Messing with Devonthink

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Posted by Amontillado
Jul 29, 2019 at 04:31 PM

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.

Posted by Simon
Jul 30, 2019 at 08:17 AM

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.

Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 30, 2019 at 10:22 AM

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

Posted by Hugh
Jul 30, 2019 at 11:44 AM

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.

Posted by Hugh
Jul 30, 2019 at 11:44 AM

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

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