Drat!!! There’s a new version of Aeon out and I’m so clobbered by work I can’t give it any fair sea trials.
Many thanks to the Aeon team for all the work.
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Congratulations on the update, everyone! Very happy about the changes!
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I can already say that your Markdown export of the Timeline View is of very limited use.
A single Markdown file with nothing but bullet points is not how most people use Obsidian or other Markdown editors when writing stories, doing research, or building any kind of narrative structure.
I appreciate the effort, but I would strongly encourage you to listen to what users are actually asking for when it comes to export functionality.
There are several long posts here with detailed suggestions and thoughtful ideas about how this could be implemented properly.
And just to add: in the IT world we usually call solutions like this shortcuts — quick fixes that avoid the real problem rather than solving it.
I am not impressed at all…
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The development team put out a survey some months ago, asking for input on export functionality. I appreciated that. My sense is that they genuinely are interested in making export as useful as possible. Perhaps some specific suggestions now would be helpful, if things aren’t yet optimal. (Personally, I don’t rely on export for markdown files, but have AT sync to Scrivener and use Scrivener’s sync folder to create markdown files directly in my Scrivener vault. I’ve posted about this here, in case it’s useful.)
I have not seen any survey about any export… maybe it was done in the closed beta testing group or something?
And I think having to use a 3rd software to get data out to a usable format is kind of slippery slope, something like not give documentation for a format and tell people to create a script to get the data from it…
Sure, you are addressing the Aeon Timeline’s export-to-markdown formatting, and I parenthetically shared a workflow solution that leverages Aeon Timeline’s syncing-to-Scrivener capabilities, which requires Scrivener. Point taken.
It would be helpful, at least to me, but I suspect to the development team, to hear your specific idea on what you would find helpful for exporting to markdown files. I encourage you to share your thoughts.
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Hi @Jaran,
I agree re the lack of true markdown support in 3.5. But I am hoping a true markdown export, which follows standard markdown syntax, will be implemented in the not too distant future.
I have written several posts in the beta forum requesting better support for markdown headings and other markdown syntax. As I know you are aware, markdown gets its hierarchy from its heading levels. Ulysses and Obsidian use these for their outline functionality. So that would be a good start. I wanted to export various elements of my AT files into Ulysses but there is currently no value in doing so as I can’t see the hierarchical structure without the markdown heading levels and attempting to manipulate the text export manually is time consuming and shouldn’t be necessary.
One thing I would say is that there is the potential within AT for a user to generate a deeper hierarchy than the six standard markdown headings. Which may need some further thought from the devs how to handle this. Hopefully they are considering such issues. Although I received very little from the devs in response to my suggestions. The Word format also needs some serious work as that file format produces zero styles for headings etc. Not that I require a word format. Ulysses does an excellent job of converting markdown on the fly if I need it to.
For now, I am left simply reviewing the data in the app. For any users not using Scrivener or Ulysses, or who are not creative writers, the current text export system seems like a wasted opportunity.
As @SCN stated, adding your voice to mine re markdown export requirements might help in getting what we require.
All the best,
Andrew
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I’m not familiar with Ulysses and how AT syncs with it, but at least with AT and Scrivener, I can sync everything. In this workflow, I can’t think of a reason to export to a markdown file just to pull AT data into Scrivener, since syncing already does that. There must be some reason for needing a markdown file from AT before importing into Ulysses, since otherwise why not just use AT’s sync-to-Ulysses function?
The inherent challenge in this topic is the complexity of each persons needs for markdown. AT is rich with metadata. My Obsidian needs (or any markdown app) are going to be wildly different than another users reeds.
Because this “markdown” conversation is buried in totally different forum topic, I doubt most folks will see it. And, lets face it, xaml and metadata is not very popular; most folks still use folders and simple tags.
I suspect that most users of AT, Scrivener, and Obsidian do not have the same sync needs as the few of in these conversations.
Since needs vary so wildly, particularly with xaml and metadata (in general), a AT solution for exporting markdown might not be worth the effort.
To gauge this, maybe we need to post a new thread on the topic of markdown export and see if we get any responses.
