Some ideas for more compile options

Scrivener Wish List
1

Hello Keith

First I want to praise you for the new compile dialog. Now that I assigned the folder level titles to LaTeX commands (\section, \subsection, etc.), I can export my LaTeX code directly, without going into the arcane of MMD. Not that I don’t like MMD, but I’m used to the flexibility and power of straight LaTeX.

So I am happy. Very happy :slight_smile:

But here is a suggestion that you may consider or not : since I compile my drafts frequently in order to verify the mathematical formulas and also to check if my LaTeX code still compiles, it would help to automate some things. Here are some ideas to speed-up the compile-draft to compile-LaTeX operation :

  1. The “Export” dialog when I click “Compile” always starts in a different folder. I think this files like a bug, but it would be great if at least, the default output file was the same as the last time I did an export. So I would not need to figure in which directory I am, and click-click-click until I reach the proper output directory.

  2. There could be an option to set a fixed output file. In Adobe Lightroom (this is the only example I see), this is implemented as a radio button which says kind of :
    Compile to :
    (x) Ask me every time
    ( ) [filename text box ] [Browse]

Obviously, the overwrite warning would be useless for the fixed output file.

  1. There could be an additional pane, say “Automation”, with those options :
    Run this script before compiling : [ ] [Browse]
    Run this script after compiling : [ ] [Browse]
    Here, “script” could also be “Applescript” or “Application”, or thrice, I don’t mind…

Imagine the setup :
I set a fixed output file for, say, ~/my/favourite/folder/article.tex and I put my LaTeX compile script into the “Run this script after compiling”. So all I have to do is CMD-OPT-E and click Compile, wait a bit and see my shiny freshly compiled PDF file pop in Preview. Wow.

That would be, I’d say… wonderful.

That’s only suggestions, for sure. But maybe it would be nice in a 2.x version :slight_smile:

Anyways, thank you again for your astonishing job on Scrivener 2. It was really worth the wait.

Best regards

Félix