SearchLink Broke My Writing Workflow
A couple of months ago I mentioned my use of Ulysses along with a few other tricks to develop a writing habit. And that has worked great... for a time. That is, it worked until I saw this tweet by Brett Terpstra.
SearchLink is one of Brett's projects that I discovered about six months ago. I don't remember what it was that helped me find it, but I remember thinking it was exactly what ADHD brains need. A tool that finds the link I want without needing to go to a browser to get it. Any time a browser is needed, focus decides it's break time.
So I put SearchLink on a list of tools to install and explore.
Brett's tweet reminded me of the tool. But I was on an accidental focus break when I discovered it. I was supposed to be writing at the time, but instead, I was cruising through Twitter. And I was cruising through Twitter while looking or a specific tweet I needed to link.
That's when I moved my task of exploring SearchLink up to an active task for the week.
But then this happened:
That night my wife was going out with a few friends. And the next thing I knew I was installing the SearchLink services and setting up my hotkeys.
The last two weeks have been a bit of a mess for my writing workflow. And that's because Ulysses thinks it would be cool to change the markdown formatting on the fly instead of rendering it at the end. And that means I can't see the links created without clicking into each one.
Could I work around this and get used to it? Absolutely. Do I want to? Absolutely not.
So I ditched Ulysses... again. It seems like every time I think I have Ulysses figured out, I end up leaving it a month or two later. I should learn from my own history. But who does that these days?
With Ulysses gone, I immediately went back to using MultiMarkdown Composer. It was the core of my writing workflow previously, so I went back to it. But in doing so, I lost some of the features in Ulysses that I was using.
The easy one is the structure. I was tagging my articles by the type of article and then viewing those with filters in Ulysses. The simple answer to this is to recreate the folder structure in my iCloud Drive and not worry about it. Yes, I lose the filtering, but with simple folders in place of tags, I get the same effect.
The hard one is the goal-based writing that I do. I have a set number of words I like to produce for different types of articles or posts. And Ulysses does an excellent job of showing a visual for when you have reached that goal. But there's a bit of a danger in this as well. By having the visual, there is a tendency to stop writing and wrap up when you achieve the goal. I suppose this is fine if you're ok with all your articles being close to the exact same length. But there is something about it that seems fake to me.
There is no concept of goals in MultiMarkdown Composer. I can still see the word count in the info panel at the bottom of the screen. And since I know what my goal is, it only takes a glance at the bottom of the screen to know if my goal is met or not. But it is also out of my view and not as easy to see while I am writing, which means I have a tendency to keep going after meeting the goal.
I also lose the ability to track my writing goal streak. In other words, how many days in a row have I hit my goal? At this point, this is unnecessary. After a couple of weeks, I wasn't checking the streak anyway. I had a daily habit in place. That's all that mattered.
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In the last month, I have expanded a little over 1,000 snippets in TextExpander. And given the complexity of those snippets, it has saved me over two hours worth of typing in that same period. And although that sounds impressive, I’m guessing the real number is closer to double that number. The snippets I’m using often save me from switching back and forth between applications or hunting down information.
So it’s no secret that I look for ways to use TextExpander as much as I can. The more tools I can integrate with it, the better. And that’s why I was thrilled to discover a bunch of apps that have an integration with TextExpander. It means I don’t have to use the third-party keyboard to use my snippets on iOS.
Note: This article contains affiliate links. That means that if you click one of these links and subsequently make a purchase, I will earn a commission. You pay nothing extra; any commission I earn comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I only recommend tools that I find genuinely helpful and useful. I ask that if don’t feel the same way about them, please do not spend any money on these products.
Drafts
Drafts is my home base. So it has to be at the top of the list. You can use this in the settings for Drafts. Scroll down and under Extensions you’ll find TextExpander. From there you can enable TextExpander and refresh the snippets regularly (more on that later).
OmniFocus
I can’t make this list without mentioning OmniFocus. I have a snippet group in TextExpander dedicated to OmniFocus to make it quicker to enter task titles and dates. To set this up, go to the settings within OmniFocus and scroll down to TextExpander. Again, you can enable the integration and refresh the snippets from the same place.
Fantastical
In recent weeks I find myself using BusyCal on both my Mac and iPhone. But I have used Fantastical regularly over the years. And one of the features I have sorely missed on my phone is this TextExpander integration. To set it up in Fantastical, go to the settings, scroll down near the bottom under Advanced and you’ll see the setting for updating TextExpander snippets.
Ulysses
I thought I had something great in Ulysses. But I recently switched my writing flow due to SearchLink. And in this case, it has been a huge ordeal since I rarely do any writing on my iPhone. Regardless, to use native TextExpander snippets in Ulysses, open a note and tap the “aA” icon at the top. Then go to Editing and at the bottom you’ll see an option to Enable TextExpander and updating the snippets.
Bear
I haven’t used Bear in a long time, but I know it’s popular for folks leaving Apple Notes or Evernote. So, good news! You can use TextExpander with it! Go to Bear’s settings and then tap on General. Right near the bottom you’ll see the settings for enabling TextExpander snippets.
Day One
I tried Day One for 3.1 seconds a few years ago. It didn’t make sense to me. But I know people love it. I’m more of a pen and paper fan when it comes to journaling. But if you want to use TextExpander with it, open up Day One’s settings, scroll down to Advanced, and about half-way down you’ll see the settings for turning on and updating TextExpander.
OmniOutliner
The OmniGroup is great about building in integrations in their apps. And OmniOutliner is no exception. I haven’t used it a ton in the past, but I am looking at it more and more. To set up TextExpander in it, go to the settings and scroll down to TextExpander. It’s similar to OmniFocus that way. Go figure.
Editorial
In the last month or so, Editorial has seen some update love from the developer. It used to be a go-to app for many writers and developers writing scripts. So I’m interested to see what comes of it in future months. To use TextExpander with it, go to Editorial’s settings, scroll down to Snippets and Abbreviations, and then Enable TE Snippets.
One thing to keep in mind, these will quickly become outdated if you are actively updating and adding TextExpander snippets. This is something I do regularly. So I have to make sure I keep these refreshed. For that, I add each of these apps to my Weekly Review as a task to refresh snippets. This way, I know these are always almost-up-to-date.
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Joe Buhlig
an analog mind in a digital world
