Creating Foldingtext files in DevonThink

[EtherealMind]

I have a database in DevonThink that I use to keep track of my blog writing ( Drafts, Edits and Published etc). However I prefer to avoid the DTP editor and use other editors mostly for the Markdown capabilities , font handling, and aesthetic ( related question: why does DTPO makes my H&F Sentinel font ugly ?)

In DevonThink I can create plain or rich text files. These files will then use the system default application to open those text files. In my case, the default for plain text is BBEdit.

I want to be able to create files with a .ft extension so that I can double on FoldingText file in my DTO database and pop out to FoldingText to write in.

I’ve tried using QuickCursor (which uses ODBEditor) but this seemed to cause some problems with saving into DevonThink so I’ve stopped using that.

What I do today, is create a “blank.ft” file outside of DevonThink and drag/drop that inot my folders. When I need a new file I can copy/paste and then rename it. Obviously, this is time consuming and creates friction when using Devonthink.

At a second level, I use Folding Text for some markdown oriented writing but I’ll also use Byword, IAWriter or MultiMarkdown Composer (best option for MMD tables) at different times. Therefore, not only do I need a default setting, I need to dynamically select which editor I want to use according to the file extension.

Because DevonThink doesn’t allow to set extensions (that I can find) I can’t use FoldingText easily. I can right click to select my editor for a given extension but I can’t set the extensions easily within DevonThink.

Is there some way to do this or is it a limitation in DevonThink ?

[Greg_Jones]

@EtherealMind

I want to be able to create files with a .ft extension so that I can double on FoldingText file in my DTO database and pop out to FoldingText to write in.

You can create a new, blank .ft document in FoldingText and save it as a template in DEVONthink. Then you can create new, empty .ft documents in the database using the ‘Data>New From Template>’ command.

If you have Keyboard Maestro, you can create a set of macros to create various new documents from templates and assign them the same shortcut. Here is what I see when I type the new command (command-n) in DEVONthink.

At a second level, I use Folding Text for some markdown oriented writing but I’ll also use Byword, IAWriter or MultiMarkdown Composer (best option for MMD tables) at different times. Therefore, not only do I need a default setting, I need to dynamically select which editor I want to use according to the file extension.

Because DevonThink doesn’t allow to set extensions (that I can find) I can’t use FoldingText easily. I can right click to select my editor for a given extension but I can’t set the extensions easily within DevonThink.

You can do this multiple ways-houthakker has posted a script here that will let you customize a list of text editors to open documents. You can also use Keyboard Maestro to handle this, similar to what I’ve done with the template macros above. As example, here is one that I use in nvALT with command-shift-o to pick a text editor to open a selected document.