Inspired by David Sparks and a Mac Power Users podcast on writing and workflows, here’s my workflow for delivering formatted Word files to my publisher via Scrivener, TextExpander, and some Script Fu.
I do all of my organizing, amalgamating, and writing tasks in Scrivener. I find that it is great for organizing my thoughts into sections in any given chapter. Using Scriv, my pet name, I can break up the manuscript any way that I want. Then, when I’m ready to send it off to my editor, I can compose my chapter for Word.
Unfortunately, the nature of my work requires that I use a ton of different formatting styles, defined in Word by my publisher. I need to apply different styles for code, figures, tables, etc. Word styles aren’t supported in Scriv, so I’ve devised a system of XML style tags to enclose text that should have a certain style in Word. I use TextExpander to quickly apply my XML tags using keyboard expansions (or Snippets in the parlance of TextExpander).
After I compile in Scriv, I open the resulting .rtf file in Word and run a custom script that I’ve developed to apply the appropriate style to text that is contained within my XML tags. The system has been working extremely well.
If anyone is interested in more details or wants a copy of my Word script, feel free to let me know in the comments or on Twitter (@pwalessi).
Good Luck with your writing projects!
Hi, Patrick. I am using your book to help write an app that is going to be used in the ER. I really like the app that you made in Chapter 4. The idea is that we don't want the patient to be able to see the list that pulls down when you activate the root view. Do you have any tips for how to go about doing this? My email address is George.Thomas.Marie@utah.edu. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteGeorge,
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure what you want. The popover is built into the Split View controller, so if you don't want it to show up, maybe you should just use a regular view instead of the split view.
I have wondered about styles and Scriv, more for bringing into InDesign. I would happily go through Word (OK, happily's a bit strong!). How does your script work? Could I please grab a copy? Thanks Cameron
ReplyDeleteHi. I'm wondering if your workflow would work equally well with an app similar to TextExpander but cheaper. For example, Snippets, yType, and TypeIt4Me are all available on the Mac App Store for much less money but appear to do roughly the same thing. Any suggestions? Is there something that makes TextExpander worth the extra money?
ReplyDeleteCameron:
ReplyDeleteThe answer to your question turned out to be quite involved, so I just made another blog post out of it.
Ben:
I answered your question at the end of my new post as well. Hopefully.