Let the choice of the external markdown editor

Hello,
Love the last enhancements of Joplin, that make it become my main note app. The more I use it, the more I miss a little feature: Joplin can export the current file to an external markdown editor, but only the default editor of the OS. But several times, it could be good to choose another editor (for example, a specialised editor for academic works, like Zettlr). Is it possible to let the choice always open in the preferences ?
Plus, though the current feature works, it freeze Joplin after opening the file in another editor.

Another way to the same result is to improve the markdown file export (don’t work on my mac with High Sierra), which helps to save the file anywhere and open it with another app. But the first solution is more elegant and avoid the steps of saving and reopening with another file.

I'm not really sure I understand your problem described in the first paragraph.
You can set the editor of your choice in the settins screen. If that field is empty, the default editor associated with .md files is used.

This is a known problem with a module that Joplin uses to watch changes to the filesystem. I think Laurent is working on it.

I setted the editor in the preferences; the problem is that you can only choose one, nor you setted it or you let empty the field; I would like to let the choice open to pick up the editor of my choice on the fly, because I choose between several different editors depending on the type of project I’m writing.

I see. In that case you have to remove the association of md files in your OS. Apparently you have associated the extension .md with an application, otherwise you would always be asked. So Joplin uses the OS setting. Therefore you have to fix this in your OS.

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Thanks ! I couldn’t think it was so simple…

It’s finally not so simple: Mac OS ask for a prefered app for any kind of file; you have to choose one, there’s one by default, you can just change the default option.

Sorry to busy this thread, but this option could help in my workflow (and I hope it could help others). After exploring the option of macOS, it seems it’s impossible to not choose a default app for a kind of file type. But I think about a possibility that could be included in Joplin: Open with, that let the choice of the app to open a file with.
Is it possible to add this choice in the option of opening with an external editor ?

Why don’t you specify whatever editor you prefer in Joplin instead of changing your system defaults?

Because I usually work with two or three different editors, depending on the type of work, and because I'm moving yet from paid to FLOSS editors, testing a lot of candidates (Joplin was in the first waves, and is barely adopted :wink:.
Joplin is useful for me before all of that, to store all my informal notes, thoughts, ideas, web quotes, etc., before they become formal and identified work. That's why I need it to let the choice of the editor open. The good option for me would be Open with…, as I often know which editor I need, but not only the same.

I'm not sure what you are talking about, because this is not correct. You don't have to choose one that is used as the default. In the system there is also always the Other... item in the menu.

On my macOS I don't have an application associated with md files. So every time I double click on an md file, the OS asks me which app to use to open that file.

When you open a file from the Finder, you can choose between a default app or another app with a right clic on a file. That’s not the case from Joplin’s external editor feature, which works as a double clic on a file.

Yes, this is why I told you to remove the default application association for .md files in macOS, in which case there’s no default app when you right click on an .md file.

That’s what I try to do, but I don’t find a way to do it on macOS High Sierra. Every type of file as a default app in the system settings, the only way to get through this is to create a file with an extension ignored by the system (I try this, too); in this case, the system ask you to choose and app to open the file (when you double-clic on a file with an unkown extension, the Finder pops up a window which ask to choose an app or search an appropriate app on the AppStore).
I just find this 2013 hack to remove the default file association, but it seems the hack is too old to work on High Sierra.

Ok, then I’m at a loss and I don’t understand why I don’t have an association for md files on my system. Maybe I did something in the past, but I can’t remember what it was.

Yea, on my other machine I have the same problem. I can’t get rid of the association there either. Very weird. Ok, I guess in this case, we can’t use this workaround.

Hmm, I can’t believe such a simple thing is impossible.

Maybe someone wrote an application or AppleScript that does nothing else but asks which app you want to open it with. (An app that passes through the original request - an app proxy, so to speak.)

Happy to see that I’m not the only one to have this issue :slight_smile: Though the problem still stands… your main computer claims that there’s a solution somewhere. What is your OS version ?

It was not my main computer, but the one I was using at the time when I was writing the posts.
It is a macOS 10.9 (migrated from 10.6). The other ones, where I experience the same issue as you, are macOS 10.13 and 10.14.

okay, this could be the reason why (my computer in on mac0S 10.13…

I am a new user of joplin and encountered exactly the same situation. I want to use sublime only when I take notes in course. The approach of "removing file association" sounds attracting, but it got even worse on Windows -- I can't even remove the file association!
Then I came up with a new approach: you see that when you click the button "edit in external editor", joplin first create a temporary md file and just simply starts it, i.e. starts your default md app and pass the file path as a parameter. So, just write a simple script to choose the editor yourself should be a nice solution.
As a test, I just tried to use python and do print(sys.argv), then use pyinstaller to turn that script into executable file. It seemed to work pretty well on joplin as well as on original file explorer. I will try to finish the code and make a simple gui for that soon. If, I mean if anyone needs that simple code, where should I post it? just below here?