Tabs and external TXT file sync

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

Hello,

Can anyone make a recommendation on how I can preserve tabs when I sync files edited on the iPad? I’ve tried using Plaintext and Nebulous but tabs from Nebulous don’t sync into Scrivener. I don’t even see an option to insert tabs in Plaintext. What do you all recommend as the best scenario for maintaining tabs across syncs?

2

The tab character itself should be showing up. That is, if you actually hit the Tab key in Scrivener, then the file in Simplenote will retain that tab, at least it does in my tests. If your tabs are purely based on formatting (and then technically they would be referred to as ruler indents), of course those wouldn’t work at all since those are formatting based and Simplenote only handles plain-text where there is no such thing as ruler indents, margins, paragraph spacing, etc.

I hear you on the iPad though. I’m still not sure how to add a tab on the iPad at all. It simply seems to be incapable of doing so unless the developer of the program has specifically added it to the keyboard. The default keyboard does not have this key. The best I can do is copy and paste an existing tab from the sync. Heh.

3

So I just did a little testing and this is what I found when using Nebulous and PlainText (represented by [app]).

  1. Created a new text file in [app] with a leading tab on the paragraph created using the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard. Saved file.
  2. Synced in Scrivener (dropbox folder) and the tab was gone from the paragraph. Inserted the tab and re-saved in Scrivener and then exported.
  3. Opened up [app] and synced with Dropbox. File contains tabs. I added a new paragraph and added tab via external keyboard. Synced in Scrivener and the file does not contain the tab.

I should also note that I got the same behavior using the Tab macro in Nebulous to insert a tab. Is this a problem with the iPad apps, Scrivener, or just the nature of txt files?

4

Another little clue for you. I opened up a file in Nebulous, saved a paragraph with a leading tab created using Tab key on external keyboard. After syncing with Dropbox I opened it up in TextEdit on the Mac and it preserved the tab. After syncing with Scrivener, the tabs are not showing in Scrivener. I then re-inserted the tabs in Scrivener and synced again. I opened up the file in Nebulous and the tabs are preserved but there are now two tabs leading each paragraph. I saved a new paragraph in Nebulous (with a single tab) and the tab is missing after syncing and opening in Scrivener.

5

Wait, on item #3 in the first post, after adding a tab the paragraph disappeared from Scrivener? That sounds bad; hoping that’s a typo and you just meant the tab disappeared.

6

Yes, that was a typo, sorry. I have fixed it.