Don’t get me wrong I like Devonthink and when I’m inside the app it’s good I can edit or create notes. But when I’m in a zoom meeting and I want to take notes side by side I don’t like the look of it. I migrated my things from Evernote but liked their editor and now I want something similar.
Searching the forum I found two contenders which are IA Writer and Drafts. While IA Writer is a terrific option I can’t use it because they don’t have a mobile app. Drafts I think will be the way to go, although I’m not familiar with how it will handle images or tables and how I later can import them to Devonthink.
So preferably, I want something that allows me to take notes with images, has a good looking editor and can export notes in a friendly format to devonthink.
Well, I’m impressed thank you very much! BTW do you know of a workflow or change of settings so that IA Writer opens automatically when exploring MD files in Devonthink?
Scrivener! The app can also be pinned so that a note window is always visible. And documents can simply be dragged and dropped from one app to the other.
So you want Markdown and images. New requirement. Images and markdown are a little
lee complicated than using something like Word and Pages. Your choice.
Scrivener works similarly to DT (in a way). Yes, many write books with it, but as a note taking app it’s great, and can hold any type of document. But unfortunately the search function is not designed for very large amounts of data. Otherwise I wouldn’t use DT.
Drafts has a powerful actions menu that allows you to send content into DT. I use Drafts for nearly all my notes capture on iOS when not at my desk and then ‘fire’ it into Devon think, either DTTG or DT.
Sending Drafts content to Devonthink is straightforward; multiple Drafts actions have been shared to accomplish this.
However can you clarify - do you only want an external editor to import content into Devonthink? Or do you also want an external editor to modify content already in Devonthink? Those are two very different goals - though both can be achieved.
Hi, thanks for your feedback. I’d like an external editor to write content outside of devonthink (but can index the folder) and later modify the content already inside.
I’m aware of that (and said so in other words). It is still putting all contents in its own silo instead of using the file system. Which makes this approach of „powerful actions“ necessary just to work with a document in another app. Each time – you write in Drafts, you export to DT. You modify in Drafts, you export again. And you have to keep the same document in two apps.
That is (my opinion!) clumsy and makes document handling overly complicated.
I can’t speak for the OP and I rarely write MD for DT. But I can imagine that people working regularly with MD would want to have more advanced editing features and easier themability (if that’s a word).
For example, opening and closing whole sections might be desirable, as might be powerful search/replace options. If I write MD, I use VSCode. But that’s not going into DT.
I understand your valid point. I only use Drafts for the initial capture and then send (using actions) to relevant destination app (e.g. Mail, Things3, DT). The text is then effectively deleted (but available for any resend) and all future work happens in the app I sent it to, like DT or DTTG.
I see. Not exactly what I would call “using an external editor”
Initially, I loved Drafts – especially because it was scriptable not only on macOS. Then I found the lack of file system integration too much of a hassle. If it were dropping the silo approach, it would be a great app (all my opinion, of course).
To answer the OP. I use IA Writer on both MacOS and iOS as my markdown editor of choice for large files (when not doing it in DT or DTTG). It is not completely multimarkdown compliant, but good enough for my needs.
For MacOS, set IA Writer to be the default editor for markdown files (Command-I in finder on a markdown file then set the default app). Once set, double clicking on a markdown file in DT will open it in IA writer (if you have set this in DT preferences).
For iOS, from within DTTG use the share option to open the file in IA writer. Any changes made in IA writer are saved back to DTTG.
Thank you for your answer. It sounds like a good solution. Is it safe to edit imported files with external editors? Or do you run the risk of messing with DEVONthink’s internal machinery?
