Changing default MMD Settings

Scrivener Markdown & LaTeX
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Hi everyone,
I’ve been using Scrivener–>MMD–>LaTeX for over a year now, and it finally occurred to me to ask this question to make my life easier. For the record, I’m using Scrivener v. 1.54.

When I go into “File/MultiMarkdown Settings”, I always add “LaTeX XSLT” to the list of metadata, and then input “latex-snippet.xslt” since this is what I’ve got set up for my workflow. The inconvenient part is that I have to do this every time I create a new Scrivener document (since I keep individual articles I’m reading as separate Scrivener documents). Since everything I write requires the latex-snippet.xslt, is there any way I can make that the default for all Scrivener documents? In other words, can I set it so that I don’t have to add it to the MMD Settings every time I start a new document? Or is there some bit of code that I can copy and paste into my documents that will achieve the right settings? Currently, I usually open an old Scrivener doc, open the MMD settings to see what the correct file name is, then copy those into the MMD settings of my new doc. Kind of a pain, and for some reason I just can’t memorize what the settings are…

Finally, a related question: is this something that I’ll be able to do easily in 2.0? I haven’t made the switch yet but am considering it.

Thanks!

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The best answer has very little to do with MMD. :slight_smile: It’s a universal Scrivener concept and will thus help you out in other areas as well, such as your favourite label colours, some keywords you always use—that sort of thing.

What I would do is create a new blank project (or use a template you typically use) and set up everything just how you want it. Then in the File menu, select [b]Save as Template[/b] and give it a name and description. From now on when you make new projects, use this template instead of the blank one, use your personal starter. Another way of going about this is to duplicate a recent project you just worked on and then use the duplicate to strip out everything contextual to the project—then use that shell as your template stock rather than starting from scratch.

And yes, creating your own templates and using them to generate future projects is in 2.0 as well. It’s quite a bit easier to keep them maintained and up to date with your current preferences, too.

Additionally, 2.x has changed where MMD meta-data goes: it’s now a feature of the compiler. This means you can use saved compile settings to apply common MMD settings that you would otherwise have to set up each time. Since these are just compiler presets, they can be applied to any project past, present and future, unlike a template which just gives you a kick start for future projects.

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Awesome, thanks so much Amber!