jrnl/docs/external-editors.md
Micah Jerome Ellison 972af21bca
Add reference documentation to docs site and separate out "Tips and Tricks" and "External Editors" from "Recipes" (#1332)
* First draft of command line reference, mostly pulled from help screen

* Add first draft of config file reference, mostly pulled from advanced.md

* Clean up config file doc for readability

* Add --config-file and remove examples from CLI reference

* Add warning about time zone in timeformat

* More small changes, and adding template config keyword

* Cleaning up and re-ordering config file reference

* Clean up reference and anything else from advanced documentation that can live elsewhere and linking to config file reference wherever config file is mentioned

* Fix syntax highlighting in command line reference, clean up content a bit, include --diagnostic

* Mention version config key

* Apply minor changes suggested in PR review

* Rename "recipes" to "Tips and Tricks", pull "External Editors" out of it into its own page, and redirect old recipes link to tips-and-tricks

* Revert broken mkdocs-redirects usage from last commit
2022-02-05 12:59:20 -08:00

2.9 KiB

External editors

Configure your preferred external editor by updating the editor option in your configuration file

!!! note To save and log any entry edits, save and close the file.

If your editor is not in your operating system's PATH environment variable, then you will have to enter in the full path of your editor.

Sublime Text

To use Sublime Text, install the command line tools for Sublime Text and configure your jrnl.yaml like this:

editor: "subl -w"

Note the -w flag to make sure jrnl waits for Sublime Text to close the file before writing into the journal.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code also requires a flag that tells the process to wait until the file is closed before exiting:

editor: "code --wait"

On Windows, code is not added to the path by default, so you'll need to enter the full path to your code.exe file, or add it to the PATH variable.

MacVim

Also similar to Sublime Text, MacVim must be started with a flag that tells the the process to wait until the file is closed before passing control back to journal. In the case of MacVim, this is -f:

editor: "mvim -f"

iA Writer

On OS X, you can use the fabulous iA Writer to write entries. Configure your jrnl.yaml like this:

editor: "open -b pro.writer.mac -Wn"

What does this do? open -b ... opens a file using the application identified by the bundle identifier (a unique string for every app out there). -Wn tells the application to wait until it's closed before passing back control, and to use a new instance of the application.

If the pro.writer.mac bundle identifier is not found on your system, you can find the right string to use by inspecting iA Writer's Info.plist file in your shell:

grep -A 1 CFBundleIdentifier /Applications/iA\ Writer.app/Contents/Info.plist

Notepad++ on Windows

To set Notepad++ as your editor, edit the jrnl config file (jrnl.yaml) like this:

editor: "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe -multiInst -nosession"

The double backslashes are needed so jrnl can read the file path correctly. The -multiInst -nosession options will cause jrnl to open its own Notepad++ window.

emacs

To use emacs as your editor, edit the jrnl config file (jrnl.yaml) like this:

editor: emacsclient -a "" -c

When you're done editing the message, save and C-x # to close the buffer and stop the emacsclient process.

Other editors

If you're using another editor and would like to share, feel free to contribute documentation on it.