Blogging Setup

[Jeff Perry]

I am looking to use BBEdit as a writing tool for my work.

Here is my setup:

I use blot.im as my blogging platform of choice. It works with markdown for the most part (it supports HTML but I prefer Markdown). Basically I create a file, put it in a specific folder in my Dropbox and it is then sent to Blot's servers and creates a post. It is actually a really neat system for anyone wanting a lightweight and simple blogging tool. 

It uses a meta-tag system at the top of the document as follows:

Date: YYYY-MM-DD

Title: Title of Post

After that the Markdown post follows. I use TextExpander as a means to add this so I have that covered. 

My needs are as follows:

- Settings to make BBEdit a simple markdown editor (I want Markdown to be the primary document type). 

- How to setup BBEdit to open within a folder I use to save my posts (It is in my Dropbox but for all intents and purposes it is just a folder in Finder).

- How to save my post as a .md file.

- Anything I may be missing to make my writing experience distraction free and painless. 

Thank you in advance for the input!

[Ryan Dotson]

There are a couple of ‘expert’ preferences that I expect will make life better for you.

> - Settings to make BBEdit a simple markdown editor (I want Markdown to be
> the primary document type).

defaults write com.barebones.bbedit DefaultLanguageNameForNewDocuments -string "Markdown"

> - How to save my post as a .md file.

You can add the extension as you like, but to make it the default for Markdown files:

defaults write com.barebones.bbedit PreferredFilenameExtension\_Markdown -string "md"

> - How to setup BBEdit to open within a folder I use to save my posts (It is
> in my Dropbox but for all intents and purposes it is just a folder in
> Finder).

You could probably come up with a script that would do this, but if you use Default Folder, it could take care of it I believe.

> - Anything I may be missing to make my writing experience distraction free
> and painless.

You can customise the display and editor on a per-language basis in the Languages preferences pane. For example, I have soft wrapping to window and typographer’s quotes turned on for Markdown, but not in editor defaults. Because I don’t use curled quotes at work, and I want to end files with a newline, I use an EditorConfig profile to change those settings on a per-directory basis.

You can also customise the display and turn off any irrelevant or ‘distracting’ parts of the navigation and text status bars.

rd.

[Jeff Perry]

I am not sure how to set up the default folder on BBEdit actually. Maybe you can help me with that?

[Rich Siegel]

On 3/4/20 at 2:27 PM, jeffer...@gmail.com (Jeff Perry) wrote:

>I am not sure how to set up the default folder on BBEdit actually.
>Maybe you can help me with that?

BBEdit, like most Mac apps, doesn't really have a concept of a
"default folder".

However, the intrinsic Mac behaviors work (such as the Open and
Save panels remembering where you last pointed them); and also,
BBEdit is pretty good about remembering which windows you had
open when you quit.

So, one notion is that you could make a new Disk Browser window
(File => New => Disk Browser), or an instaproject (the latter by
opening a folder); this will give you a context for creating new
documents within a specific folder. (You can right-click on the
folder and choose "New Text Document".)

If there's a particular folder you always go to, you can add
that to the Finder's "Favorites" in the sidebar; it'll also show
up in the sidebar of the Open and Save panels.

You could use the `bbedit` command-line tool: `bbedit
/path/to/some/file.txt` will make a new document if the file at
the designated location doesn't exist, and then choosing "Save"
will write the file out in that location.

It might help if you have an idea of _exactly_ what you want the
interaction to look like when you create a document. From that,
it's likely that you can get there with some combination of
intrinsic OS behaviors, built-in features, or scripting. Or
perhaps it can be added. :-)

R.
--
Rich Siegel Bare Bones Software, Inc.
<sie...@barebones.com> <https://www.barebones.com/>

Someday I'll look back on all this and laugh... until they
sedate me.

[Bucky Junior]

On Mar 4, 2020, at 11:01 AM, Jeff Perry <jeffer...@gmail.com> wrote:

- How to setup BBEdit to open within a folder I use to save my posts (It is in my Dropbox but for all intents and purposes it is just a folder in Finder).

In order have a default directory, I’ve created a “project” (New -> Project) which I leave open all the time. You could do that with your Dropbox folder. Page 69 of the 13.0.4 BBEdit Manual.

A new file opens in a new window and it is easy to save a file into that Project folder. If you mostly work in that Project folder, BBEdit remembers that.

[Vlad Ghitulescu]

On 4 Mar 2020, at 20:27, Jeff Perry wrote:

I am not sure how to set up the default folder on BBEdit actually. Maybe you can help me with that?

Default Folder X, as already mentioned can do this and a lot more.

It enhance every single Open / Save dialog on the Mac. Give it a try!