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I've just uploaded a workflow that uses the excellent MakeDoc app to create a Docx out of markdown content.

'Make Docx'

General instructions are included within the workflow but I thought a few screenshots walking through the process and benefits would be useful for some.

Original Editorial Doc

Trigger Make Docx

MakeDoc open screen

MakeDoc doesn't have a proper URL scheme at the moment but the workflow will automatically put populate the 'clipboard' with your Editorial doc content ready for pasting into MakeDoc

MakeDoc converted

Open in Word

This is a key stage of the process. When you send a new doc to Word it opens as Read Only. At this point do not save but instead select all and copy the content. Once this is done close the read only document, open a template of your choosing, delete it's contents then paste the contents from the pasteboard.

Word doc conforming to your personal template styling

From here you can create a PDF of your styled doc if required. This really has been the missing productivity link for me on IOS as it allows me to write my content once and create individual styled output for web, print etc with minimal effort. You obviously need an Office 365 subscription to take advantage but if you need to distribute MS docs on a day to day basis you'll already own that! :)

This is exactly what I've been looking for. There's loads of text editors that can output HTML or PDF but none that allow you to export Docx and even better be in control of the styling of the final Word document. The few manual steps you have to go though are no problem as this workflow makes something that was previously impossible a simple matter of a few simple steps. Beginning to end less than a minute to get a bespoke formatted Word doc from Markdown. And the the fact that MakeDoc is only £2, double bonus!

Thanks so much, this will be so useful (along with the other workflows you posted today).

No problem. I nearly didn't post this seeing as MakeDoc doesn't contain a complete URL scheme but once I worked out the trick of creating Doc's in Word that follow my favourite templates styling choices it seemed a worthwhile thing to share. Glad you're able to make use of the other workflows too.

jm

Thanks. Nice to be able to make docx.

Nice. I have a workflow to convert markdown to Docx using a variation of Caleb McDaniel's Markdown to PDF script for Pythonista, which uses Docverter and requires a connection, which I implemented into Editorial. The PDF output from it is nice, but the docx output is horrid. Needs some work, which I wanted to do before sharing it, but I never did get around to it yet - it works for basic needs, nothing super fancy (unless you want to spend time formatting the docx post-conversion). I'd wondered if MakeDoc had a URL scheme. I think I may have been under the impression they did not. The output looks pretty decent here though.

The companion app is Makeslides, by the way. Which can, as the name suggests, make PPTX and Keynote.

I've been speaking with the developer recently about updating the app with a proper URL scheme and this will hopefully happen at some point in the future. At the moment he's concentrating on updating iThoughts for IOS7. IThougts is already the best mind mapping app on IOS (his desktop version is pretty cool too even if it's still in its infancy) and the the universal IOS 7 version is a great improvement again.

The general idea would be to send to MakeDoc then open the Docx in any third party app such as IOS Word through the URL scheme. One single workflow from Editorial to a richly formatted Docx in Word. Slick stuff indeed...

@MartinPacker

I've been playing with Desckset on OS X which creates presentations from a simple Markdown file. Another slick application that's so suitable to IOS. Really hoping the developers convert it for IOS as in some ways it's even more suited to IOS that OS X.

Check it out, it's definitely worth the small change they're charging for it.