Dark Mode Tips + Single Command to Convert Formats of many files for import

[theone]

Well this version 8 is a masterpiece. I only updated my Windows laptop after months for it as usually use my Linux distros laptops.
I have a thread here a while back requesting Dark Mode so I am glad now we have it.
Most professional full-time writers & also coders only use dark modes in apps & IDEs, on multi monitors.

If you want your imported Word docx doc rtf txt etc files to also look dark like my image below:

* Do not use Options in Format menu or Toolbar. Or right_mouse_click on text options

* USE
TOOLS (menu): Options (bottom)
Display (left column, 2nd)
Then NOTE EDITOR APPEARANCE for FONT... & BACKGROUND...
(not top ones for Note List Heading)

Also can customize color, click in FONT click FONT_COLOR dropdown menu then in the popup the bottom button (it's dark hidden)

& in BACKGROUND... then click DEFINE CUSTOM COLOR
My background is not totally black & my font is not white, usually grey or pale orange/pink. I've designing dark themes templates for myself for decades on apps + windows before it had dark mode.

Now this does not change your document colors, just the UI/UX.
Similar in MS Word, if you go dark mode, printer will not print black pages.

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See these links for MS Word dark mode tips:

Also in MS Word you can go dark mode but change doc to default white (like mi8 default is now):
in his photos you can see you can keep MS Word interface dark, but disable dark for actual doc (tick-box next to BLACK THEME for DISABLE DARK MODE).
Actually in my MS Office 2019 version tick-box says: NEVER CHANGE THE DOCUMENT PAGE COLOR !
in MS WORD / Office: FILE (menu): OPTIONS: GENERAL (left column top option)

https://www.syvantis.com/blog/how-to-ke ... -dark-mode

More MS Word dark tips:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/off ... bd2afef904

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67or7jk ... terTugwell

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I think it will be good for Petko to add an option to submenu:
View: Dark Mode>
called something like:
"Document Dark Mode" too

This would be basically changing Note_Editor_Appearance to white font on black background, like MS Word/Office tickbox toggle i explained above.

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I will be busy for a couple of next months but will switch on my Windows laptop for mi8 testing & will make a list of feedback for Petko.

The new options in mi8 are superb & it is super-fast & still small in size. This is very difficult to get right.
Well done. It really is a masterpiece!

I think for people needing to outline and combine docs, specially MS Word docs, like writing PhD thesis or reports or books etc based on such files, the mi8 will slowly be recognized as the best option. I use other softwares like very expensive graphic based software for scripts & others, but those are very specialist software. Also other outliner apps, i have tested well over a thousand on all platforms over the decades. But for doc & docx & rtf etc based multi files, I think the word will spread and user base will grow slowly that mi8 is the best option.

I hope he will do a Linux version. Anyway thanks for now to Petko for this fantastic work.

And have fun guys.
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[theone]

Single terminal command to convert many files (in my case .md or .markdown to docx) for mass import into mi8, can do other formats too:

In Last long line: input (markdown) can be changed to whatever input format & output (2 cases of docx) can be changed to rtf, txt etc.
To Convert all files in a folder just paste in powershell (not CMD) terminal launched from that folder, this whole chunk of code:

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foreach ($file in Get-ChildItem -Include *.md -Recurse -Force) {
$fname = $file.Name
$fpath = $file.DirectoryName
pandoc $file -f markdown -t docx -s -o $fpath\$fname.docx
#rm $file
}

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Longer GUIDE:
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This is a guide to batch convert many files from markdown or other unsupported import formats.
Simply with a single paste command in powershell terminal.
So we can mass import files from a folder by Myinfo into a notebook:
File (menu): Import: Folder & Files


Many formats that pandoc converts to and from:

https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#general-options

Simply convert any file type to docx or rtf or txt etc for import into Myinfo.

install pandoc, get windows 64bitinstaller:

https://pandoc.org/installing.html
regularly update it too

Pandoc should be automatically be included in path$ (environment), maybe reboot after install, so can be found from terminal in any folder.

