I have recently used a new writing application for iPad, Textilus, to synchronize my Scrivener projects using a Dropbox folder sync. I suggest to use this application because it is a native rtf format iPad application, (the only one I know at present). Until the iOS version of Scrivener will be available in the AppStore, this is for me the best alternative for mobile work.There is a basic free version of Textilus in the AppStore. I would suggest Lit&Lat to add this application in their videotutorials too.
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How is the integration with Scrivener in the latest version? The last time I checked it seemed kind of beta—you had to create a new Scrivener thing in the software and that would link to one single folder, but it didn’t do so in a way that you could then couple Scrivener’s folder sync to it directly. You had to delete some prefab stuff. So I didn’t want to put it on the website until they got the system streamlined.
What do you mean for ‘latest version’ ? (Scrivener or Textilus?)
At present, I am using Scrivener Mac 2.3.1 and Textilus for iPad 1.6.5 paid version (€4.49 in the European AppStore).
I have linked Textilus to my Dropbox account by its setting option (I did not setup the iCloud sync option). In Scrivener I synchronized using ‘File-> Sync-> Sync with External Folder’ and I have marked also the ‘Sync all other text documents in the folder’ and RTF format for all documents in the draft and other modalities.
Any change made with Textilus have been imported in the Scrivener Project without problems for me.
In Textilus you can open directly the Dropbox copy or save a local copy for editing offline and then sync when online.
All is working as is described in the Videotutorial by Lit&Lat regarding the Sync by Dropbox. literatureandlatte.com/videos/FolderSync.mov
Up to now I have only synchronized a project started on Scrivener and used Textilus after. I have not tried to open something new on Textilus and then sync on Scrivener. Thus, I can’t say anything about this modality.
Hope to have answered your points!
Thanks! I’ll take another look at it then as it sounds easier than it used to be. I’ve been wanting to add them to our list since it is the only RTF editor of the bunch.
Thanks people for this thread discussion. I am a big fan (but somewhat new user) of Scrivener and was glad to see there will be a way to connect to it from an ipad.
There are actually many ways to integrate with Scrivener on the go, but nearly all of them are plain-text editors and require using .txt as the folder sync format. Textilus is unique (to my knowledge) for being an editor that can handle RTF and Dropbox integration. It should be noted that when I last checked it doesn’t preserve comments and footnotes. If you need to retain those you will want to use a plain-text solution as these will be encoded into easy-to-read syntax and then converted back when syncing.
Thank you for your advice.
I just tried to test the note synchronization procedure with Textilus by modifying a file in the Notes folder. As a matter of fact, when you sync a Scrivener project to Dropbox, Scrivener creates two subfolders in the main Dropbox folder: Draft and Notes. In my experience, the Notes folder seems to include a copy of the Draft files and not (as it should) the Scrivener notes content. After syncing, I tried to insert some new text into a Note file in Textilus using different fonts. Thus, the file in the Dropbox Notes folder was correctly updated with the new fonts. But, the new text was not imported in the Scrivener project as a Note but as simple text in the body of the corresponding Draft file.
Thus, it seems that the problem is in the Scrivener sync procedure, not in the Textilus procedure.
I would be happy to know your experience.
Today I have downloaded a new version of Textilus from the App Store (version 1.7.5) that has a simplified process of synchronization with Dropbox tailored for Scrivener users. Now the local Dropbox folder of the Scrivener project and the remote Dropbox folder are automatically synchronized.