Using Editorial 1.3 with DTTG2

DEVONthink To Go Tips
1

One of my favorite markdown editors on iOS, Editorial, recently had a upgrade to v1.3. This version improves support for the iPad Pro and, importantly for DEVONthink users, support for split view on modern versions of iOS.

In my opinion, DEVONthink on OS X and iOS is best when it is used with companion apps such as Editorial – the best of all worlds. With Editorial 1.3, iOS split view, and DTTG2’s handling of “round-tripping” documents to and from external editors, you can have your documents in DTTG2 and easily edit them in Editorial side by side. My steps for this:

  1. Create a markdown document in DTTG. Make sure the name you give to the document ends with .md. A quirk of DTTG2 does not recognize documents not ending in .md as markdown correctly and will not offer to open that document in a markdown editor. Do some editing there or just move to the next step
  2. Split your screen (swipe from right edge) and open Editorial in the right panel
  3. In DTTG, with the document selected, choose Open In > Copy to Editorial
  4. Your document is now open in Editorial, where you can use its much-richer markdown editing features and the deep automation and export features available there.
  5. When you are ready to commit your change to DTTG, use Open In > Import to DEVONthink from Editorial’s workflow menu – be sure NOT to use Copy to DEVONthink. DEVONthink will replace the older version with the new update coming in from Editorial.

A few comments:

  • Once you have sent the document to Editorial again (Step 3, above), unless you have first deleted the instance from Editorial the round tripping will get goofed up. The round tripping will get goofed up if you send a document to the external editor twice without doing the deletion in the external editor.
  • You can, obviously, split screens with Editorial on the left instead of right, if you want.
  • While you are working in Editorial, you can access other documents in the DTTG side of the screen
  • Working with this set up is especially enjoyable on iPad Pro 12.9"
  • Split view on OS X also works great with DEVONthink. For example open a PDF in its own DEVONthink window (⌘O or Open) and put a Sublime Text, or iThoughts X, or other app’s document in the other side of the split.
2

Thanks for this post, korm. Though it’s taken me a year to notice it, the information still seems to be up to date. Could you clarify the sentence quoted? It seems to be missing its main clause or perhaps just a verb, apparently with a very important warning.

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Once you have sent the document to Editorial again (Step 3, above), unless you have first deleted the instance from Editorial the round tripping will get goofed up.

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Got it. Thanks.