Personally, I use Obsidian for research and rough drafting ahead of prose creation, and do not need to interface directly with Obsidian. But it would be cool to have that functionality.
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I think all of us, including Steve (SCN), who has raised this topic several times, have been clear that exporting to Markdown requires multiple Markdown files , organized in a file and folder hierarchy , with YAML frontmatter used to store attributes and properties.
That explicitly means that a single Markdown file for an entire Aeon project is not a workable solution.
Each object should be exported as its own Markdown note file, stored in a folder corresponding to its “type”… for example person, artifact, place, source, and so on.
I would also point out that syncing with Scrivener does not generate one large RTF file that is sent to Scrivener, the sync is document‑based… not a single‑file export. This reinforces the same structural principle: Aeon already treats objects as separate documents, not as one monolithic file.
Therefore, a Markdown export/import should be configurable in the same way the CSV import used to be… or like the Scrivener sync, at least as an export option, as long as there is no interest in a full MD‑sync.
I’m not fully up to date on what has changed in Aeon’s export/import system, since I stopped following it around version 3.4‑something… something.
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I’ve never tried exporting to markdown from AT until now. I agree, lots of room for improvement there, for sure.
There are two to five main posts in this forum that go into detail about syncing or exporting to Markdown… it really shouldn’t be that difficult to read them.
And the fact that there are around 35 posts with comments about exporting or syncing to plain text/Markdown should make it clear that there is a real demand for it.
And it is precisely because people have different needs for an export that the export must be configurable, not just a single “10,000‑point” bullet list.
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To be fair, this entire forum is sparsely viewed and commented and does not represent but a fraction of the total number of users of AT.
The ONLY demand is for the even smaller bunch of us that raise the metadata, markdown, sync & export features, and functionality of AT in this forum.
Just sayin… it would require a huge amount of work for AT to develop a structure and UI to do what is being proposed. Don’t get me wrong, would I use it? Possibly. But to say AT is getting a representative amount of feedback about exporting and syncing; I don’t believe that.
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It depends on whether you look at the glass as half full or half empty. If you prefer to look for problems rather than solutions, you will of course conclude that “most of it” isn’t enough… but the Scrivener sync and the CSV import already demonstrate that the underlying mechanisms are there.
As for the rest of what you wrote, I don’t find it even remotely worth engaging with. Bringing up points like “this forum is sparsely viewed and represents only a fraction of AT users” is simply a distraction… a textbook straw‑man and an attempt to derail the actual discussion.
The fact remains: the only people who consistently raise issues around metadata, Markdown, sync, and export functionality are the ones who actually work with these features. Dismissing that by appealing to the “silent majority” is not an argument, it’s a rhetorical tactic.
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Thanks again for that info @Jaran I’ll make sure the dev team sees this, but if you have any other examples of the export functionality you’d like us to consider for future development, please email them to support@aeontimeline.com.
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Thanks. To be honest, the best way for you and the dev team to understand how users actually need this feature to work is to read the existing discussions on the forum. There are several longform threads that go into far more detail than any single email or comment can capture.
I’ve also written four or five longer posts myself over the years (mostly around 2023) explaining how I use Obsidian and Markdown in combination with Aeon Timeline. In earlier conversations I’ve also suggested alternative approaches. If you have follow‑up questions after looking through those, feel free to ask.
One relatively simple approach would be to add an “Export as…” configuration option (YAML, header, body, etc.) directly in the object/item/entity/relation configuration system. For example:
- an Event could be exported as a specific event‑type note under a subfolder like Events inside the project root (e.g., the timeline name)
- a Person could be exported as a note under People
- relations could be expressed as wiki‑links inside the notes
I also understand that version 3.5 includes some kind of grouping functionality. I haven’t had time to test everything yet, but this could naturally be part of the export as well. A Group would map cleanly to a folder, and if nested groups are supported, that would translate directly into a folder hierarchy.
If this were implemented in a similar way to how you already configure the Timeline View, Narrative View, etc., you’d be about 75% of the way toward supporting most future sync/export/import requests as well.
