This might be obvious for others, but it wasn’t for me. In my research stage (sometimes an ingenious excuse for procrastination) I tend to import a lot of PDF:s and webpages from the net. Trying to find a smooth way to do this on Scrivener iOS (more excuses for not writing), I experimented with exporting to iBooks and PDF-expert and from there in awkward ways getting the PDF into Scrivener.
That’s when I realised that I in the share menu of Safari can “Save to Dropbox” into a folder (I’ve created one that I call Research in the Apps>Scrivener folder).
In Scrivener iOS I click the download button and choose Dropbox (the first time I had to click “More …” to activate the option) and then navigate to the document I want to import. Not only is this the most smooth way I’ve found (is there any smoother?) to achieve this, but as a bonus, all PDF:s imported this way includes a clickable link that reveals its address in Safari.
I found it also, Matsgz, and I have none smoother for those who do not avoid Dropbox. I will say that I put my collector folder OUTSIDE the Apps/Scrivener folder – because if they’re inside, they’ll be uploaded to iOS Scrivener, but are not accessible there, like any other non .scriv files.
For those who like to annotate their PDF (more procrastination? ) and those who prefer to abjure Dropbox, the PDF Converter (with optional PDF Expert) from Readdle are nice (mentioned by pvonk here: viewtopic.php?f=53&t=35359&p=218516&hilit=research#p218516 ) – I see you played a bit with PDF Expert.
URL2PDF has some advantages (its formatting is very flexible) and is cheaper than the Readdle products, but I have struggled occasionally with getting the web page I want to show up correctly. Again, an option for the Dropbox avoider.
Trying to get a PDF through iBooks into Scrivener – I can do it, but it’s not something I want to do regularly…
Is there a chance we will one day be able to import as pdf directly into Scrivener?
Is the “import to dropbox” something Dropbox provides or is it a functionality of Safari itself? (in the first case: if db can do it, why shouldn’t Keith be able to do it?)
I too frequently use Dropbox to store my PDFs, as I’ve long preferred to keep my research material in the Finder (and now Dropbox for iOS and MacOS accessibility) and import it into the appropriate scrivener project as needed. However, if you don’t want to do that, you can save the PDF from safari to liquid text and then copy the file from there into scrivener. It does take several more steps than the Dropbox method though.
Keith et al have explained here some of the limitations of iOS sharing and Scrivener, though I don’t know whether that discussion applies here.
One reason I was so happy to see scrivener iOS is that it makes working with PDFs easier than plain text oriented apps like Ulysses or iaWriter. I wish we could all live exclusively in the pure world of plain text, but it doesn’t quite the reality I deal with as a journalist.
In fact, I work so often with PDFs that I finally switched from Apple’s native iOS Mail app to Spark, because it allows me to save email messages directly to PDFs to Dropbox, although, frustratingly, it won’t let me rename them before saving, which adds another step to my workflow. Most other save to Dropbox sharing I’ve found saves the messages to .txt, which is fine for many things but not embedded links and images.
If anyone out there has more efficient pdf related workflows and apps, please weigh in!
I think this is a function provided by the target apps ( Dropbox, iBooks, PDF Converter, et. al. ) The reason I say this is that each target app provides a slightly different format for the PDF. I’m sure Keith is able to crunch a web page into a PDF; the sticky part is what does he do with it next, because when he creates the PDF, Scrivener may not even be open, let alone have an open project into which he can stuff the file. This is the technical problem he’s described, at least. Dropbox lets the user choose a folder to save the PDF; iBooks obviously just creates a new book in its usual store. PDF Converter and other little converter apps just add a file to their internal store. But Scrivener doesn’t really have a place to store a file that’s not yet part of a project. For this to work, Keith likely has to build such a place. Non-trivial.
) and those who prefer to abjure Dropbox, the PDF Converter (with optional PDF Expert) from Readdle are nice (mentioned by pvonk here: