Hey all, I have one of those questions which is probably either stupidly obvious or implausible…
Outside of Scrivener, I like writing long form work as a single MMD document, with the sections designated by headers, i.e. exactly the format Scrivener likes as an MMD import. However, I am not seeing an easy way to get said document back out of Scrivener in a reasonable way. What I would love is a setting in the Sync settings to create a single MMD document out of my Draft folder, rather than the multiple text files it currently exports. Another possibility I could make work would be an option under Export to do the same; having to manually Import/Export after changes would be more a pain than Sync, but I could live with it.
Is this possible? Am I nothing but a crazy dreamer with a completely weird workflow?
Have you looked at compile rather than export? Export works on single files; compile creates a single document out of the whole draft folder on any files within that which you designate in the content pane …
N.B. The Scrivener manual is written in MMD with Ioa-esque enhancements.
Thanks, xiamenese, I hadn’t even thought of compile as an option for going back and forth, I was stuck thinking of it as a finished product.
That said, when experimenting with compile options, I can’t seem to find a way to create an MMD document that also converts my italics into italics. When I I set the export to MMD nor plaintext, that option disappears from the settings and my italics disappear.
Is there something I am missing, or am I just using this in a way that wasn’t intended?
Either way, I should clarify, this is not a big deal for me. If I have to work with my scenes as multiple text files it’s ok, I just use a folding text editor which makes it easier to move sections around in a similar way that Scrivener’s outline view does, and it would be nice to have that option when working outside of Scrivener.
Scrivener has MultiMarkdown integration. It is not a MultiMarkdown editor, nor generator. It doesn’t take a word processor document and turn it into a Markdown document. If you use this manner of writing, you must use the editor to compose MMD documents. Footnotes/Comments and pictures are the only exceptions.
If you’ve composed your text using italics with the word processing tools instead of MMD, then you can use the [b]Format/Convert/Bold and Italics to MultiMarkdown Syntax[/b] menu command. This should be proofed, as it is possible to be sloppy about formatting in a rich text environment in such a way that undesirable asterisk placement can result.
As Mr X points out, Compile is the main tool used to get a manuscript out of Scrivener and into a format that most of the rest of the world can handle. Scrivener can generate titles for you, based on the outline depth in the binder. In turn, Scrivener can import a binder outline based on MMD headers!
The [b]File/Import/MultiMarkdown File...[/b] menu command will import and process an MMD file by its headers, turning it into an outline in the binder.
To get these title layers back out, in the Formatting compile option pane make sure each “Title” checkbox is ticked.
In short, MMD is one of the best workflows for round-trip work in Scrivener. It should give you maximum power in a text editor capable of folding, as well as in Scrivener as the two will have identical document structures based on the MMD headers.
You could also try working in a longer document - as long as you want it in your other app. This then can be synced and the round-tripping works fine.
That solution leaves you forebearing a lot of Scrivener’s organizational tools, so you might split up the document inside Scrivener when you want to re-organize it, then merging all the subdocs back together just before syncing.
Thanks very much to both of you, AmberV and asotir. Sorry for taking a month to reply, but I was busy working on the manuscript. Your responses, I think, gave me what I need to wrap my head better around what Scrivener does and does not do as regards MMD, and thus how to use it. I think I understand now enough to figure out what I need. Thanks again!