suddenly trouble importing text

[IRJH]

Hello, it used to work just fine, but now, when importing text files written on ipad and saved to dropbox, all I get is "ÿþ9" as text content. It works fine with another app and plain text editors on mac. Did scrivener introduce any restrictions to encoding, if so, what format is fine and how to integrate that now with my existing files?

[KB]

That does look like an encoding problem, but seeing as Scrivener uses UTF8 I'm not sure why it's occurring. What program are you using to edit these files? (Nothing has changed in Scrivener, no.)

All the best,
Keith

[IRJH]

I am using Daedalus Touch (currently the most complete writing app on iPad, no other app currently can compete with it).

Maybe the files are UTF-16? Would that be incompatible? Can they be converted? Also, when syncing (it is not really possible to sync because Scrivener does not permit custom folder names for synced folders and it is a real mess when working with more than 1 project) I get 2 or three strange characters added into the documents, but the text is there (so that would be a way if only sync would be possible when working with more than 1 project but it will never be). When I "import", the text is not there, just those strange characters that with "sync" are on top of the document. That strikes me as strange, as they CAN be imported via "sync" but not be imported via the import feature, not sure what is wrong.

As I gave up on sync forever because of lacking acceptance by KB, I now would like to go for the import option, so any hint how to (batch)convert into acceptable encoding is appreciated.

[KB]

Maybe the files are UTF-16? Would that be incompatible? Can they be converted?

Looking at Daedalus, that does indeed seem to be the problem - they use UTF-16. The only way around this currently is to first convert the files to UTF-8 (e.g. using TextEdit or another plain text editor). There should be some utilities available to batch convert too - Ioa might have a good idea there.

Also, when syncing (it is not really possible to sync because Scrivener does not permit custom folder names for synced folders and it is a real mess when working with more than 1 project)

We've been over this several times. You can create as many custom folder names as you want; it's just that inside those folders you will always have a "Draft" and a "Notes" folder - you are the only user that has a problem with this, I'm afraid. Ioa and I have gone to pains to explain this to you here:

viewtopic.php?t=14684

So I'm not quite sure what the problem is, sorry. If the issue is that you cannot sync with Daedalus without custom folder names, then I'm afraid it wouldn't be possible to sync with Daedalus anyway because Scrivener requires third-party programs to support custom subfolders, but Daedalus doesn't at this time (whereas Notebooks, IA Writer, SimpleText and suchlike do). This is not really a fault of either Daedalus (which is a very fine app) or Scrivener, it's just that our systems are different and so currently incompatible. If Daedalus supported custom subfolders within the project folders, things would work (apart from the UTF-16 encoding, which is an issue at the moment) - have you asked them if they plan to support such a thing?

[AmberV]

You could try Encoding Master. It's the Swiss Army knife of batch encoding conversions for text files on the Mac. However given the other problems with Daedalus and Scrivener, I'm guessing the UTF-16 problem is somewhat moot.

[marcoiac]

a little follow up to this conversation that may be of interest to people using both Mac and iPad to work on their projects. while importing may create some problems with Daedalus Touch, syncing between Scrivener projects and Dropbox folders when using text editors on the iPad such as Daedalus Touch, WriteRoom, and Writings is perfectly fine. One must pay attention to the folder structure, but that's pretty much it. Of the three text editors I mentioned, while Daedalus is the prettiest, WriteRoom seems the most efficient, seamlessly syncing automatically (whereas both Daedalus Touch and Writings require manual syncing, a step that people may occasionally forget, making things unnecessarily confusing). WriteRoom also syncs the entire folder with its subfolders, a nice feature for Scrivener users, given how Scrivener organizes synced material. Anyway, I have used all three text editors mentioned here and they all work fine (it's just that the extra steps required by both Writings and Daedalus Touch make me prefer WriteRoom because who needs complications in life?)