![]() Like its aging predecessor, Quicksilver, LaunchBar ensures that launching an app, opening a file, performing a quick calculation, and myriad other actions are only a few keystrokes away. It’s an indispensable layer on top of the core OS that I use so much now that I take it for granted–until I’m on a computer without it. LaunchBar seems to find its way into just about all of my Mac workflows. LaunchBar + MultiMarkdown: a pretty darn efficient workflow But I wanted something even more seamless. ![]() The new file will be sitting right next to your text file in Finder.ĭrag and drop is nice, and maybe it’s suitable for most people. A little progress window will appear, and magically your file will be converted to HTML, PDF, RTF, etc. Using his drag and drop apps, you can simply plop your MultiMarkdown text file onto the appropriate app. I mean, what’s the point of using a tool that you perceive to be difficult? That’s logical enough, and I won’t attempt to assuage your fears of Terminal.įortunately, Fletcher Penney, creator of MultiMarkdown, provided a nice to solution that curbs the geekiness of this step a bit. So if this step makes you fearful, it’s likely you won’t try MultiMarkdown. Terminal commands often intimidate people for various reasons. The most basic way of doing this conversion is using a Terminal command like: file.txt Where some people may be intimidated is the process of converting MultiMarkdown to HTML (or whatever publishing format you desire). I think writing in Markdown or MultiMarkdown is fairly straightforward. In the summary I wrote of MultiMarkdown earlier, I discussed the basic syntax, which is mostly derived from Markdown, created by John Gruber. It liberates my brain from making visual decisions as I write. Writing MultiMarkdown in TextEdit makes me feel closer to a purer state of content creation and the art of writing. ![]() I may test drive that setup at some point, but right now I’m trying to keep things simple: black words on a white background nothing more. I know that many Mac gurus prefer more feature-rich editors like TextMate, and with the MultiMarkdown bundle, I’m sure that it’s a powerful tool. My choice is simply TextEdit, the basic text editor that comes with Mac OS X. But I do use the closest computer substitute there is: the text editor. Now, I don’t use pen and paper, at least not very often. The writer’s job was simply to move a pen across a page. Those decisions came later, and they were the domain of the publisher. The writer was not encumbered by decisions as to font choice and line spacing. There were fewer distractions, fewer traps between thoughts and text. And in some ways, the pre-computer world was a better one for writers. Obviously, people wrote long before computers. This post is essentially a recap of my journey with MultiMarkdown (so far) and how I’ve implemented the tools above. Most of my workflow is centered around MultiMarkdown, but it becomes even more useful with the following additional ingredients… However, I feel that I’ve created my own unique combination of these tools in a way that suits me. My writing workflow utilizes several tools that I discovered through MPU. ![]() If you are a Mac user of any experience level, I guarantee that you will learn a lot by listening to MPU. I owe much of my awareness of the programs I use in this workflow to the Mac Power Users (MPU) podcast, an excellent resource on a variety of things Macintosh. I’ve noticed that a significant portion of the traffic I get from search engines are people looking for information on MultiMarkdown, which I wrote about in an earlier post. However, I’m going to momentarily shift toward the geeky end of the spectrum in this post and talk about my writing workflow with MultiMarkdown. My intention with this blog is providing clear, not-so-geeky explanations and ideas on using technology to improve your life. ![]()
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