Hello everyone!
I’m a brand new Typst user (the app was recommended to me over at the Literature & Latte forums) and would like to use it in conjunction with Scrivener. What are some workflows I might be able to use?
Hello,
I don’t know if anyone else on this forum has experience of Scrivener, but the answers to your question lie at the Scrivener end rather than the Typst end of the equation. In other words “How to use Typst with Scrivener?”
Simple answer, it’s a matter of developing a Typst template that can be copied into Scrivener “Front matter”, setting up styles to inject code where necessary (though that is optional as it is possible to use Scrivener as a plain text editor) and developing an appropriate compile format.
Mark
P.S. That is what I am currently working towards.
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Another Scrivener user here. There was a discussion just yesterday on this over at the Scrivener forum, where user nontroppo has provided a starter file.
This gives you all the unique benefits of managing a writing project in Scrivener. On the other hand, Scrivener is (of course) not a plain text editor, and thus doesn’t give you syntax highlighting, code completion using Tinymist, etc.
As Mark has mentioned above, and using the starter file mentioned, styles can be used in Scrivener (a) to make the writing a visually more pleasant experience (i.e. not feeling like you are writing code), and (b) to transform these styles to the appropriate markup upon compiling.
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Good to know someone else here knows about Scrivener. I have yet to explore the new project template, but I have been working in the web app to develop a template for my (non-mathematical/non-scientific) needs that I can use in Scrivener in conjunction with the use of styles to inject code and a compile format to output my stuff how I want.
I am a very old hand at Scrivener, but only in the last few months have started working on a Scroivener + Typst workflow.
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Hello @eliamartin65!
I was drafting a response when I saw your post, but I couldn’t manage to have a working version of Scrivener to make it work.
Some useful info though:
- Scrivener is natively compatible with markup languages, which include Typst. See the Scrivener user guide. I recommend reading section [17.4.3 Styles for Authors Using Markup].
- As for how to design a workflow for Typst, you need to create one from the ground up, I am not aware of any existing Typst compile format, although apparently someone provided a starter file.
- I haven’t seen the word, but I believe what is needed here is a custom compile format for Typst, see [IV.24 The Compile Format Designer] and https://www.scrivenervirgin.com/2016/07/custom-formats-compiling
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The Scrivener forum member who posted that project-template, ‘nontroppo’ has been using a Scrivener → Pandoc → Typst workflow for quite some time. That template includes front-matter giving necessary Pandoc and Typst meta code, styles injecting the codes for different functions, as well as the necessary post-processing commands in the compiler. Apparently, like previous versions, although he uses Pandoc → Typst, it can accomodate pure Typst.
The problem for @eliamartin65 (and to a degree myself) is that he is an academic in a science field whereas we are not, so it is somewhat that we are “blinded by science” and repurposing that template to our needs requires time, attention and, most importantly, knowledge. That is the reason why I have been spending time with the web app developing a template there that does what I want. I still have a little more to do, at which point I will look to modify the starter project to use my code.
All that said, I have to say that ‘nontroppo’ is very helpful, as I have already experienced, and I am sure will help @eliamartin65.
Mark