![]() When Hazel sees the new pub file, it copies it to a folder I created called PublishHTML. I created a new Hazel rule that’s triggered anytime Hazel sees a new file beginning with “pub” in my Notational Velocity notes folder on my Mac. When I’m happy with the result, I replace “draft” in the note name with “pub” for publish. It’s really great being able to preview the HTML. It’s like pulling the shades down for better concentration.Īs I near completion, or if I want see how things are coming out, check link references, etc., I pull the MultiMarkdown pane back up and read over things. When I first start writing something bound for the web, like a blog post, I begin the name of the note with “draft.” For example, “draft Notational Velocity MultiMarkdown.” This has the benefit of keeping my drafts grouped together if I sort my notes by title.Īs I write a note, I like to keep the MultiMarkdown pane pulled down so that I’m only seeing the text I type. How Notational Velocity and Hazel play together (for me) I’m sure I will massage my taxonomy a bit in the future, but right now I have a system that makes a lot of sense to me. I quickly realized that since Notational Velocity allows you to archive your notes as individual text files, I could take advantage of file name changes to trigger Hazel. This is great for previewing, but I still needed way to actually copy the HTML code (so I could post it to the web).įortunately, Hazel is still able to take care of this for me. The Markdown preview pane in Steve’s version of Notational Velocity shows you a preview of the HTML. In my last post on MultiMarkdown, I was really plugging Hazel and its ability to automate the creation of HTML documents from MultiMarkdown files. It’s actually quite interesting that despite all that computers allow us to do, they took away the ability to jot down a quick note, perhaps the most basic step toward conveying human creativity.Īs a side “note,” I had been using Evernote for this purpose for a while, but I’m finding that I favor Notational Velocity for writing my own thoughts and Evernote for capturing other random bits of information, like web clippings. In the pre-digital world, Notational Velocity would be like having a pen and notepad handy and magically being able to file it instantly–and recall it at a moment’s notice later on. There are no decisions about where to save the file, and I know I can easily retrieve it later. With Notational Velocity, all I have to do is invoke LaunchBar (CMD+SPACE), type NV, type a title, and press RETURN. Even with TextEdit, I would have to open TextEdit, type something, then “save as.” I would have to make a decision about where I wanted to save the file. Notational Velocity’s search field met another need I had on my Mac: the ability to instantly capture a thought with just a few keystrokes. Your fingers never have to leave the keyboard. Or you can type the title of a new note, hit RETURN, and instantly begin writing. You can simply start typing anything, and Notational Velocity will show notes that match your keywords. It doubles as a “create new note” field, for lack of a better term. The search field in Notational Velocity is pure brilliance. In fact, that’s probably its strongest “feature.” It is truly designed to be a frictionless medium through which thoughts pass freely from wetware to software. Notational Velocity has an extremely simple interface. As you write in the main note pane, the MultiMarkdown pane updates in real time. I took Craig’s suggestion and downloaded a version of Notational Velocity developed by Steve Frank with a MultiMarkdown preview pane attached. Since I had been meaning to try Notational Velocity for a while, I decided there was no better time than now. In my last post on MultiMarkdown, I received a great comment from CraigM, who recommended Notational Velocity over TextEdit for “simple” writing on the Mac. Currently, it only supports Markdown syntax, so it will not display MultiMarkdown-specific elements (e.g. Update 1: In my original post (below) I use MultiMarkdown and Markdown interchangeably when talking about Steve Frank's forked version of Notational Velocity. Update 2: If you're interested in developing Notational Velocity, read this too.
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