data is copied to/from the clipboard, but basically I can

+ arrange RTF files in the order I want in Devonthink
+ click/shift click/command-C to copy the files (particularly their names) to the clipboard
+ open the terminal app and go to an empty directory
+ run indexfiles (my Python script)

That feeds off the clipboard and copies the files out of Devonthink to the empty directory, prepending an index number in front of each filename. The Nisus "join files" macro will then see the files in the order as presented in Devonthink instead of alphabetized based on original file name.

Devonthink as Scrivener, complete with a compile feature.

Amontillado wrote:

+ arrange RTF files in the order I want in Devonthink
+ click/shift click/command-C to copy the files (particularly their
names) to the clipboard
+ open the terminal app and go to an empty directory
+ run indexfiles (my Python script)

That feeds off the clipboard and copies the files out of Devonthink to
the empty directory, prepending an index number in front of each
filename. The Nisus "join files" macro will then see the files in the
order as presented in Devonthink instead of alphabetized based on
original file name.

Devonthink as Scrivener, complete with a compile feature.

Your process sounds a darn sight more "complex" than the three editor windows and compile in Scrivener.

I have to agree ;-)

For simple writing, I increasingly use Novellus, a macOS app that allows you to see all text "chunks" (the app calls them "scenes") in a chapter in a single stream, or concentrate on a single chunk at a time. Like Ulysses and Scrivener, but much simpler than either.

But it does need quite a lot doing to it - it's a bit too simplistic at the moment, although the output options are elegant. The developer is very amiable, however, and I have high hopes that it will progress!

Cheers,
Bill

MadaboutDana wrote:

I have to agree ;-)

For simple writing, I increasingly use Novellus, a macOS app that allows
you to see all text "chunks" (the app calls them "scenes") in a chapter
in a single stream, or concentrate on a single chunk at a time. Like
Ulysses and Scrivener, but much simpler than either.

But it does need quite a lot doing to it - it's a bit too simplistic at
the moment, although the output options are elegant. The developer is
very amiable, however, and I have high hopes that it will progress!

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks for this notification, Bill. Novellus seems worth exploring.

MadaboutDana wrote:

I have to agree ;-)

For simple writing, I increasingly use Novellus, a macOS app that allows
you to see all text "chunks" (the app calls them "scenes") in a chapter
in a single stream, or concentrate on a single chunk at a time. Like
Ulysses and Scrivener, but much simpler than either.

But it does need quite a lot doing to it - it's a bit too simplistic at
the moment, although the output options are elegant. The developer is
very amiable, however, and I have high hopes that it will progress!

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks for this notification, Bill. Novellus seems worth exploring.

Your process sounds a darn sight more "complex" than the three editor
windows and compile in Scrivener.

I prefer to believe my ideas work by intricate sophistication, the urbane collaboration of manifold automata. What my wife calls “bailing wire.”

Tinderbox is complex. Copy, run one command, join files isn’t so bad.

I need to brush up on Swift. I’d like to export a selected list of sorted files from DEVONthink in one step to a single Nisus document.

DEVONthink has a merge command that will combine RTF files, but it trashes styles. Virtually all RTF editors do that to Nisus documents.

No matter, I appreciate the comments, and I see I have new software suggestions to explore.