That’s why it’s a good idea to spend some time reading the release notes and testing new features in order to see whether they could be useful. 
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Transclusion is really great! Where it gets trippy is when you try to transclude a transcluded document into a “meta-transclusion”… and it actually works 
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Oh oh oh! That’s a great idea. Nested transcluded documents.
Agreed, I’ve used IA Writer in the past, and I had many files (a file per each paragraph) and used to transclude them (IA Writer has a “native” feature for it).
For a long article I had nested transclusions.
Pro: moving a section up or down was as easy as copy/paste a portion of text, all just using Markdown and never going away form the keyboard.
Cons: a real pain afterwards when I had to relocate a section fro ma chapter to another one.
Having a graphical interface for it is much friendly.
Anyways, I use Ulysses only for the writing part.
I use mindmaps for brainstorming and organizing the sections.
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I’ve used Scrivener in the past for the same nesting/transcluding/reorganizing, but I realized I was relying on that as a cheat for outlining, so I’m trying to move away from Scrivener and simply be more deliberate in making outlines.
How about have a list of unsorted documents in a folder, and drag them into any order you want. Then use the merge documents feature to put it all together?
It’s a good workaround (also replying to @lutefish ).
Because I use mindmaps as outlines, I can get rid of the need to have a structure into the folder.
Another workaround would be having a “master document” with the transclusions, that appear as a simple outline/index in the raw view.
This way changing the order of the chapters and the sections is just a matter of copying/pasting a string of text.
I don’t have to manage the order of the files, I can focus on the single files when I work on them…
If it works (I’m going to test this workflow) I can ditch Ulysses.
BTW: Ulysses is very good, but I want to have the less Apps as possible and avoid overlaps and redundancy.
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@IvanPsy Perhaps this script by @pete31 could also be useful in such a workflow.
It creates / updates a transclusion of all records contained in a group when selecting that group. So you would only need to reorder items, select the group and voilà…
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I’d like to throw in just a little thing: If your document does include footnotes and you are not using MultiMarkdown’s random/inline footnotes—[^footnote content]—but the more common ones with footnotes anchors—[^1] … [^1]:footnote content—and only with simple numbers you will have a problem with file transclusion as you have many footnote anchors with the same number.
I’m a Scrivener user by the way and really happy with using it in combo with DEVONthink. Although it is a rich text app it imports Markdown with structure and footnotes intact.
I see. May I ask you what’s the benefit with indexing Scrivener inside DevonThink?
You can do that, but there’s no need to.
There’s a way of using Scrivener as the organiser / final compiler for your book, while keeping your research in DT3, and writing the actual words in iA Writer.
Basically, you use the External Folder Sync function in Scrivener, index that folder in DT3 (and set it up as a location in iA Writer as well if you want).
Designate the folder to use Markdown to use automatic sync and then:
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You can write your texts in iA Writer, where they will automatically appear in DT3
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When you next open Scrivener (or you sync manually), these documents will appear. You can move them around / edit them as much as you like (but make sure you use markdown syntax in Scrivener – *italics*, not italics – or they’ll be lost).
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When you close Scrivener / sync manually, any modified documents will be updated in the external folder. Any new documents created in Scrivener will appear in the External Folder. All External Documents will be in their Scrivener Binder order.
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When everything is done, you use Scrivener to compile the final document, but you still have access to your entire text in DT3. (Scrivener also understands DT3 links natively).
It’s worth noting that footnotes and comments will be transferred both ways Footnotes appear as {{footnotes}} in the markdown, comments as ((comments)), but as standard Scrivener comments/footnotes in Scrivener.
For example, you can use Scrivener’s outlining tools (cork board/ outliner etc) to create your initial outline, then do the actual writing in iA Writer, knowing that everything will be ready to compile in the right order when needed, and that changes to the outline in Scrivener will be reflected.
NB: You don’t get this set up out of the box – there are quite a few options, and you will need to read the manual to get the details right, but there are a lot of advantages to this set up and if you already have Scrivener it’s definitely worth checking out.
HTH
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I’m experimenting with a similar indexed situation with Curio. I want to use Curio as sort of a front end corkboard for Devonthink.
How is your luck with changing absolute paths to the DT database? For instance, syncing to a laptop where your login name may not be the same?
I don’t really know, because I always use the same login name on my devices (though different passwords!), so the problem doesn’t arise.
Sorry!
Of course you may ask. But I can’t give you the answer because I don’t index Scrivener projects in DEVONthink at all.
I collect all sorts of material in DT and when I find a bunch of them “ripe” to become a text I move the material into a Scrivener project. The material could be third party texts in PDF formats or notes taken by me. They might contain of Bookends references also.
Such an interesting workflow.
I wonder, if it is possible to sync between IAwriter, DT and Scrivener while working on an Ipad?
Do you mean, using iA Writer to edit / create files on iOS Scrivener? No, I don’t think it can do that – iOS Scrivener doesn’t have external folders syncing as far as I know.
But you can use the External Folder you’ve created on the Mac version to access the files with iA Writer and/or DTTG on the iPad (i.e. if you keep the folder in iCloud Drive / Dropbox).
But you’re talking about a complicated process – linking between 3 apps on two devices, so you’ll have to be very careful to understand the implications of how the syncing is working. Personally, I would make sure that I only ever accessed the files on the iPad from within DTTG – i.e. open them in iA Writer from DTTG using the ‘Share > iA Writer’ button – and I’d make sure that the DTTG <> DT3 sync was completed before I opened anything when I was back on the Mac.
So, if you do give it a try, be very sure to test everything first and take good backups!
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Usually the Apps for iOS and iPadOS sync from a dedicated folder, so usually they don’t sync from the outside.
In other cases the sync is possible, but it’s very difficult to setup.
As long you use only 1 App on iPad is much easier: you work and sync inside the dedicated folder.
I would place chapter number (and or title) outside of the sub documents so that you can change the order in the final document.
But it is a solution I also forgot
thanks
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You could use Ulysses’s External Folder function in the same way?
I did try this at one point a couple of years ago, but there was too much friction to make it viable for use with DT3.
IIRC, the problem was that Ulysses’s Markdown XL has subtle differences with everybody else’s, which means that either you use their version (so you there are quirks about viewing / editing the content outside Ulysses), or you use a standard version and then you can’t use their extra features inside Ulysses. And even then, Ulysses treated ordinary markdown in a different way – image links ended up with extraneous \ before [, which broke them outside the app.
Also, when I tried it, there was a bug in either Ulysses or DTTG which meant that you couldn’t use Ulysses as an external provider on the iPad as the last few words of your text kept disappearing.
These issues may all have been resolvable and/or resolved now, but they were enough a couple of years ago for me to abandon the attempt.
However, if you just want to use the external folders with Scrivener and Ulysses, then you could try this series of blog posts to see if it would work for you: Edit Mac Scrivener 3 With iOS Ulysses, Part 1: Prepping Your Brain (Changing Your Scrivener Habits) #amwriting – A Study In Silver
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