Previously, I mentioned that I was using nvALT to keep my notes coordinated across several machines, which is what it does really well. The problem is that I’ve several text editors on the MacBook, and I wanted to write in something other than the nvALT environment. I thought that I would have to create an Automator action or Applescript to move text between text editors and nvALT, but it turns out that functionality is baked into nvALT itself.
In the preferences for nvALT, you can set an external editor. In this case, I set it to be Byword. Then I can start the note in nvALT, and then open it in Byword by hitting shift-splat-E. I can type away in Byword, and then hit save, and the note appears in nvALT.
I’m having some issues with duplicate entries, and I don’t know if that’s because I sync my nvALT stack through Dropbox and Plaintext to keep things synced with the iPhone and iPad. I don’t know if I still need to do this— it was a legacy from when I was using the PC at work to edit writing, and I could use Simplenote’s web interface to get at my work. I don’t know if what I’m seeing is Lion/Mountain Lion’s version history being replicated in the Plaintext folder or not.
I think that may be it. I just paused to take a sip of coffee, and the note in nvALT updated in the background on its own. I now have thirteen versions of this note in my stack. I’ll have to research if there is a way around this, or if I should just let it go for now.
Update: Since I stopped working on this post, there are now 67 versions filling up my nvALT folder. I left Byword open, even though I closed the window with the original in it. Now, I’ve closed Byword, and the duplicated entries are slowly disappearing. I think that maybe that was the issue, that I can only have the editor open when I’m actually editing it? It doesn’t make sense, though, because it shows that a bunch of these files were edited today when I was sitting in the car in the parking lot. I opened Plaintext on my iPhone. I didn’t look at this entry, but apparently just opening Plaintext caused 10 new duplicates to appear.
So, maybe I spoke too soon. Maybe I should just write and edit within nvALT and not worry about another environment. It seems like it should work, but if the cost is generating a ton of duplicate files, it’s not really worth it.
Also, I really want to camelCase both Byword and Plaintext.