To convert a single file by name, for example an html file called myfile.html to docx, in terminal type:

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pandoc myfile.html -o myfile.docx

pandoc options are shown by:

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pandoc --help

.........

to see if you are in CMD or Powershell, type:

(dir 2>&1 *`|echo CMD);&<# rem #>echo PowerShell

for powershell:
right_mouse_click in windows folder then option:
open in terminal

if in a cmd terminal, type:
powershell


you can change docx output format to rtf or txt or whatever pandoc supports:
just change the 2 docx in last long line to rtf or txt or whatever

if your original input files are not markdown (.md or .markdown), just change markdown in that line to other format from list of supported formats

the last line (#rm $file) is commented out with #, if you want to delete all input files after batch conversion, remove the # and it will delete all input files (all your original files!). But code below unchanged will keep input files, backup & copy a bunch of files to a new folder to test).

powershell code is below, just paste:
CTRL+V or simply right-mouse-click, then a popup box message about pasting multi lines, just click button:
PASTE ANYWAY
then return / OK button, once again the command is:

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foreach ($file in Get-ChildItem -Include *.md -Recurse -Force) {
$fname = $file.Name
$fpath = $file.DirectoryName
pandoc $file -f markdown -t docx -s -o $fpath\$fname.docx
#rm $file
}

[theone]

Also if your Markdown file had an outline tree structure and then converted into docx and imported, you can see the tree oultine.
It's also clickable for navigation after conversion & import, just by enabling Note Structure:

View (menu): Panes >: Note Structure Pane

[theone]

Code below is a simple one-liner i tried & it works.

It works in CMD terminal (Dosbox) & not Powershell like previous post.
If you are in Powershell you can convert terminal to cmd, just type:

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cmd

in example below it assumes:

* Files are in a folder called test in root of C: drive (C:\test), just change path if elsewhere.
Avoid folder names or paths with spaces such as "C:\my folder" in folder names as might need more complex quoting & regexp needed.

* -f markdown -t docx
this bit converts from markdown to docx
can change them to any format supported by pandoc as in my top link

* if you want to do it on all files change bracket section of line to (*.*)

* Looks for files in brackets section, with extensions .md or .markdown

Convert ALL markdown files with extension .md or .markdwon in folder C:\test to docx files:

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for /r "C:\test" %i in (*.md *.markdown) do pandoc -f markdown -t docx "%~fi" -o "%~dpni.docx"

So can convert markdown or whatever into doc or docx or rtf & import into Myinfo as described before above:
just change (-f markdown) to whatever format your file is.

reverse, to convert doc or docx files to markdwon:

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for /r "C:\test" %i in (*.doc *.docx) do pandoc -f docx -t markdown "%~fi" -o "%~dpni.md"

[theone]

I found a way so we do not have to specify a folder (C:\test etc) in first section, just use:

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%cd%

ofc you have to have terminal where the files are.
So just right_mouse_click in explorer window of folder where files are then choose open command window or whatever terminal/command.
If you only get: open in terminal, or indeed whatever terminal, just type cmd to make sure you are in cmd terminal (not powershell):

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cmd

So once u got a cmd terminal IN FOLDER OF YOUR FILES (will not work if terminal is elsewhere):

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for /r "%cd%" %i in (*.md *.markdown) do pandoc -f markdown -t docx "%~fi" -o "%~dpni.docx"

this one does it to all files, whatever extension (*.*), assumes all are markdown & creates docx:

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for /r "%cd%" %i in (*.*) do pandoc -f markdown -t docx "%~fi" -o "%~dpni.docx"

You can find your way around with cd :Changing_Directory. And go wherever you want too:
cd .. OR cd.. GOES UP A LEVEL
cd/ OR cd / OR cd\ OR cd \ GOES TO TOP ROOT LEVEL
cd myfolder GOES TO SUBFOLDER CALLED myfolder
if spaces in name: cd "my folder"

Few other notes, pandoc can not convert from pdf but can convert to pdf but needs pdflatex too.
Pandoc does not do outlined tree formats well, except markdown levels as i said, shows in Myinfo navigation pane as levels of tree.

Myinfo imports a Treepad file and splits them into mutli sections (like files) very nicely.
Many other applications, you might need to import into Myinfo, however use KEYNOTE format.
I think Myinfo 8 should add Keynote import too as it is widely used & will bring many new customers.
Pandoc does not do splitting files, like splitting a Keynote or Treepad (supports neither anyway) into multi sections like Myinfo does nicely with Treepad.

Last night I tested other software to convert Keynote files to Treepad & test with Myinfo import, works nicely.
But would be great if Myinfo8 will import Keynote in future updates, as they are similar structure. We can then tempt many users of Windows & MacOS that have many Keynote files.
Also many competitors of Myinfo export to Keynote but not Treepad, this will entice many of their users to migrate their files to Myinfo.


Last example, convert all files in current folder, whatever their extension assume they are html (can be .html .htm .asp etc), from html to docx for import into Myinfo:

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for /r "%cd%" %i in (*.*) do pandoc -f html -t docx  "%~fi" -o "%~dpni.docx"

The last part .docx is just naming files so, can be doc etc.
But best keep it same as what follows -t (here it was: -t docx) because some systems like Windows recognize files by their extension naming, what is after the dot. xxxx.docx or xxxxx.doc or xxxx.md or .html etc.
Have fun.