As I mentioned in an earlier comment here, user‑configurable export is essential, because different users rely on different data structures, different “types,” and very different Markdown workflows. My own setup — using Obsidian, Foam for VS Code, and related tools — is far outside the “typical” use case, yet it’s something people in the genealogy community keep asking me about again and again.
I do understand that this is far from “simple”, but I think you see the point I’m making.
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Well, yes. Especially in the early days of AT3, I was very interested in export and data exchange capabilities. I might remind you all that I provided a few tools back then, such as a Python script for Markdown export of the narrative, as well as a LibreOffice extension that turns all kinds of metadata into nice-looking documents. Later on, I wrote a script that produces a complete Obsidian vault with all the bits and pieces.
It was always clear to me that these were makeshift solutions, but they could have been used as prototypes for AT features. I presented the solutions here, and whether we like it or not, there was no feedback along the lines of “I actually use this, and it fits my use case. It would be great to have it as a built-in feature in AT.” Or at least: “I would like this and that to be changed."
In that respect, I can’t deny that @writtenfool has a point here. I don’t want to complain, because I did it for fun, and I have always expressed understanding for the developers, who obviously didn’t want to embark on this uncertain path. So it’s all the better that something is happening now. Maybe this time there will be feedback that leads in the right direction.
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I don’t understand why Aeon has always missed something obvious.
There’s no place for extensive notes about an event.
Sure, you’ve got a summary field but no place to conveniently edit it.
To the AT devs, here’s a way to demonstrate the need.
Make a timeline from this thread. Make up a short title for each post. Put the contents of the post somewhere associated with the event. Note how icky it is typing anything substantial in the summary field.
My solution is to link events to Devonthink documents because AT has no workable mechanism for notes. That’s OK once a supporting note has been created in DT, but creating one is troublesome. Create the event in AT, create a note in DT, copy the item link in DT, paste it in AT - too many steps for convenience.
Or, you could do what AT sample projects do and put all descriptive text in the event title.
You still don’t get a comfortable edit window and the timeline view gets cluttered.
Think of news. The newspaper runs a headline as a related but separate thing from the article itself.
If the summary field could open in a full featured edit window (or in TextEdit) it would be a game changer.
Please consider it.
Peter, thank you for nudging me into Python. I’m still learning, but I’ve already written a couple of useful scripts—one reorganized my sprawling story bible in Obsidian, and the other fixed a bunch of broken links. But I digress.
Folks, I understand the frustration around AT’s Markdown export, especially the lack of per-item granularity and YAML support. These are valid concerns.
But I want to highlight something that’s often overlooked: AT’s ability to sync metadata directly into Scrivener’s custom fields. Once that sync is in place, Scrivener’s Compile function becomes a powerful add-on to AT. It can export individual .md files with fully customized YAML frontmatter, drawing directly from the synced metadata. And the best part? You control exactly what goes where in the YAML.
Philosophically, I’d argue that AT’s Scrivener sync is one of its most underrated features. Even if AT eventually improves its native Markdown export, I doubt it will match the flexibility and precision of Scrivener’s Compile engine (though never say never, right?). But Scrivener already gives us a mature, user-defined pipeline.
Since Scrivener runs on Mac and Windows, and can run on Linux with a little effort, it’s a viable companion tool for most workflows. Even if you don’t use it for writing, it’s worth considering as a metadata compiler for Markdown. A US$60 lifetime license unlocks granular, YAML-rich Markdown output of AT data.
In my case, I prefer a round-trip workflow between Obsidian and Scrivener, so I use Scrivener’s sync folder feature for my novel’s narrative. That sync doesn’t support YAML, but it does let me write in either environment and keep everything aligned. In addition, if I wanted to, I could use Compile to generate clean Markdown files with YAML for my characters, objects, locations, magic system, and so on.
Sure, AT’s Markdown export could be better. But we already have a robust solution at hand, thanks to AT’s deep integration with Scrivener.
Update: Peter, I have appreciated your writing those scripts and offering them to us. In my case, I simply didn’t need them, as I had found my path forward by using Scrivener as an add-on to AT.
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