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My Writing Workflow(s)

Submitted by Sl on Sat, 07/09/13 - 20:48

I have been using Editorial every day since I purchased it and it really changed the way I write. Not just how I write from my iPad, but how I write generally.
I thought it would be great to share how I use it. So, what follows is my way of writing using Editorial.

What's Changed?

I used to write my articles/links from my WordPress dashboard on the web with Brett Terpstra's Markdown QuickTags plugin when I can't use my Mac(On the Mac I use a variety of tools: Sublime Text 2, BBEdit, TextMate, MarsEdit, Marked and more. But most of the time, I'm away from home and my Mac, so if I have a computer nearby, I use the dashboard). And on my iPhone/iPad - Poster.
But since Editorial, I use Editorial to write and Poster to post on my iPad and since Thursday, I use 1Writer to write on my iPhone (and Poster to post).

Dropbox

I sync Editorial with Dropbox and use the default folder(/Apps/Editorial) with it. Inside the Editorial folder I have a Published folder where I move things I already posted. I have 3 files above the folder: To Do Links, To Do Articles and Clipboard. In To Do Links I paste links to websites that I want to write about, In To Do Articles I write titles to things I want to write about and in Clipboard I paste my clipboard when I launch Editorial(While writing, I copy and paste a lot of stuff and I forget why I copied what I copied if I don't paste it in the clipboard file). Below the Published folder, There are posts in progress.

Snippets

While writing, there are 3 snippets I use(alongside my TextExpander snippets).

lllink

This snippet inserts a link with the URL in my clipboard. It's like the llnk snippet, that comes with Editorial, just with the URL already filled in.

ppp

This snippet comes with Editorial, to paste the clipboard.

closing article paragraph

This snippet inserts the paragraph I end all my articles with to the document:

” If you have questions/ideas/suggestions/something to say about anything on the website, feel free to contact me via email, Twitter or App.net, Thanks for reading! :) “

Workflows

I have a lot of Workflows installed, but there are 7 workflows I have in my bookmarks bar and constantly use and about those 7 workflows I will go in detail.

New Affiliate Link

This is a workflow I made to generate new iTunes affiliate links from the clipboard. If there's no link in the clipboard or if I don't want to use the link in the clipboard, It asks if I want to get a link from Google. Get it here.

Search Google

When I want to search Google not for a link to an app, I run this workflow I made and it opens Google with search results to what I wrote, Quick and simple. Get it here.

Convert Markdown

This workflow by Federico Viticci converts the text to markdown and puts it in the clipboard. I use it to fill post excerpt's on Poster. Get it here.

Open Selected Link in the Browser

With this workflow by me, I select a link in the To Do Links file, run the workflow and it opens in the in-app browser. Get it here

Drafts: CrossPost Tweetbot + Felix

This is a workflow I made to Cross Post both to Twitter and App.net, using Drafts for iPad and my favorite iPad clients for Twitter and App.net - Tweetbot and Felix. To run this workflow, you need to install the Drafts action by clicking here. There are two versions to this workflow- This version posts/tweets selected text and This version asks for a text input and posts/tweets the inputed text.

FTP Image

This is a workflow Jason Verly made inspired by Gabe Weatherhead's FTP Upload Workflow to get images from the clipboard, resize them and upload them to your FTP server. I resize all photos to 369x221, so this workflow is really useful to me.Get it here and don't forget to change the server to your own server inside the workflow's Python script.

Post with Poster

This workflow by me sends the document to Poster with the file name as the post title. I have Federico's Post to WordPress workflow but I use Poster to fill in the Excerpt field, Tag posts, choose categories and I don't want the post to be published immediately so I made this workflow. Get it here.

1Writer

1Writer is a text editor for iPhone with Dropbox, iCloud and TextExpander support and it also got a custom actions feature. I bought it yesterday and set this up to use as Editorial replacement for iPhone.
Now, the app has some things that I didn't like - it doesn't recognize # as headline but as a hashtag or that it just syncs files in Dropbox(not settings or actions) or the fact that I need to create a new file and go to share menu to add new actions but it also got some things I really like the themes and the actions and the inline preview. So it's a great app overall and at the low price of 0.99$ I recommend it.
Below are the actions I use with it, which are the Editorial workflows just achieved differently - But here on 1Writer I only have 5 actions because I couldn't “import some of the workflows. You can install any of these actions with this Drafts action by Phillip Gruneich- With the action, the draft title will become the action title and the Drafts content(where you paste in the URL) will become the Action's URL. There are more actions on 1Writer's Action Directory.

Convert Markdown

I use Drafts' built-in copy markdown to clipboard action to replace Editorial's Convert Markdown workflow. Here's the action's URL:
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=[text]&action=Markdown:%20Copy%20to%20Clipboard&afterSuccess=Delete&x-success=onewriter://

Drafts: CrossPost

This action is simply launching the action from Drafts instead of from Editorial. Here's the URL:
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=[text]&action=CrossPost%20Tweetbot+Felix&afterSuccess=Delete&x-success=onewriter://

Post with Poster

Like Drafts: CrossPost, this action is the same as the Editorial workflow, just launching it from Poster instead of Editorial. Here's the URL:
posterapp://create?text=[text]&title=[title]

Open in Browser

This action launches a selected URL from the To Do Links file in Safari or Chrome(1Writer has an in-app browser, but it's inaccessible). Just select the URL with the http://.
Here's the Safari version URL:
http://[text]
Here's the Chrome version URL:
googlechrome://[text]

Search Google

This action searches the selected text in Safari's default search engine(The one you set in the settings) or Google in Chrome.
Here's the Safari Version:
x-web-search://[text]
Here's the Chrome Version:
googlechrome://www.google.com/search?q=[text]

The Missing Actions

Unfortunately, I can't import New Affiliate Link and FTP Image, because of the way they are built. I can try to make FTP Image work with Pythonista but I didn't try yet.

Conclusion

This is it. This is how I use Editorial and this is how I write. As I detailed all this workflows and actions and apps I use I was surprised I can do all of these things with my iPad and iPhone. It's amazing how iOS Automation evolved in the past year - We have reached a point where an iPad app is more powerful than similar apps on the Mac, and I'm looking forward to what it will be next with iOS 7 on the horizon. I hope you will enjoy these workflows and actions.

If you have questions/ideas/suggestions/something to say about anything on the website, feel free to contact me via email, Twitter or App.net, Thanks for reading! :)