Your drafts do not have to live in one local folder. Pressmark reads them where you keep them: a synced cloud folder, Word files, Bear or Notion. It also brings the highlights you saved in Readwise next to a post in Studio.
Pressmark only reads. It never changes, moves or deletes your drafts, and it never writes to Bear, Notion or Readwise.
Cloud folders#
If iCloud Drive, Google Drive for desktop, OneDrive, Dropbox or Box keeps a folder in sync on your Mac, that folder works as a content folder like any other.
- Open the Sources page and choose Browse.
- Under Cloud folders, choose your provider. Each one is named by provider, never by your account.
- Open folders until you are inside the one that holds your posts, and choose Use this folder.
SharePoint libraries you sync through OneDrive appear as SharePoint (through OneDrive). A provider with two accounts on this Mac shows twice, for example Google Drive and Google Drive 2.
The Integrations page lists the cloud folders Pressmark finds on this Mac. Diagnostics adds a line for each cloud folder you use.
Files that are not downloaded yet#
Cloud apps often keep only a placeholder on your Mac: the name and size are there, the text is not. Opening a placeholder makes macOS download it, which can take a while or wait forever when you are offline.
So Pressmark lists and counts files by their name and details only. It does not open a placeholder. A post whose file is still a placeholder shows this note:
Not downloaded yet: open it once in Finder or mark the folder Available offline.
To fix it, open the file once in Finder, or in Finder choose the folder, then Keep Downloaded (Google Drive: Available offline). Then choose Sync on the Sources page.
Word documents#
Pressmark reads .docx files. Each Word file is a post: its text becomes Markdown for the library and Studio, and the title is its first heading, or the file name when it has none. If you set Status, Keywords or Category in Word (File, Properties), Pressmark uses them as the status, the tags and the section.
A folder that holds Word files, or Markdown and text files without front matter, is read as a folder of documents: every document in it is a post. README.md and similar files are left out. Markdown, .markdown and .txt files with front matter work as before.
Google Docs#
A Google Doc in your Google Drive folder is a small pointer file (.gdoc) with no text on your Mac. Pressmark lists each one on the Sources page as a Google Doc: download it as Markdown or Word into this folder. It is never counted as a post or as an error.
What works today: in Google Docs choose File, Download, Markdown (.md) or Microsoft Word (.docx), and save the file into a folder that Google Drive for desktop keeps in sync. Add that folder on the Sources page.
Reading Google Docs directly needs a Google Cloud project of your own, with an OAuth consent screen and only the drive.file scope, so Pressmark sees just the documents you pick. The Google Docs card on the Integrations page lists the steps. The direct connection comes in a later version.
Bear#
Pressmark reads your Bear notes on this Mac, read-only, straight from Bear's own database.
- In Bear, give each note you want as a post a tag, such as
#substack. - On the Integrations page, choose Connect on the Bear card and type your tag.
A tag below yours sets the status: #substack/ready is ready, #substack/draft is a draft. Notes in the trash, archived notes and locked notes are left out.
If macOS does not let Pressmark read Bear's notes, the card says so. You can allow it in System Settings, Privacy and Security, Full Disk Access, or use Bear's own export instead: File, Export Notes, Markdown, into a folder, then add that folder on the Sources page.
Choose Sync now on the card, or Sync on the Sources page, to read your tagged notes again.
Notion#
Pressmark reads one Notion database or page that you share with it.
- In Notion, open Settings, Connections, Develop or manage integrations, and create an internal integration with Read content only.
- Copy its Internal Integration Secret.
- Open the database or page that holds your drafts, choose the three dots, Connections, and add your integration.
- On the Integrations page, choose Connect on the Notion card, paste the secret and the link to the database or page.
In a database, each row is a post: the title, a Status property and a date property (such as Publish date) become the post's title, status and publish date, and a Tags property its tags. On a page, each page inside it is a post.
Sync reads the list of pages and fetches the text only of pages that changed since the last sync.
Readwise#
Highlights you saved while reading appear in Studio, under Highlights you saved, next to the post they fit. They match by a tag the post and the highlight or book share, or by the words of the post's title.
- Open readwise.io/access_token in your browser and copy the token.
- On the Integrations page, choose Connect on the Readwise card and paste it.
Pressmark keeps a copy of your highlights on this Mac, so Studio never waits on Readwise. Sync now fetches what you saved since the last sync. Readwise reads have a small hourly budget of their own; when it is used up, the card says so and Sync works again within the hour.
Tokens and what is kept#
- Notion and Readwise tokens are kept in your Mac's Keychain. They are never shown again, written to a file or sent anywhere except to Notion or Readwise.
- Copies of Bear notes, Notion pages and Readwise highlights live in Pressmark's workspace on this Mac.
- Disconnect removes the token and those copies. Your notes, pages and highlights stay exactly as they are.
What never happens#
- Pressmark never writes to your drafts, in any folder or cloud folder.
- Pressmark never writes to Bear's files, never changes Notion pages and never changes Readwise highlights.
- Pressmark never downloads a whole cloud folder to look at it.
- Your account's email address, which some cloud folder names hold, is never shown as a name or written to a log.