So, I use the context aware services quite a lot with Scrivener and have just started using MMD for writing whilst I’m not using Scrivener and sharing docs with others here that don’t use Scrivener.
I’m also quite into the convenience of using Byword which has iCloud integration between the Mac version and the iPad version. It’s particularly cool to return to my Mac and be able to just open the same document in iCloud but then if I want to import it into Scrivener I have to save it off and import it.
It would be rather nice to be able to select the multimarkdown text from wherever, right click and have Scrivener deal with it as an import (somewhat like the clipping feature).
Not sure if this should be posted here or in the general feature suggestion area.
I’m moving this to the wish list section since it is a Scrivener specific feature you wish to have added. To paraphrase, I believe you’re asking for a new Service that acts like the “Make New Clipping” service type, and uses the File/Import/MultiMarkdown File... code to automatically split the document into outline hierarchy? That sounds useful to me, but in your case specifically, you mention having used text editors to work on the file—wouldn’t that imply you already have a file somewhere, and if so can’t you just use the aforementioned menu command to deal with it? Services are better when you don’t have a file for the text you are wanting to import and… well from there I don’t quite get the advantage because copy and paste always struck me as being the same thing—but yes.
I handy Mac way of handling the “do this with this file I have open” is the icon of the file in the window title bar. So if you have a file open, but not necessarily its location open in Finder, you can use File/Import/MultiMarkdown File... in Scrivener, and then drag and drop the icon from the text editor into the file dialogue. This will automatically select it so you can just hit Okay and go.
Thanks for moving this to the correct location AmberV.
As mentioned the MMD produce I use is iCloud based and I maintain the documents there so the convenience of picking source straight out of the application using a service rather than exporting it to a local file system is a great thing to have
Okay, I don’t really use iCloud and just assumed it would be as easy to use as Dropbox in terms of file access. It’s basically a black box then? You have no access to your files except through applications that connect to the iCloud service? What happens when you Cmd-click on the name in the title bar of the window? Usually that shows where the file is located—maybe it actually is nowhere on the computer, but it seems odd to me that Apple would take that approach. It would mean loading and saving files would be entirely dependent upon an Internet connection, as would the speed of retrieval and storage. i.e. if network is down, you are locked out of your data; if the network is slow it takes many seconds to save or load something—which is at odds with the auto-save ethos they are trying to push. So I bet the file is physically somewhere on your computer. Even if it is just a cache folder buried in the ~/Library, that’s good enough for an import dialogue. It doesn’t really matter where it is, as all files are easy to get to on a Mac.
