I’ve been struggling to figure out how I can blog on my iPhone or iPad, use Markdown, post my files to dropbox and deploy my Octopress blog.

I think I’ve cracked that nut. Nebulous Notes has everything I’m looking for in an iOS app. It has TextExpander Touch, dropbox and macro support.

Here’s how I use these three services to enable my blogging on iOS devices. I’m using TextExpander Touch to add the Octoporess information I was going to include in a template.

Nebulous Notes has the ability to navigate dropbox and save to specific folders. I couldn’t find any other iOS text editors with Markdown support that allowed you to move around your dropbox folders.

Nebulous Notes also has macros. You can add custom Markdown syntax to a bar above the keyboard. There’s no need to navigate one or two keyboards down to find your special Markdown characters. Just tap them as you write.

I’ve created a writing nirvana.

Google search has been my default search engine for years. The results are decent, especially after the last algorithm update.

With Google’s recent “Google, Plus Your World” campaign, my search results no longer included direct links to the results I wanted. Every time I ran a search, Google+ links were at the top of my results. I’d have to go to someone’s Google+ account before I could get to the content I wanted.

Today I took control of how my Google search results are displayed to me. I opted out of personal results.

Now my results are actually what I was looking for and not a link to a Google+ account.

I might also try a new “don’t be evil” bookmarklet. It shows your Google search results if Google+ wasn’t given priority over other social networks and services.

With this post I’m testing how I can add images to my Octopress posts. Let’s see how this works.

Tonight I edited BBEdit’s preferences with the Terminal app. I changed the default language preference to use Markdown when I create a new document. Now if I can only change the extension preference.

Before I installed and hacked Octopress to host my blog, I probably would’ve never done this hack.

I’m enjoying learning how to hack and roll my own blog and apps.

A big thank you to Susan Rink for my facilitator tip #2. She recommended Mr. Sketch Scented Watercolor Markers.

I’ve always been partial to Mr. Sketch’s smelly markers RT @adamparnes Faciliator Tip #1 colored markers bit.ly/A6KP2Q

— Susan Rink (@RinkComms) January 13, 2012

If you’re interested in buying these markers, I’d appreciate it if you used my Amazon affiliate link: Sanford Mr. Sketch Assorted Scent Markers 12 Pack (20072). Thanks!

Over the years I’ve been cataloging facilitator tips and tricks. Every time I remember one or learn a new tip I’ll post them here.

Tip #1: Don’t use brown, orange, red or yellow markers when writing on a white board/paper or use text with these colors in a PowerPoint presentation. People with color blindness will have trouble reading the text.

After my last test, I’m now comfortable sharing how I post to my Octopress blog from my iPhone.

Here’s how I blog on my iPhone:

1. I fire up Pastebot to copy any links or text I want to use in the post and copy my template post information.
2. I open Nebulous Notes, create a new .markdown text file in my _drafts folder and paste my template information into the text file.
3. I then start writing and using Pastebot for my links.
4. When I’m done I move my file in Nebulous Notes to the _posts Dropbox folder.
5. The rest is magic.

I created a post in Nebulous Notes and Hazel automated the deployment process.

I found a big problem with the process. The Hazel action kicked off as soon as the markdown file was created. I wasn’t finished writing and editing the post.

So here’s my solution. I used Nebulous Notes to create a new folder on Dropbox to house draft posts. When I’m done with the post I’ll move it to the _posts folders.

Let’s see how it works.

Now that my Hazel folder actions are working, I need to find an iOS app to create and edit posts in markdown.

I redownloaded a few apps but I decided to stick with Nebulous Notes to write with the markdown syntax and save the file to my dropbox folder.

I’m actually writing this post on my iPhone. Let’s see what happens when I save… Fingers crossed it deploys my blog.

What would happen if I created a new post from the terminal? Would my Hazel rule deploy the blog before I finished the post?

Currently I have the Hazel rule to look for any file modified less than 30 minutes ago. So, I’m guessing a new post would trigger this action.

I don’t have much to lose to test my theory. I’m just getting started.

I’m writing this post in BBEdit and plan on saving this file into my _post folder to kick off the rule. This works well when I’m remote too.

I need to figure out how to create a template on my iOS device so I can blog remotely. That’ll be my next blogging/geek project.