hey guys is there anyone who writes who wants to help me with something simple?
I'm looking for a free simple text editor for Windows, I DON'T want an online editor or a browser app.
I've been using WriteMonkey for years but it recently deleted some of my documents and I couldn't save some stuff that was very important to me (my poems )^:) and I don't trust it anymore. I tried Zettlr for a while but it's kind of buggy and slow. Marktext has most of the things I like but because it renders the text in markdown format it interprets some symbols as format that I don't want to be format.
I want an editor that is simple, saves my files locally when I press ctrl+s, and has the files I'm working in when I start the program. Nothing fancy. If anyone has a suggestion or knows how to fix the Marktext thing, can you help me please? 🥺🥺🥺
So. I lost a whole day's worth of writing and I'm sad about it. I had been using Dabble, which I actually loved but it was a trial and it expired. Since this is not the month to be getting new subscriptions to things, I decided to move my WIPs into something else.
I got this thing called Zettlr, LOVE IT. Moved the whole of the fanfic so far into it but when I went back to get my massive outline, it was gone.
Poof.
I ended up spending way too much time trying to figure out how to get it back. Emailed Dabble support but never heard back, and idk what else I can try.
Super thankful that I got the actual story out, but I really needed the outline!!! I had the next 6 chapters super detailed and now I have to try and remember everything. And my memory sucks!
I was really hoping to get chapter 9 done before Christmas, but that's not looking very likely at this point.
Markdown editor app is rocking now. Many people use Markdown editor like Typora. But, the question is why many users love it and some do not like it? There are many reasons to love Typora. But, there are few reasons also for do not like it. Today I am going to talk about top ten Typora alternative.
In this list, I am giving you the best Typora alternative. I have personally tested those Typora…
It's almost difficult to say enough good things about Vim. Nevertheless I wouldn't recommend it for most people. The barrier to entry is simply too high, the learning curve too steep. You can get a lot of the benefits by using Zettlr (just turn on the Vi editing mode). Zettlr is engineered for writing prose. It's not something I use, personally, since I use Vim itself, but it is something I would recommend to the majority of writers. It is free and open source and available as an app image.
Your One-Stop Publication Workbench. Contribute to Zettlr/Zettlr development by creating an account on GitHub.
I've been using CherryTree for a couple of years to keep some notes/references to myself. But I've been considering switching to something based on Markdown, mostly because I want my notes to be readable even without the software at hand. (CherryTree stores its notes and attachments in a single XML file)
After trying several open source desktop applications, I'm settling for Zettlr (for now).
Here are some things I like about it
Notes are just Markdown files, and you can use folders to structure your notes however you want
Like Typora or Mark Text, it shows a more or less formatted Markdown code, in a single panel. It's purely a matter of personal taste, but I prefer this to the approach used in many Markdown-base tools to show raw code & formatted preview side by side (it just feels very redundant to me)
You can link between notes with drag & drop
Tags are just #hashtags in your documents
It supports Mermaid for generating flowcharts & diagrams
It supports YAML frontmatter
It has a lot of features to implement a Zettelkasten, which is something I plan to try out
It does a good job as a Markdown editor
It has a small pomodoro timer in the toolbar :)
Last time I tried, there were some annoying inconsistencies in linking to external resources (absolute/relative links).
And as an Electron app, memory usage can get a little high sometimes (especially compared to a PyGTK app like CherryTree)
Some notes on the other app I tried, for reference
QOwnNotes
Like Zettlr, it respects existing files hierarchies. In addition to .md files, it does use Sqlite for metadata (like notes tags).
It has a lot of nice features
A web clipper browser extension
User scripts
Git integration (with commits at regular intervals)
Customisable interface
A small popup to select existing notes when creating a new link
Tight connection with NextCloud/OwnCloud notes & todos
As mentioned above, I'm not a huge fan of editors using 2 panels for Markdown, and this is one of them.
VNote
It also reflects existing directory structure. It adds a json file per folder with metadata, something that can be annoying in some cases (like editing an existing folder).
Editing is done in a single panel that switches between Code or View mode. I might like that better than the redundancy of having 2 panels. But I still prefer the Zettlr approach.
Its search is maybe slightly more advanced than most, but beside that, has nothing special in my opinion.
MindForge
Interestingly very idiosyncratic. I think it definitely reflects its author's own way of working, instead of following standardised UX approaches.
I enjoy the vocabulary used: the File menu is "Mind"; you don't "Save", but "Remember"; "Settings" are "Adapt", etc.
But beside that, it doesn't really work for me. I find the interface way too convoluted, with simple actions taking a lot of clicks.
It has some interesting features, like suggesting related notes, and a concept of Importance/Urgency.
While most apps create a new Markdown file for each not, MindForge gather all notes of a "Notebook" inside a single file, using Markdown headings and metadata in comment tags to separate the notes.
Boostnote
A very polished app that also has a web version (which, as you can imagine, comes with paid plans to expand storage).
It has some coders-friendly features, like reusable snippets, and something similar to Gists - a note that can store a variable number of sources "files".
I'm less a fan of the way notes are structured and stored. You can create different "storages", but from there it's a flat list. While you write notes in Markdown, they are actually stored as CSON files, all in a single folder, with an ID as the filename.
You can switch between a traditional 2-panels mode, or a single panel mode that switches automatically from "Code" to "View" when the focus is out of the text field.
Joplin
Joplin is pleasantly well designed.
Some cool features are
"Todo" notes : notes with little checkbox next to their name in the notes list
Built-in support for file synchronisation (including Webdav and local folder)
E2E encryption
A web clipper browser extension
Sadly, 2 panels again, although it has an "experimental" WYSIWYG mode.
While it uses the Markdown syntax, your notes are actually all stored in a Sqlite database. So not what I was looking for.
But also
I also briefly tried Simplenote, Notable and PileMd, but for some reasons I forgot, it wasn't suiting me.
While writing this, I also found back Standard Notes from my bookmarks. Leaving this here for whoever is interested, but I'll stick to my Zettlr plan for now ;)
