Initially, I compiled the folder in my Scrivener project for Markdown. The result was a single file and the images, together in a folder. I need them in separate files. So far, I’ve done that by compiling a single document at a time (!). But it looks like the Markdown from Scrivener is different than the Markdown in Obsidian, so I’m having to do find/replace to get it into Obsidian’s format.
I searched the forum for importing from Scrivener into Obsidian. I also looked for ‘generic’ import help. I could not find anything about importing INTO Obsidian, in the manual.
What I’m trying to do
I need to import two folders from my Scrivener project, each with several levels of folders and documents. The Markdown compile with my annotations has this format:
{==Fiona==}{>>Gavin Blackwood’s mom<<}
I don’t have a separate file for Fiona, which is where “Gavin Blackwood’s mom” would go in Obsidian. Is there a better/easier method for getting my universe bible out of Scrivener and into Obsidian?
I didn’t keep images in Scrivener projects because the handling of images inside RTF is so poor, so I have no experience of getting images out of Scrivener.
For text, select the files or folders in the binder and then choose: File > Export > Files > Export text files as MultiMarkdown, and under the Options tab select:
Append “.md” extension
Convert rich text to MultiMarkdown
That should preserve the folder and file structure for you. Try it with a small test file and tweak the settings until you find what works best for you. Can get very frustrating to export lots of files until you have a process that fits your needs.
It looks like your annotations are in CriticMarkup format. Surprisingly I don’t see an Obsidian plugin that enables support for that. The equivalent in Obsidian would be ==Fiona==%%Gavin Blackwood’s mom%% (using Obsidian’s comment syntax) or ==Fiona==<!--Gavin Blackwood’s mom--> (using the more widely-compatible HTML comment syntax). It should be easy to search-replace You can use a fancy text editor like Visual Studio Code to search-replace across multiple files at once.
You might be able to use a file-splitting tool on Scrivener’s single-file export (after doing your search-replace on the single file to save up itself some work). Especially if you can find a Markdown-aware splitter and the files that were merged all start with a first level heading (# Like This).
Thank you for your replies. I’m concerned about the amount of work that will be required to bring all my data over. I suspect I need a script to prepare files for Obsidian. If I hadn’t started the day with a headache, I’d definitely have one now!
The files I’m working with first are the first and last name lists I curate for my universe. There’s “female names”, “male names” and surnames broken down by letter (A-C, D-F, etc).
Not every name is used (yet!) so I don’t need to have a file for that name. But when a name is used, then there should be a link with the details.
Is my basic ‘plan’ in-line with Obsidian’s functionality? (I’m trying to get into the Discord community to hopefully absorb learning, but it’s not allowing me in currently.) I’m at the point where I need to decide whether to move forward or find another piece of software.